Duration: This depends on the possibilities of the given community (10 to 30 minutes).

Primary SPIRIT Skill(s) focus:

• Flexibility

Brief description

The activities can already be done during the travel. During the journey, children could have tasks.

If travelling on foot:

• Say when you see something that starts with the letter R.
• Word chain (with possible restrictions, e.g., only animals, only names)
• Which traffic signs do you know? Do you see any that you don’t understand?

If using public transport:

• Count how many stops the vehicle has. Is there a stop named after a famous person? Does anyone know who they are? (It’s helpful if the teacher prepares in advance.)
• “How many fingers am I holding, and how many not?” game

If possible, the program can be combined with a hike, during which stops can be made and tasks assigned to the students. For example:

• During a rest break, observe 1 minute of silence. During this time, listen carefully and list the sounds you hear. Were any of the sounds coming from the built environment?
• During the break, observe how many different shades of a single colour you can see, for example, green. First, everyone quietly collects observations, then together, by pointing and naming, identify the different shades.
• During the hike, count the trail markers (touch them if possible). With older students, you can also ask them to estimate beforehand how many markers they will see on a given section of the trail.
• During the hike, count how many birds you hear rustling in the leaves or singing in the trees. (Extra task: try to identify the species.)

How does this develop particular SPIRIT skills

During the journey, a specific task must be carried out in a changing environment (because the bus is moving or we are walking), so the children need to be flexible and continuously interpret and solve the task within the ever-changing surroundings.

What do we want to achieve regarding SPIRIT skill development (student understanding and/or behaviour)?

Children should be able to focus on the same task even in a changing environment and be able to return to it after briefly drifting away.

• Academic/Curriculum Objective connection:
• Teaching traffic knowledge
• Developing counting and estimation skills
• Improving observation skills
• Expanding vocabulary and vocabulary usage
• Spatial orientation

Materials and tools needed for implementation

None

Preparation notes

The teacher must be familiar with the route, the timing, and the possibilities.

Guided Questions

• How can you quickly switch between tasks when the environment changes?
• How does it feel when you see or hear something unexpected? How can you adapt to it?
• Can you pay attention to your surroundings and the game at the same time? How do you do that?
• If your mind wanders away from the task for a moment, how do you get back to it?
• What happens if you don’t recognize a traffic sign? How can you find out what it means?

Stage Debriefing Questions (Optional)

• How did you feel during the journey?
• How did you spend your time?
• Which part of the trip did you like the most?
  

Tips and Tricks for dealing with stage challenges

• Games and activities should be offered to the children, but participation is not mandatory. However, these activities can lay the foundation for later tasks, engage the children’s thinking, entertain them during the journey, and help prevent misbehaviour. Therefore, the teacher should observe which children need to take part in the suggested activities.
• Some activities are done together (for example, one minute of silence during a break), and in these cases, everyone participates at least by not disturbing others’ work.