Activity: Pegs (Traffic Jam)
Peeps!!
How is it going! I am currently on a staff recruiting tour in Northern Alberta, Canada. Right now - outside of my broken furnaced room - it's a whopping -39degrees celius. Barf. I'm trying to be super positive about my surroundings but as I type this and my nose won't warm up...I'm wishing Jamaica would arrive just a little sooner.
Activity for today - well, when I started working at camp that was like...let's see...it's 2012 now...I started in 1999....okay - so for like 12 years...this activity was called pegs because the markers you stood on were wooden 4x4" stuck into the ground with a round peg in the middle. I mostly travel all around doing workshops and clinics so I've resorted to using either coloured (sorry my dear Americans, that's how we spell it...apparently our Powers That Be really like the letter "U") markers or crushable pylons. I love this activity. Again - it's super versatile. Inside, outside, masking tape, pylons, winter gloves, shoes, playing cards...really the options for using place markers are limitless.
This activity I want to give you can be pretty confusing to work out so I'm going to get you to do a couple things first to set up your field of play and then we'll go through how you set your participants up and what guidelines you give them.
And last...I'll give you the hints you need to solve (if you haven't already).
Setting up the Field of Play
To make this as simple as I can make it here's how you set up the activity:
How is it going! I am currently on a staff recruiting tour in Northern Alberta, Canada. Right now - outside of my broken furnaced room - it's a whopping -39degrees celius. Barf. I'm trying to be super positive about my surroundings but as I type this and my nose won't warm up...I'm wishing Jamaica would arrive just a little sooner.
Activity for today - well, when I started working at camp that was like...let's see...it's 2012 now...I started in 1999....okay - so for like 12 years...this activity was called pegs because the markers you stood on were wooden 4x4" stuck into the ground with a round peg in the middle. I mostly travel all around doing workshops and clinics so I've resorted to using either coloured (sorry my dear Americans, that's how we spell it...apparently our Powers That Be really like the letter "U") markers or crushable pylons. I love this activity. Again - it's super versatile. Inside, outside, masking tape, pylons, winter gloves, shoes, playing cards...really the options for using place markers are limitless.
This activity I want to give you can be pretty confusing to work out so I'm going to get you to do a couple things first to set up your field of play and then we'll go through how you set your participants up and what guidelines you give them.
And last...I'll give you the hints you need to solve (if you haven't already).
Setting up the Field of Play
To make this as simple as I can make it here's how you set up the activity:
[] [] [] [] [] O [] [] [] [] []
Set your participants up in a way that there is an obvious one side and the other. Girls vs. Boys is perfect if your numbers work out. You could do by colours on their shirts or people wearing hats vs. no hats - some kind of visual difference helps to identify which direction people are going.
Rules
Here are the rules that the group should play by in order to complete the task. I've itemized it because this might end up being quite a lengthy explanations. I've numbered the place marks to help you better understand the answer.
- The goal is for the participants on the left (L1-L5) to end up on the right and the participants on the right (R1-5) to end up on the place markers on the left.
- the "O" in the middle signifies the Free Space at the commencement of the activity.
- Participants must accomplish this within these guidelines:
1. Participants can only go forward. They may never step back or reverse a move (in the diagram L-participants can only move to the right, R-participants can only move to the left).
2. Participants can only move to the Free Space. The Free Space will move around the activity but it is the only sport a participant can move into. There shall be no "simultaneous switching".
3. Participants can skip ONE person. For instance L2 could skip over L1 into the free space "O". But L3 could not skip over L2 and L1 to the free space. Only one person can be skipped.
Here's what I recommend. Take a piece of paper and draw five squares, a circle, and five more squares. Then take five pennies that will be your "L"s and five dimes that will be your "R"s. And try it before I give you the answer. I promise I'll post it on Thursday and debrief either Friday or Saturday.
Have a great day puzzling!
Just so that we're understanding the above diagram. Your square markers are going to represent where ALL of your participants will stand. No one should start the activity by standing on the centre circle marker. You are able to had one more person on either side of circle to a maximum of 12 participants in the activity but I would not encourage it. Too many people in this activity as it is set up right now will cause some of your players to disengage. I will have some variations on another day that includes more people without changing the pattern to solve it - just your organization.
Now - your square markers above could be permenant 4x4" blocks in the ground, all with the circle being a stump in the ground. If you didn't care about a permenant set up - three different colours of pylons (one for group on the left, one for the circle, and one for the group on the right) would be perfect. Masking tape again, as much as I don't like the temporary use and waste, does work in a pinch. We've also used mitts and gloves when we haven't any anthing. Not optimal but it gets the job done.
Set your participants up in a way that there is an obvious one side and the other. Girls vs. Boys is perfect if your numbers work out. You could do by colours on their shirts or people wearing hats vs. no hats - some kind of visual difference helps to identify which direction people are going.
Rules
[L5] [L4] [L3] [L2] [L1] O [R1] [R2] [R3] [R4] [R5]
Here are the rules that the group should play by in order to complete the task. I've itemized it because this might end up being quite a lengthy explanations. I've numbered the place marks to help you better understand the answer.
- The goal is for the participants on the left (L1-L5) to end up on the right and the participants on the right (R1-5) to end up on the place markers on the left.
- the "O" in the middle signifies the Free Space at the commencement of the activity.
- Participants must accomplish this within these guidelines:
1. Participants can only go forward. They may never step back or reverse a move (in the diagram L-participants can only move to the right, R-participants can only move to the left).
2. Participants can only move to the Free Space. The Free Space will move around the activity but it is the only sport a participant can move into. There shall be no "simultaneous switching".
3. Participants can skip ONE person. For instance L2 could skip over L1 into the free space "O". But L3 could not skip over L2 and L1 to the free space. Only one person can be skipped.
Here's what I recommend. Take a piece of paper and draw five squares, a circle, and five more squares. Then take five pennies that will be your "L"s and five dimes that will be your "R"s. And try it before I give you the answer. I promise I'll post it on Thursday and debrief either Friday or Saturday.
Have a great day puzzling!
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