Teacher Tips/Ideas for Incorporating the Challenge into Your Program

Over the years teachers who have participated in the PE Central Challenge have found unique ways to successfully administer and incorporate the Challenge into their program. We present some of those ideas here. If you would like to share a tip please email us at [email protected].

General Tips to help Administer the Challenge

Here is what Carol Winckler (and other teachers do this as well) does to help her more effeciently keep score of the Challenges.
"Except for the Volley Up, I let the kids check each other. Then, any student who achieves four or more challenges, I spot check their work, and sign their paper at the top of the page for approval. If the student cannot perform an activity that has been signed by two witnesses, all three students are disqualified from the challenge. That has only happened twice since we started the challenge several years ago! I keep trying to find something they can't perform that is signed, but I just haven't had much luck! (I tell the kids..."your job is to make sure your sheet is accurate and up-to-date, my job is to double check your work and see if I can find a mistake!")

Click here for the checklist sheet.

Use an Honor Code like Shawn Fortner does to help with honesty throughout the Challenge. Shawn posts this code in her activity area and revisits this throughout the Challenge. This is especially helpful as she stresses to the kids to be honest when they are attempting to pass a challenge and that they are only cheating themselves if they fudge on any of their attempts. The kids really respond to this. She even has them say it together out loud as a class before she begins the practice for the Challenge tasks.

Challenge Honor Code: "A trustworthy person is honest, reliable, and loyal. They don't cheat, deceive, or steal. They are reliable and do what they say they will do. They have the courage to do the right thing and build a good reputation."

Use the PE Central Challenge Poster Sets to introduce and explain the challenges and laminate them and post them at stations for each of the Challenges. Each one of these has a pic and description of the challenge.

Incorporating the Challenge into Your Program Ideas

PE Central Challenge Parent Nights -- Great way to incorporated physical activity and families into a great event. Diane Cramers 2005 Challenge Night Pics from La Paz, Bolivia.
Incorporate the tasks as Instant Activities to start your class. For example on one day have the children do the jump rope challenge or the hula hooping challenge for 5 - 7 minutes before your class actually starts. Maybe you could have one challenge be the warm up activity for the entire week.
Periodically have the challenges set up in stations and have the children rotate through the stations to practice in groups. May want to have one of the stations be a testing station (where you would be located or a volunteer) just in case a child would like to try to meet the criteria for that challenge.
Let children check out equipment so they can take home and practice the tasks at home or at recess.
Have a Challenge Practice Lunch or Afterschool Group. Kids get together at lunch or recess and they take that time to practice the challenges. Kids and teachers in the past have given themselves a name.
Have parents, grandparents, other classroom teachers, administrators, college students, etc. come in and help with the practice and testing.
Have the children draw themselves involved in their favorite challenges.
Have kids design brochures that allow them to depict what the Challenge means to them.
Take pictures of the kids involved in the challenge and share them with us!