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Lakeside students recently completed a Teamwork and Physical Challenges unit in physical education. The goal of the unit is to learn and practice strategies for successful teamwork. There are many ways to solve each challenge. The strategies are:

Make a plan, listen to everyone's ideas, include everyone, use praise, and encouragement.

The way the unit worked at Lakeside was: Before starting a challenge, the team organizer read the challenge card to the group so everyone will know the rules and expectations of the challenge.

"Bridge over the Raging River", teams had two 2X4s, 4 tires and a piece of rope to build a bridge across the gym.

Team members crossed under the "Electric Fence" without leaving the balance beam and without touching the net strung across it. In the "Island Escape", teams used scooters, cones and rope to move from island to island.

In "Plunger Ball", the ball must be lifted from the ground and rolled along poles using only the plungers; next the ball is transferred to the long plunger and ball must go through the basketball hoop and land in the large container.

Other fun challenges were:

Swamp machine (teams had to travel across the swamp area using only one mat).

Quicksand (teams used a cargo net to swing across the quicksand area).

The Rock (team had to balance all its members on a very small tire).

Toxic Waste (teams moved "toxic waste" (balls) from one container to another).

Some of the written comments from students included:

"I met some new friends doing the challenges."

"When you do it together it does by smoothly"

"My mind was working in different ways."

"You really had to think and try your best the whole time."

"It felt good when we accomplished a challenge."

"I thought the challenges helped me work better in a group."

"I learned that encouraging actually helps people."

"The challenges are harder than they look."

"Working with other people was really cool."

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