Stretch Limo
Stretch Limo
Purpose
To practice giving directions to another person.
To practice following directions given by another person.
To learn a little about empathy.
To have fun while learning.
Time
5-15 minutes to create the road and countryside your limo will drive through
Approximately 2-5 minutes per participant to drive their limo.
10-15 minutes to debrief the activity.
Groupings
Pairs of 2 students. Small groups of three will also work.
Materials
One piece of chart paper per group.
Colored markers to create the road and countryside on the chart paper.
Each member of a team will need a different color marker to use as his or her limo.
One blindfold per group (optional). Students can close their eyes instead of wearing a blindfold.
CD/Cassette player and moderately paced music. (optional)
Goal
For each person to successfully drive their limo down the road by following the directions given by your partner.
Directions
Have students pair up or form small groups with 3 members per group.
Have students gather the materials their group will need to complete this activity.
If you like, you could play music as the students draw.
To create the countryside: Have students place their piece of chart paper in front of them the landscape way (also known as the hotdog or horizontal way).
With a black marker, students are to create a road on their paper.
The road should begin on the left side of the paper and end on the right side of the paper.
The road should include at two to three curves. You can increase or decrease the number of curves to increase or decrease the difficulty of the activity. The more curves, the more difficult the activity.
The road should should be approximately 3" to 4" wide. The narrower the road, the more difficult the activity.
Once each group has finished drawing their road, they should decorate the countryside around their road. Have the teams add tress, lakes, streams, outbuildings, whatever their imagination comes up with.
Give the groups 5-15 minutes to illustrate their countryside. Once the road and countryside are finished, it is time to drive the limo.
To drive the limo: Each student in the group should choose a different color marker to serve as their limo.
Each group must then decide who will be the first driver and who will be the passenger. The driver will drive and the passenger will give the directions.
To drive, the driver must close his/her eyes.
The passenger then gives the driver verbal directions to help the driver get from the beginning of the road, through the countryside, to the end of the road. You can increase the difficulty by having the driver and passenger sit across the table from each other. When the driver and passenger sit on the same side of the table or the passenger stands behind the driver, it is easier to give directions. When the firsts driver finishes, the second driver takes a different color marker, closes his or her eyes and is guided through the countryside by his or her other teammates.
The driving continues until everyone in the group has had a chance to be both driver and passenger.
Follow Up Discussion
What makes a good passenger (direction giver)?
How did you feel when you were giving directions? Was it easy or difficult? Why?
Did you have to change the way you gave directions so that they were easier to understand?
How did you know you needed to change your direction giving style?
How did you change your directions?
Did the changes make the driver more successful? Did you and the driver work out some strategies so that your directions were easier to follow? What were your strategies? Where did you stand while you were giving directions to the driver? In front of the driver?
Behind the driver?
To the side of the driver? Did where you were standing affect how effective your directions were? Why?
How did you feel when the driver followed your directions and moved down the road?
How did you feel when you were driving? Did you stay on the road?
Did anyone run off the road?
Were you tempted to peek while you were driving? Did you?
Were the directions easy to understand? Why? Why not? What would have made the directions easier to follow?
Did you get stuck when you were driving? What happened?
How did you get unstuck? What would have made this activity more difficult?
What would have made this activity easier?
What did you learn from this activity?
Would you like to do this activity again?
