Clean Air Games
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1. Air Care:
Space: Gymnasium; large field; recreation room.
Equipment: Pylons, soft rubber or foam balls
Description:
As Team A tries to make it through the "Pollution Zone" safely, Team B members attempt to hit Team A with soft Nerf-type (soft foam) "Pollution balls". If a player is hit with a ball they join the other team. When all the players on Team A either reach the safe "Clean Zone II" or are hit by "pollution balls" the teams switch.
The process is repeated with each team. The supervisor is given the opportunity to increase or decrease the number of "pollution balls" handed out in order to simulate more or less air pollution. The more pollution, the harder it will be for the teams to make it to the "safe zones" without being affected.
2. Clean Air Obstacle Course:
Space (In or out): Approximate size of a basketball court
Equipment: 4 sturdy hula-hoops, 32 bean bags, 4 large bins, 16 volleyballs (or balls of similar size), 5 pylons (or markers), a timer
Obstacle 1- Trash Toss. All members of the team stand in their hoop and throw two bean bags each into a recycling bin approximately 3 meters from their start point. Any missed bean bags must be retrieved by the team and re-thrown from the start point until all are in the bin.
Obstacle 2- Hustle Bustle. The teams must circle the outside of the playing area once, starting and finishing in their corner. They must go outside of all the pylons without disturbing the other teams, or letting the hula-hoop touch the ground.
Obstacle 3 – Hop & Clean. While still in their carpool hula-hoop, each team member must place a pollution particle (a volleyball) between their knees and hop with it from their corner around the centre pylon and back to their corner – any dropped particles must be retrieved and the team must re-start at the point where the ball first fell (supervisor may need to be referee at this obstacle).
3. Clean Air Hopscotch:
Space (In or out): A large, flat surface for setting "board" i.e. gymnasium, paved yard, or hallway
Equipment: Tape and/or chalk, small tokens for throwing
Description: Hop scotch boards can be designed in different shapes and sizes for a variety of age levels and abilities and can be adapted to include both positive and negative aspects of air quality. The negative terms (e.g. chlorofluorocarbons) could be designed as squares you should not land on, and if you do, you must begin again. Chalk can be used to draw outdoor boards, and for indoor boards, masking or painters green tape works well (will not stick to floors).
Some word/term suggestions: chlorofluorocarbons, ozone, CO2, oxygen, trees, walk, emissions, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases, climate change, atmosphere, etc (see Terms of Reference Table)
4. Clean Air Shuffle:
Space (In or out): Large playing area
Equipment: Large gym mats (1 per 6-8 participants) - two mats per group. Several sets of four coloured, tennis, golf, or soft balls
Description:Divide participants into even-numbered teams of 6 to 8 participants. (names reflect positive forces like "The Car-poolers"). Establish a rectangular playing area with the start and finish lines along the shorter ends of the rectangle. Depending on the number of teams, scatter varying sets of 4 balls evenly around the playing area to represent different types components of air pollution such as particulates, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds.
Each team begins by standing on one mat at the start line - with the other mat directly in front of the mat they are standing on. When the activity begins, all members of each team will step on to the new mat (heading towards the finish). Once on, they must pick up the first mat, lift it over their heads, place it in front of them and continue the process towards the finish line. This will appear similar to a leapfrog activity. All team members must be on a mat AT ALL TIMES!
To add excitement the playing area becomes a polluted environment and the players attempt to cross over the pollution to a "Clean Air Environment". As the students cross each polluted area, they must collect the type of "pollution balls" that have been assigned to their team. The team that collects all their pollution balls and makes it to the finish line before the others, wins.
5. Trivia Tag:
Equipment: Eight pylons
The two teams (Team A and Team B) line up facing each other on their perspective lines. The leader reads a question to which the answer is either true or false (see questions and answers supplied below). If the answer is true then Team A chases Team B and tries to touch them before they get behind their safety zone. If the answer is false then Team B chases Team A and tries to catch them before they make it behind their safety zone. Once someone is tagged by a member of the opposite team they become that team's member.
After each question and chase, repeat the question and discuss the correct answer while the teams return to their starting positions. The game ends when all the players are on one team or when the questions have all been asked and the team with the most people wins. The questions can be adapted to suit specific levels of understanding, however, it is important to have an equal number of true and false answers.
Questions: