As many of you know, traverse wall climbing benefits a student’s overall health in many ways. Not only does climbing build strength, flexibility and coordination, but it also increases a student’s problem solving skills, patience, perseverance and courage! Strength is increased through repetitive muscle movement. Flexibility is increased by stretching for foot and hand holds. Coordination is increased by moving hands and feet simultaneously in different directions. Problem solving skills are developed by students’ attempts at physical solutions to challenging routes. Courage grows as students experience success after taking positive risks. Perseverance develops as students continue to attempt a difficult route until it is accomplished. Basically, climbing is the ultimate life metaphor. Students grow as they identify problems, take risks to solve them and finally succeed after repeated attempts to achieve their goal. Students learn to ask for help from others through many of the activities and as a result, begin to trust. Overall, climbing influences students’ physical, social, mental and emotional well being.

Expectations

A large emphasis of the climbing wall is on students’ personal challenge and goal setting.  Students should be allowed many opportunities on the climbing wall to accomplish their goals and achieve success. Below is a detailed list of guidelines to be implemented with the climbing wall.

Climbing walls are to be used only under the supervision of an adult and with the consent of the physical education specialist.

Students should choose their challenge. While we will encourage students to reach for higher goals, we will not ask them to attempt more than they choose for themselves.

Climbers must wear tennis shoes.

Climbers may not climb with their feet above the red line or different color area until they have successfully traversed the length of the wall.

Students should remove all jewelry.

Never allow climbing without safety mats in place.

Students should avoid touching other climbers unless instructed to do so in a supervised activity. Students should climb up and climb down; no jumping off the wall unless instructed to do so in a supervised activity.

Unless otherwise instructed, students should have at least three limbs in contact with the wall at all times.

Students should set personal goals on the Project CLIMB Goal Card provided. Allow opportunities for students to strive to achieve each goal.

Students should not walk on mats under climbers on the wall.

Students should not climb below another climber on the wall.

Rules

Here is the suggested list of rules to be posted near the wall.
Climb up wall and climb down…no jumping off wall.
Tennis shoes must be worn.
No jewelry.
Keep feet below red line.

There are all kinds of interesting games to play on the walls and a lot of interesting ways to challenge kids.   Every student at Lewis School will have a climbing experience. Below are some example activities.

Bugs

Grade level: K-5
Equipment: Small, laminated paper bugs
Objective: footwork, developing the habit of looking for footholds
Description: Place laminated paper “bugs” on certain parts of many holds. Students must contact with their hands or feet only the particular part of the hold to avoid the bug! You can reverse this activity by taping the bugs onto footholds and telling the students they must step only on the particular part of the foothold to squash the bug.
Rules/Safety/Accommodations: Students should follow basic climbing wall rules. For special needs students, you may put bugs on lower level holds and allow them to walk on the mats and reach for and grasp holds without touching the bugs, or have them reach and take the bug. For students in wheelchairs, pull mats away from the wall and allow them to move the chair forward by grabbing handholds and pulling themselves along the wall searching for bugs. Facilitation/Reflection Questions:

1. What was difficult about this activity?
2. Name a feeling you experienced on the wall today.
3. Tell us about the feeling and if it helped you to climb better or worse.
4. Complete this sentence: I really enjoyed today’s activity because…

Limb release

Grade level: K-5
Equipment: None
Objective: Static balance, lock-off strength, and learning to recover
Description: Students find a comfortable, low-balance stance on the wall. Coach calls out one limb, (such as left arm, or right leg). Climbers lift that limb from the wall and balance using their other three limbs to maintain position. Return that limb to the wall a coach calls out a different one until all four have been lifted one at a time. If time allows, students may move to a new spot on the wall and repeat the activity again following coach’s direction, or on their own.
Rules/Safety/Accommodations: Students should follow basic climbing wall rules. Special needs students may accomplish this with the use of a responsible peer helper as a spotter, or an adult.

Facilitation/Reflection Questions:

1. What was physically challenging about today’s climbing activity?
2. I’d like to say thank you to ________________for encouraging me today.
3. What was the purpose of this activity?

Picking apples

Grade level: K-5
Equipment: Laminated red apple cut outs, some kind of pouch students can wear like the peg pouches from Everlast Climbing Industries
Objective: Speed and one arm lock-offs, (strength)
Description: Slide laminated red apple cutouts between the bottom of many hand holds and the wall all over your climbing wall. Divide the group into three teams. Place team’s four panels apart. The first climber from each team climbs for 30 seconds “picking” the apples and putting them into their pouch. After everyone has had a turn, or all the apples are picked, teams count to see how many apples they picked. 1-5: They can make an apple fritter! 6-10: They can make apple jelly! 10-15: They can make an apple pie! 16-20: They can start their own apple orchard!
Rules/Safety/Accommodations: As always, students should follow basic climbing wall rules. Apples can be picked only if the climber is not in contact with the ground. Dropped apples cannot be retrieved unless the climber is still on the wall and picks them off the mat. Climbers must transfer the pouch to a teammate when their 30 seconds are up. After each round, students can help put apples back on the wall. Special needs students may be assisted by a responsible peer or by an adult. You may allow some students to walk along the mat and pick only “green apples” that you have prepared and placed under holds that require special needs students to reach high.

Facilitation/Reflection Questions:

1. What did you do to make others successful in this activity?
2. What skills were developed by this activity?
3. Something that made me feel uncomfortable during this activity was__________________.

Climbing wall and traverse climbing

Do your kids climb, 

The walls at home?

 If so, then we would like them

To climb with us at Abernethy Elementary

How can we make this happen?

With your help, your students can learn about indoor climbing. More importantly they will also learn:

*safety techniques                     * strength
*decision making                        * teamwork
*problem solving                        *flexibility     *coordination                           *conditioning
*perseverance                          * patience
*balance

Climbing builds overall wellness: physical well-being, integrated with all of this by "literally" climbing the walls.  As part of the New P.E., students learn climbing is a lifetime sport, one that can enjoyed well beyond their school days.

    One of the drawbacks of some sports is that you need a team to participate in them. Climbing can be done individually or in a small group, thereby promoting both personal and peer interaction.
 

"Traverse climbing is quickly becoming one of the most popular new activities in schools all over the country! Traverse climbing is safe because students are never more than a few feet off the ground. Increase or decrease the level of difficulty by changing the order, frequency, and position of the hand holds." MAHPERED (Tim & Kevin Sudeith)

  Traverse wall climbing promotes self-esteem while contributing to overall physical fitness. Students learn focus and concentration which is key in developing self-discipline.  Climbing is a lifetime sport that appeals to both athletic and non-athletic students.

 It's a new, innovative, unusual thing to have in a physical education class.  Kids who aren't normally successful on the (climbing) ropes or apparatus that calls for upper body strength are successful on the rock climbing walls because they can use their arms and legs.

Students don't need safety harnesses to scale the rock climbing walls.  The   climbing walls are 8-10 feet high. Instead of climbing up, the kids climb across the walls, which provide a solid workout.

Obstacles, such as sponge swimming nodes and Frisbee-like "discovery plates," can be placed on the wall to make the climb more challenging, students can solve mathematics problems and hone reading skills by climbing on the wall and answering questions written on special metal "discovery plates' attached to it.