“Scooter Town”

This was a fun activity culminating our scooter work. It also brought back some favorites and allowed for some exploration of activities we don’t really have time to try. I did it with my 3rd and 4th grades and they LOVED it. I ended up doing it 2 weeks instead of 1 just because they begged so much. It worked like this:

I made a sign that said “scooter town” and taped it to a cone set up in the front of the room. I then set up 4 activity stations (basketball, tumbling mats, balls & paddles, hula hoops). Each station had a ticket value (2-4 tickets) and was labeled with a sign. A fifth station was for earning tickets which was done by completing exercises. For example, 20 jumping jacks = 1 ticket. As the students came in and sat down I handed them 5 tickets. If they were being noisy, I gave them less. Likewise if they talked when I began explaining I took a ticket away. I introduced myself as the mayor of scooter town and explained each station. They transported themselves from station to station on scooters. They could choose where and for how long they spent their time as long as they could pay for it. If they ran out of tickets they could earn more at the exercise station. I selected 4 students to act as “cashiers” at each station, 1 to pass out tickets at the exercise station, and 1 to be a “collector” and ride from station to station collecting tickets and giving them to the exercise monitor to pass out. I rotated these jobs every 5 minutes so all got a turn to play. They earned 1 ticket for working.

They couldn’t get enough of it! They loved choosing their activities and transporting around on the scooters. An added bonus was that they exercised harder than ever to earn tickets even if they didn’t need them. I was surprised at how many kids hung out in the exercise station earning tickets they never used.

The down side was just the work involved — the set up was hard especially with no time between classes, but definitely worth the trouble.

p.s. I also labeled sections of the gym “parking” for them to park their scooters while they were playing.