Thursday, March 30, 2017

The Harbor of Rio de Janiero


After a short hiatus, we have returned to our imaginary trip to visit the Seven Natural Wonders of the World and North America.  This week we have gone to Brazil to learn about the Harbor of Rio de Janiero.  Discovered in 1502 by Portuguese explorers mapping the South America shoreline, this harbor is the world's largest natural deep-water bay, when considering its volume of water.  Within its almost 20 miles of water, it has over 130 islands and is surrounded by beautiful mountains.  Some of the mountains include the famous Sugarloaf, the cone shaped mountain, and Corcovado, which is home to the Christ the Redeemer statue, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Both mountains can be seen in the above photo.

In Physical Education we played 3 games.  The first was a game called Island to Island where students had to cooperate to move from one island to another to match up with a number they had been given.  They could not fall off any island but had to work to pass each other in a cooperative manner to get where they needed to be.  The second game was called Statues and Dribblers. Students posed as the statue atop the mountain while other students dribbled a soccer ball through their legs and trapped it on the opposite side.  Statues then did either a jumping jack or jump with a half turn before someone else dribbled through their legs.  The third game was called Island Hopping.  I set up the gym much like a board game with each hoop as an island with a skill card inside of it. Students rolled dice and moved game pieces from island to island attempting to make it to Rio de Janeiro. Activities included skills like balance, jumping jacks, toe touches, crab walk, gallop, skier's jumps, side stretches, football kicks, etc.  It was great fun!

Students changed places carefully during Island to Island.



Students dribbled and trapped a soccer ball during Statues and Dribblers.


Island Hopping had students rolling dice, moving game pieces, and working on skills.


These students made it successfully to Rio de Janiero.