The weather has been absolutely beautiful lately! Other than a few random cooler days, we've had the pleasure of experiencing sunshine and warmth outside! This has prompted the children in school-age 3 to engage in a variety of gross-motor activities which can be at times difficult to partake in while donned in their heavy winter gear. Among these sport-like activities were volleyball, four-square, and, most favourite of all, hockey!
We have a lot of children in our group who play on different hockey teams as part of their extracurricular activities and therefore the introduction of these hockey sticks excited them as they could hone their skills, as well as lead their peers in the game. At RisingOaks, we have a set of rules when it comes to playing hockey, the biggest of which is the requirement to wear eye protection whilst playing; this is to protect our eyes from the ball, or even the possibility of the sticks hitting them during play. Unfortunately, we do not have enough pairs of goggles to match with the number of sticks that we have, which meant we had to exhibit patience and turn taking in order for everyone who wanted to play to get a turn.
Bentley asked, "how come we have more sticks than glasses?" Educator Vanessa replied, "that's all the goggles I could find right now. If you want to play you will have to ask a friend to share with you." Bentley walked up to Jeremie and said, "can I have a turn when you're done?" Jeremie agreed. This was a great way for us to implement these skills and even builds on our peer-to-peer relationships!
Matthew, who is one of the children in our group who plays hockey on a team, took it upon himself to help lead his peers in play. He explained how there needs to be a net, and together he and his friends problem solved by using pylons are the posts and set them up equally on the black top. Our hockey set includes not just players sticks, but goalie sticks as well- whoever was in the net took turns switching their stick in order to use the appropriate materials. Matthew even brought his goalie helmet from home to ensure he was properly protected whenever he was in net! He volunteered to share his helmet with his peers, however we explained that only he could use the helmet, though it was wonderful of him to want to share it.
Mateo and Liam also play hockey outside of RisingOaks, and together they split up a group of peers in order to start a game. Mateo decided he wanted to be a one-man team and play against the others. This led to a friendly, yet competitive game of hockey! Mateo displayed his strong hockey skills as he jogged across the black top with the ball and shot it at the net. Liam, who was playing goalie at the time, saved it by passing it to Aaron, who took off towards the other net and scored. This continued as the children shot, passed, and scored back and forth among one another.
These sticks became so popular that when the box wasn't brought out, they begged to have it again. Though we had to ensure it was getting shared with other school-age groups as well, we did our best to bring it out as much as possible. Playing hockey together has allowed the children to display and foster their leadership abilities, express their knowledge of the sport, and engage in a favourite past-time. Even the educators got involved by playing the sport with the children! We even saw evidence of the children taking this interest inside to draw pictures, sell 'hockey cards', and even make up a game of 'table top hockey'.
Maybe we need to create our own Stanley Cup and challenge the groups to our own playoff game?
