The Class Mascot Tours Four Stations

The class mascot has to travel through a four-station obstacle course, carried by a different child at each station who hands it to the next. The whole class tries to get the mascot home before the sand runs out, practicing crawling, jumping, balancing and zigzagging toward a shared goal.

How to play

1. Set up four stations in a row: tunnel, hoop path, low bench and cone zigzag. Split the kids among the four stations, lined up behind each one (2 min).
2. The teacher walks the course with the mascot and shows the handoff: “At the end of my station, I put it in the hands of the first friend in the next line” (2 min).
3. First trip with no timer: the mascot goes through all four stations and gets home; whoever carried it goes to the back of their line (3 min).
4. Now with the sand timer: the mascot makes trip after trip with new kids each time, and we count how many trips it completes before the sand runs out (3 min).
5. Kids rotate to a new station and we try to beat our number of trips (3 min).
6. Sitting down, the mascot thanks each station and we record our best with tally marks on the board (2 min).

Rules

• We hug the mascot, we never throw it.
• We hand it right into a friend's hands.
• I wait in my line for my turn.
• If the mascot falls, I pick it up and keep going: no problem.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: include an adapted station (rolling the mascot along a rope lane) the child does with a wheelchair or walker.
• Autism: show a drawing of the course with its four stations and the mascot, and keep the child at one fixed station.
• Visual impairment: an adult stands by the bench station and a large bell is tied to the mascot.

Learning goals

• Link fundamental movement skills in a course.
• Hand an object to a classmate while respecting turns.
• Beat a group record, not an individual one.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Stuffed animal: 1
• Play tunnel: 1
• Hoops: 5
• Low balance bench: 1
• Cones: 6
• Large sand timer: 1

Teacher tip

Choose a big, soft mascot that can be hugged with one arm in the tunnel. A common slip is the last child at a station running the mascot to the next one, so mark the handoff line in chalk.

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