2023 11 14 Agenda for Children - OST

Welcome to the 2023 Agenda for Children-OST Symposium Navigation Games page! 

From here you will find resources to get you started on incorporating orienteering into your programs. Feel free to use the menu to look around this site for useful information or click directly on the links below. 

Questions

Email us directly or through our website. 

The Navigation Games Kit

Click here for information about ordering the kit and an online version of the activity descriptions.

Workshop: Map Navigation Games

• Tuesday @ 9:30-11:00pm, 3-094

• Barb Bryant (Navigation Games President, Orienteering USA) 

• Maija Pratt (Navigation Games Chief of Staff)

• David Landrigan (CRLS Orienteering Coach, Navigation Games teacher)

Orienteering is like a treasure hunt to find checkpoints using a map. Come try out activities from our Navigation Games kit! Playing our map navigation games teaches kids great life skills including spatial awareness, route planning, and collaborating to solve problems. You'll come away from this session with the knowledge you need to bring these great spatial awareness games into your programs. Check out our detailed Activity Plan below!

Navigation Games

• Pre-order our new kit! - Teaching supplies for a progression of games to develop map navigation skills

• Navigation Games Lesson Plans

• Get a map made through OUSA's Youth Mapping Program 

• Navigation Games website

General orienteering information

• New England Orienteering Club events and website

• National orienteering events and Orienteering USA website

• International Orienteering Federation

• List of major and local orienteering events

• Rich Parker's Introduction to Orienteering

Navigation Games - Contact us for:

• PDFs of kit materials for you to print and laminate yourself

• Language from successful grants to municipal education foundations for orienteering curriculum development, materials and teacher training

Workshop Activity Plan

Goal: use the kit elements. Contents & Info of kit

1. Intro - what is orienteering (who’s done it?); Nav Games; go round and share names and organization and age of kids you work with.

2. (Get to know you game) - partner up, and share a time you were lost or used a paper map to find something.

3. Boundary, Explore and Gather 

   1. Walk the boundary of part of the room - mimic the movements of the person in front of you - single file... Call and response for stopping to check that everyone is in line: "Macaroni and Cheese!" "Everyone freeze!"

   2. Test their knowledge of the boundary.

   3. Ask them to find something small, something blue, and something round, in the boundary.

   4. "Macaroni and Cheese" to Gather (count seconds) - stand next to your partner

   5. Find your original partner; share in pairs what they found small/blue/round

4. Animal-O - 

   1. A bit of world building (move chairs around to make interesting obstacles)

   2. Place controls (streamers on clothespins)

   3. Find all 10 streamers and return to start.

   4. Find 5 animals, in order, on your clue sheet. DEMONSTRATE FIRST, so participants understand about going in order, and about the start triangle and finish circle.

   5. Again, faster.

   6. Again, from memory.

   7. Repeat with other 5 & 10-animal clue sheets

   8. Make a map of where the animals are

5. Discussion - what skills did we practice? How could we modify this game? How to tailor for different ages?

6. Geometric-O

   1. Place the cones

   2. Play animal-O

   3. Ask where different animals are - have participants run & touch

   4. Critique map of the cones (layout, orientation)

   5. Point at cone on map and have person run there and back

   6. Pass out maps; have them orient them.

   7. Do geometric-O; blow whistle or make other noise - freeze - check map is oriented

   8. Demonstrate working in pairs to check that the Orienteer is going to the correct checkpoints. (Orienteer gets the map; Checker gets the corresponding Animal clue sheet; when arriving at a checkpoint the orienteer calls out the animal on it and the Checker checks on their clue sheet.)

7. Discussion - how work with kids with different ages/abilities? etc.

8. Clothespin Hunt / variations

   1. Play Finders Keepers once (teacher hides one clothespin; whole class searches; give hints like Warmer/Colder)

   2. Pair up; give each pair a different letter clothespin

   3. Take turns hiding and finding the clothespin. “A map tells you where to go. There are other ways to tell someone where to go.” Variations

      1. Warmer Colder

      2. Robot Controller (tap left shoulder to turn left, etc)

      3. Minimal verbal clues - count how many words are used

      4. Hider stays out in the hallway and can give verbal instructions; Finder can come back out and ask for more information…

      5. Hider draws a map or picture clue.

      6. Play Treasure Collectors: first select N-1 clothespins, where N is number of kids in the class. One student places all the treasures, while the others watch. The class must collect all of the treasures, but each person may only collect one of them - how quickly can the class complete this? Give them time to strategize BEFORE the hiding…

      7. Have participants make up rules.

9. (talk about Basketball-O)

10. Orienteering with a map

    1. Make a map

       1. Participants draw a map of the room WITHOUT the controls

       2. Participants draw circles around FIVE of the animals’ locations. Number them 1-5 in any order

       3. Draw start triangle and finish double circle

       4. Connect start to 1, 1 to 2, etc.

    2. Exchange map with another person; they do the course and report back what animals they found. Possibly double check by shadowing the person as they do the course a second time.

11. Discussion. Can you see using this in your program? Application to other areas of life - goals, checkpoints, map, route choice, getting help or relocating yourself when lost, orienting your map, Etc.