Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Running

30 minutes

Find Out: How fast are we?

30 minutes (plus running time)

Take Action: How far have we come?

5 minutes

Reflection

Learning intentions

Students will:

measure their running ability
plan to practise and map their progress.

Success criteria

Students can:

demonstrate fundamental movement skills
record and create data representations of their progress over time.

Preparation:

This is a split lesson, with the ‘Tune In’ and ‘Find Out’ phases happening first. Students start by exploring running, and different sports that involve running, before creating a plan to improve their own running. Students will enact their plan over a period of time. This could be 4 weeks or a whole term, depending on what suits them! In the end, students apply their mathematical skills to measure their journey.

Before starting this lesson, we advise marking out your 20m sprint course and planning where students will run for their marathon, including the start and finish line.

Tune In: Running

Step 1

Using the Visual Explainer, ask your students to identify different sports of the Commonwealth Games. Once you have established the names of the different sports, ask your students ‘Which of these sports involves running?’

Step 2

Explain to your students that they will learn about professional Australian athletes and how they run in their chosen sports when they represent Australia at the Commonwealth Games.

Marathon - Liam Adams - Watch this video of Liam talking about his marathon running (https://vimeo.com/1124717585/0e1c2e9888?ts=0&share=copy)

Athletics - Claudia Hollingsworth was named a ‘Commonwealth Games Australia Emerging Athlete’ in 2024. Watch 1 of her recent races here: Claudia Hollingsworth breaks Australian 800m U20 record | Continental Tour Gold 2024 (youtube.com/watch?v=7gvGtn6tPsI&t=6s)

Triathlon - Triathlons involve swimming, cycling and running. Here is a video about para-triathlete Jack Howell, who is the Commonwealth Games Australia Emerging Athlete of the Month for March 2024: Victorian School Sports Awards - Jack - YouTube (youtube.com/watch?v=Zw1-FFS-Tek)

Step 3

Lead a class discussion with your students, and use the following prompts to assist you:

What is the difference between a short sprint and a long marathon? Do you run differently?

Direct students back to the list of Commonwealth Games sports on the whiteboard. Ask students:

Which of these are sprinting sports?
Which are more like marathon running?
Are there any that are both?

Find Out: How fast are we?

Step 1

Take the students outside to an open space to complete light warm-up stretches using the Warm-up Cards.

A 20-metre track is ideal for this activity. If your school does not have this facility, please conduct this activity in an open space where you can measure the distance, such as an oval.

Half the students should be at 1 end of the track and half at the other. To begin, shout a command such as ‘Ready, set, go!’ and start the timer.

The first student must run down the track as fast as possible and tag the next student. The second student will run back down the track and tag the third. Keep going until the whole class runs 1 length, and stop the timer.

Record the class time on the Running Worksheet.

For consistent results, the same number of students need to run each week. If a student is absent, we suggest asking another student to run twice.

This is a whole-team exercise! Encourage students to cheer on their teammates to make their best efforts.

Step 2

Allow students to take a rest break. Explain to students that they now know how long it takes the whole class to do a 20-metre sprint, and they will assess how long it could take them to do a marathon.

Step 3

Set a timer for 10 minutes (or longer, depending on your students’ energy levels!). Show them their ‘marathon’ course that they will be running laps around. This might be around the oval, the outside of the playground, the outside walls of the gym, or their classroom.

Line all the students up on the start line. On, ‘Ready, set go!’ start the timer.

Students will run laps of their course. When they reach the start line, they will take a popsicle stick and drop it into the box before running another lap. All students should keep running until the timer runs out (or they are too tired to go on!).

Remind students that if they cut corners or don’t finish a lap, it doesn’t count. At the end, tally up the number of popsicle sticks. There will be 1 for each lap a student runs. How many laps did we run as a whole class? Record the class total on the Running Worksheet.

Students who cannot run can use their movement of choice, whether walking, rolling, or something else! A lap is still a lap and contributes to the class total.

Step 4

Encourage your students to drink water and return to the classroom. Survey your students by asking them the following questions:

How do you feel?
Did we run our fastest?
Do you think we could run even faster?

Lead a discussion using the Think Pair Share thinking routine on the question, ‘How do we get better at running?‘. During the ‘Share’ section, note student ideas on the board.

Step 5

Take a look at Matt Levy and Shayna Jack’s weekly training plans. Wow! A lot of work goes into being a great athlete.

Explain to the class that they will plan and start their training program. Once a week, they will time their sprints, count their laps and track their improvement over time. How can they, as a class, practise to get better at running?

Suggested student responses:

Doing 1 lap of their marathon course every morning to start the day.
Jogging from their classroom to specialist subject rooms.
Leaving the 20m sprint set up at lunchtime so they can practise.
Stretching as a class when they come back in after lunch.

Make sure students know the timeline for carrying out the plan. We recommend at least 4 weeks, but it could be up to a whole term.

Once a week, complete the same running activities as above and record the class’s sprint time and lap number on the class worksheet. Count the popsicle sticks as a class at the end of each session. Use rubber bands to make groups of 10. Using the student worksheet, colour in the same number of bundles on the worksheet to record how many laps your class ran.

If your students have buddies from an older year level, this is a great activity to do together.

Take Action: How far have we come?

Step 1

Outline to students that the class has collected data on their running times as they practise and build their skills. Invite the students to reflect on their running by asking them:

Do you feel like your running has improved?
What makes you think that?

Step 2

You have collected a series of data with your students, and now it is time to work with them to interpret the data. Direct students to look at the Lap Poster. You might like to do this as a whole-class activity, or conduct it with the students 1-on-1 to assess understanding.

Learning extension: Using the worksheet, create a pictograph for both data sets. For the sprints, round to whole minutes, and use groups of 10s for the marathon.

Step 3

Begin with sprints, and ask students to identify:

Which week was our class the slowest?
Which week was our class the fastest?
What was the difference between our fastest time and our slowest time? (Round to whole minutes for this question!)
Did our class get faster or slower?

Now let’s look at our marathon:

Which week did we run the least laps?
Which week did we run the most laps?
What was the difference between our fewer laps and our most laps?
Did we improve?

Numeracy extension: (AC9MFN06)

Invite the students to investigate the data. Ask students to respond to the prompt:

How many laps did each student run if we shared the laps equally?

Reflection

Ask students:

How do you feel after running?
Do you feel like your running has gotten better?
Why is it good to keep a record of our activity?

Run Like a Champion

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Run Like a Champion

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