For this unit, we have 12 ropes suspended from the ceiling with large blue mats underneath them. The goal of this unit is to work on engaging the upper arms and working on muscular strength and endurance. We make sure the students understand that climbing is not the goal of the unit, and that if they cannot climb, it is ok!
For our first lesson, the students mostly do activities on the rope that involves them engaging their arms. We have them jump and hang, attempt pull ups while hanging (we have a modified version as well), climb, swing, lower themselves and pull themselves back up (with the hand-over-hand and hand-under-hand method), and perform the inverted hang (optional activity since they are flipping upside down and it is challenging). For most of the activities, we have modifications for to allow some differentiated instruction.
For our second and third lesson, we incorporate some of the different activities from the first lesson and then we allow them to perform other challenging activities that involve climbing and swinging while manipulating objects with their hands and feet (a favorite is the Tarzan swing where they can swing from rope to rope).
At the beginning of the year, we debated on whether or not we wanted to keep this unit. I am glad we decided to because there are three things I like most about this unit: 1) It is different from all the other things we do 2) The students who aren't successful during sport units usually excel in this one and 3) Every year the students are ALWAYS excited about starting ropes. It's an atypical unit that is great for working on strength an the students really enjoy it!
Below is a picture of Bobbi Jo guiding students during a rope activity.
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