Pace Count Home: How Many Double Steps to Class?

Before heading back to class, each pair uses the map to estimate how many double steps it is to the door, then checks by walking quietly. It brings heart rates down calmly and practices the pace counting used in orienteering.

How to play

1. Explain the double step (count each time your right foot lands) and have pairs estimate on the map how many it is to the classroom door (2 min).
2. Quiet walk to the halfway point counting silently; quick stop to compare counts with your partner (1 min).
3. Second half of the walk, counting silently (2 min).
4. At the door, compare estimate and count; whoever was closest explains how they figured it (2 min).

Rules

• Walk at a normal pace; no stretching your stride to lower the count.
• Stay quiet while counting so nobody loses track.
• On stairs, hold the handrail and don't count the steps.
• Walk two by two without passing.

Variations

Adaptations

• Wheelchair users: count pushes or wheel turns instead of steps.
• Students with dyscalculia: count by tens on their fingers and make tally marks.
• Students with visual impairments: walk with a guide and count the same way.

Learning goals

• Cool down gradually.
• Estimate distances from the map.
• Learn your own pace count.

Equipment for a class of 25

• school maps: 15

Teacher tip

If anyone already knows their double steps per 100 m, have them use it to estimate. Common mistake: counting both feet; insist on counting only the right.

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