Fight or Flight and a Challenge Game

We have been reading about our bodies response to stress or danger. The journal story we read explained how and why we worry and how worry can be good and prevent us being harmed. Marley showed us some data she got from machines which measured heart rate and other indicators of stress we read about in the book. We are all taking our pulse before and after our runs in the morning and enjoying noting this data down also.

We have played a flew rounds of a game called Metamorphosis, in this game the children play paper, scissors, rock to move through a progression of levels. The winners moving on to the next stage of the game and the loser must stay at their current level. We used this game to discuss winning and losing and chance. The children recognised that the game is a game of chance and therefore while it is fun to win, it is not due to any particular skill. The children who won quickly and got to the top level actually enjoyed the game less. We decided this was because if you don't have a few challenges along the way the game isn't very fun. The people that struggled at the bottom didn't enjoy the game either because they couldn't do anything to get better as it was just bad luck that caused them to be stuck on the bottom level for the whole game. The people who enjoyed the game, had some ups and downs on their way to the top level. As a class again we discussed how pointless it is to feel bad or to celebrate victories too much when they are due to chance or luck and that challenges offer us interest in a journey. Without the challenge there is nothing to overcome.

We are beginning to write our own comics with Miss Allnutt, we will be mirroring the same structure in these, a narrative always has a challenge for the characters to overcome. We will be the superheroes in our comics.