Jousting

Mrs. Swinnerton's Class

St. Alphonsus ECS

Before the students decided they wanted to further learn about castles, my physical education plan had me introducing scooter boards during the month of February. Since they obviously didn't have scooter  boards in the medieval ages, I was a little uncertain as to how to tie it all together.

    One evening, as I was watching "A Knight's Tale", trying to acquaint myself with some of the customs of the era, I found myself drawn to the scenes with the jousting and fencing. I certainly didn't want to let my students roam free with swords, but suddenly jousting seemed like a very feasible possibility.

    Fortunately, the students had great imaginations, and had no problems thinking of their scooter boards as horses. After we became adept at riding the horses forwards, backwards, sideways, and in circles, I provided each student with their sword. My initial hope had been to use the pool noodles, but as February was not prime pool season, more improvisation needed to occur. Instead, each student decorated a paper towel roll, and these became our swords.

    In the end, we had great fun riding through the gym, trying to gently knock our opponents in the shoulder with our new swords. We were also fortunate enough that Spring and the pool noodles did come, providing us with yet another challenge.