Lesson Plan
Alternatives to Chasing
Grade 1
Discussion
Gather the students on the rug and lead the discussion using the questions listed below. Have three or four students give their answers to each question. Summarize with the printed answers before moving on to the next question.
What is chasing?
Chasing is when you run after somebody.
Is tag chasing?
Yes, tag is chasing. You run after someone when you play tag.
Is chasing allowed on the school playground?
No chasing is not allowed. Tag is not allowed.
Have any of you ever been chased on the playground? How do you feel when someone chases you?
Chasing makes people feel nervous, sad, afraid, uncomfortable.
So, why is chasing not allowed here at school?
Because we want everybody in school to feel safe and be safe. When you’re being chased you don’t feel safe you feel nervous or afraid. When you are afraid you run very fast and you might fall and hurt yourself or bump into another student and hurt them.
Why do some kids chase?
Some kids chase just for fun. They forget that it makes the person they chase feel sad or nervous. Some kids chase to get other kids to play with them. Some kids chase because they don’t have any ideas of other things we can play on the playground.
Brainstorm
Do you have any ideas of other things we can play on the play ground? Let’s make a list of all our ideas.
Help the children elaborate on their ideas. (e.g. if someone says ‘jumprope’ say ‘what jump rope games do you know?’ or if someone says’play on the big toy say ‘what things can you do on the big toy?’) Record the student’s ideas as they share them. A list or a web works well.
Role play
Do you know how to get somebody to play with you without chasing them?
Have each child roleplay with a partner by picking a game from the list and asking the partner ‘Would you like to play (hopscotch) with me?’ Have the partner model accepting the invitation (Yes. I’d like to play) or rejecting it ( No thank you. I feel like playing on the swings today. Do you want to swing with me?) If the students are ready for it you could have each pair go ask another pair if they’d like to play – often the difficulty is when there’s more than two children involved. Encourage students to make eye contact and use a friendly voice when they role play.
Dear First Grade teachers,
Here is a copy of the lesson plan I promised. Please feel free to use any parts and discard any parts you see fit. I know that some of you have already addressed the chasing topic with your students again since we talked on Wednesday. On Friday a duty person – not a teacher came to tell me that she could already see a big difference in the student’s activities at recess. Well done!
The target team meets tomorrow after school and we will work on plans for the first grade activity stations. I will give you an update by the end of the week.
Also, the Universal team is looking at ways to address supervision and you will hear about those ideas very soon, I hope!
Finally, it would be very helpful if each First Grade Teacher would preteach the playground expectations before heading to the cafeteria each day by saying “Remember, on the playground we keep our hands and feet to ourselves and we do not chase.”
Thanks!
Catherine