As part of its "Play your game" campaign, Stadtwerke Gießen donated various games to the Herderschule that can be used to promote social skills.
Working successfully in a team requires various skills. After all, in order to find a solution to a problem together, the group must always organise itself in some way. After all, nothing usually works without agreements and coordinated action. There are now many thoroughly entertaining games that address precisely this point. Some of them are now available to the Herderschule - thanks to a grant from Stadtwerke Gießen (SWG). "We are delighted that we now have the opportunity to promote this important aspect in a fun way," explains Michael Schmidt. He is a maths and PE teacher at the Herderschule and leads a Year 8 class.
The new games are to be used primarily in the one-hour class teacher lessons in years five to seven and on excursion days. "Until now, we didn't have any suitable material at our school," says Michael Schmidt, explaining his application to "Spiel' Dein Spiel". "The enquiry from Herderschule shows very clearly how broad the spectrum is that we want to cover," explains Stephanie Orlik, who is responsible for the campaign in SWG Marketing.
Working together
Teachers at Herderschule now have access to a total of nine different new games and play equipment. For example, a "parachute". In order to swing it with lots of people and solve different tasks, everyone involved needs to work well together. Creating a continuous wave in the cloth is just the beginning. Throwing a ball upwards and catching it again or making it roll evenly in a circle quickly proves to be a real challenge. This also applies to the much smaller "swinging cloths", which the pupils use to balance balls and pass them from one team to the next. The "Fröbel crane" is more challenging. With its help, several people have to stack wooden blocks. The crux of the matter is that the hook used to lift the blocks hangs from a wooden disc to which twelve strings about two metres long with handles are attached. The players standing in a circle around it have to manoeuvre the hook using the ropes. The "Kreiselzeichner" works on the same principle. Instead of the hook, however, a pencil is moved to draw predetermined motifs or trace different shapes.
There is much more action in "Team track". The aim here is to get a ball through a channel into a container. Which sounds easier than it is. This is because the channel consists of individual parts, each of which is held in the hands of one player. What's more, the distance from the start to the finish is longer than all the pieces put together. This means that as soon as the ball has left its own segment, the player must go to the end to extend the track accordingly and ultimately manoeuvre the ball to the finish.
Sometimes it doesn't take much
Strictly speaking, everyday objects are sufficient for two of the games. In "Ball transport with broomstick", players carry a ball from A to B. This requires relatively precise coordination and everyone's hand-eye coordination. Only the handles are allowed to touch the ball. The "folding rule game" also requires skill and good communication between the players. The task here is to lift a folding rule in a zig-zag pattern with right angles as a team, extend it to its full length and put it down again. This is made more difficult by the fact that there are millstones on the five centre angles, which must not fall down during the action. Things get really exciting when the measuring tool is not two metres long as usual, but three. An XXL version of the classic Jenga game and an "XXL Kubb" round off the range of educational games for the cooker school.
"I'm sure that the games will go down well and give our youngsters a lot of fun," predicts Michael Schmidt. This means there is a good chance that the pupils at Herder School will improve their teamwork skills. After all, those who don't even realise that they are practising specific skills thanks to the fun factor will learn more easily, quickly and sustainably. "It's always amazing how easy it is to change things for the better," summarises Stephanie Orlik, adding: "This confirms that we're on the right track with 'Spiel' Dein Spiel'."