NoodleHockey

During our hockey segment in 5th grade, we took a break from traditional hockey to play a less structured version. I gave the class 1 beach ball, a pool noodle for each student, 4 cones and very few instructions. At the beginning of class each student started out holding their noodle in the way you would tradionally hold a hockey stick. “This is really hard” they exclaimed.

After only a few minutes of play one student decided to adapt his “hockey stick” by folding it in half allowing more surface area to strike the beach ball. The rest of the class took notice and soon the pace of the game was twice as fast as when it began.

Soon an innovative student trapped the beach ball in his noodle and took off running, making the pace faster once more. The game had morphed again and now instead of playing with the ball down low it was lobbed through the air like lacrosse.

Noodlehockey encouraged the students to take risks, think outside the box and not take themselves too seriously. Plus… it was really fun to watch, check it out here.