Saddle, Valley or Spur: Landform Relay Race

Team relay in which students identify landforms drawn only with contour lines: summit, saddle, valley, spur, cliff and flat ground. Each runner picks up a card, identifies it and drops it in the correct hoop; mistakes cost an extra lap.

How to play

1. Explain using a drawing on the board or a tarp: what a summit, saddle, valley, spur, cliff and flat ground look like in contours (5 min).
2. Five teams of six in colored pinnies; at the far end of the course, a pile of face-down cards and six hoops, one per landform (2 min).
3. Relay: each runner goes to get a card, looks at it, decides the landform and drops it in the matching hoop, then runs back to tag the next teammate (6 min).
4. Check: a judge from each team checks another team's hoops; each error means the team runs an extra lap down and back (4 min).
5. Second round with harder cards, such as valley versus spur depending on which way the contours point and the elevation labels (6 min).
6. Wrap-up: each team explains the rule that helped them tell a valley from a spur (2 min).

Rules

• Run in lanes at least 2 m apart, without crossing.
• Place the card down; do not throw it into the hoop.
• Only one runner per team at a time.
• The judge checks against the teacher's key and does not correct during the race.

Variations

Adaptations

• Visual impairment: uses raised cards made with string glued onto cardstock.
• Limited mobility: serves as the fixed judge at the hoop area and explains each error to the team.
• Overweight or asthma: runs half the distance and hands off to a teammate at a midway cone.

Learning goals

• Recognize the main landforms from contour lines.
• Make quick decisions under physical pressure.
• Apply fair correction criteria when checking another team's work.

Equipment for a class of 25

• worksheets: 40
• cones: 12
• hoops: 6
• pinnies: 30

Teacher tip

Laminate the cards once and they will last for several school years. Put elevation labels on the contours in the second round: without them, valleys and spurs look the same.

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