Cooperative PE Games – Crack The Code!

Cooperative Games – Crack The Code Overview

One of my favorite things to teach in PE is our cooperative games unit!

Teaching Hack – Having your classes work together vs. against one another will drastically improve your classroom behavior. It doesn’t have to be only in a cooperative games unit, but the same teamwork principles can be applied to any game or activity. 👍

Equipment You Will Need

2 Cones

16 Hula-Hoops

Challenge Codes – You can easily make your own or check out mine that I already created

Click Here For Challenge Codes

The Game Setup

Start by creating 2 rows of hula-hoops (4 hula-hoops in each row) and this will be level 1

Put one cone in front of the hula-hoops and this will be the starting line. Put the other cone behind the hula-hoops and this will be the finish line, just like the diagram below:

How To Play

-This game is broken down into different levels. Each level will progressively get a little harder

-The entire class will be working together as a team to try and crack as many codes as they can in 10 minutes

–Teaching Tip – If you have a large class, create 2 or 3 playing areas to maximize participation

-As the teacher, you will be standing off to the side looking at the challenge code

-When you yell “go” the first student will run down and jump into a hula-hoop.

-If it doesn’t match the code, you will give them a thumbs down, and they will run to the end of the line. The second they get a thumbs down, the next student in line is allowed to go.

-If the next student runs down and jumps into a different hula-hoop that matches the challenge code, you will give them a thumbs up. If a student gets the answer correct, they get to keep jumping. If the student gets it wrong, they will run to the end of the line and the next person will go.

-When a player can make it all the way through the hula-hoops, they will run to the finish cone, and the class can move on to the next level.

-After completing a certain amount of challenges in level 1, students will get to move on to level 2, and eventually level 3. For each of these levels, you will add another row of hula-hoops to the game. Here is an example of what the game set up will look like for level 2 and 3.

Additional Teaching Tips

-If you notice a class where students keep jumping into the wrong hoop even after it has been jumped in, I found it’s really beneficial to take a timeout and stop the countdown timer. The one thing we discuss is how we can avoid making the same mistake twice. This usually leads into the importance of the players in line and how they can help the student who is going by yelling out the correct order of the ones that they already know and have figured out!

-I always like to keep track of the top classes on the whiteboard in the gym, that way everyone can see it. This helps motivate the incoming classes and improves classroom behavior, as everyone wants to work together to achieve the top spot. 🏆