BROOKINGS – Physical education at Hillcrest Elementary School has gained a new dimension in learning after a rock wall was added to the school’s gym this summer.
It’s about 7 feet tall and takes up most of one of the gym’s walls. That it’s not an especially tall rock wall but a long one is an important feature. It means that if kids do fall, they won’t fall as far, but it still gives them plenty of room to move horizontally.
Learning how to move and climb sideways is just as important a skill as learning how to climb up. Hillcrest Elementary P.E. teacher Austin Koenig noticed some struggle going sideways because they don’t realize they can cross their legs to move along sideways.
“If any of these kids actually get into rock climbing, that’s going to be a major piece, that horizontal movement. That gives them that foundational knowledge to build on,” Koenig said. “A lot of kids have thought just about going straight up and down. Now, they can think about the horizontal aspect and moving side to side.”
It won’t come as a surprise that students have loved the rock wall from the moment they saw it at the start of the school year.
It was one of the first things the children noticed when they visited the school for its open house ahead of the start of the school year.
“Then when they started school, I couldn’t even get through the first lesson of the school year without the kids asking when we’re going to use it. Then, as we’re starting to get going through the school year, every day it’s, ‘Are we using the rock wall? Are we using the rock wall?’ No, not yet. But yeah, the kids are excited and have constantly wanted to use it. They’d use it every day if they could,” Koenig said.
Introducing the rock wall has added a bit of variety to all kinds of activities, and Koenig can bring his students beyond running and jumping. Climbing is something that a lot of the kids haven’t really thought about before, he said, and their eyes light up when he tells them that South Dakota State University has a big climbing wall of its own.
Koenig has incorporated the wall during station activities. When they do stations, a variety of activities are set up for the kids to take turns rotating through. As far as the rock wall is concerned, that helps control the number of kids on it.
He’s also thinking of incorporating it into his unit on upper-body strength.
Either way, he finds it’s a useful tool for getting kids to think about more effective use of their bodies while doing a physical activity.
“For example, if you only use your hands, you’re not going to be very successful; you have to use your legs at the same time. This helps give kids the idea that they need to use their legs when normally they probably wouldn’t,” Koenig said.
The different colored hand and feet holds indicate different skill levels, with red being the smallest and most difficult of the bunch. Kids can challenge themselves to use only certain colors and move on to the next one as they improve.
Safety has been a major consideration in getting the rock wall and using it.
That means teaching them how to climb safely.
“I try to talk about maintaining three points of contact at all times, whether it’s one hand and two feet, one foot and two hands, whatever it is, always make sure you’re maintaining solid contact with the wall on three points,” Koenig said.
It also means teaching them to keep their bodies close to the wall instead of leaning back and away from it. This helps keep them stable while they’re up on the wall and helps them better maintain their grip.
There’s also the rule about the red line that goes across the rock wall.
“Kids’ feet aren’t allowed to go above that red line. That way, they’re relatively close to the ground but still get to feel like they are climbing,” Koenig said.
There are mats beneath the rock wall for those times the kids do fall. They can be tied to the rock wall, folding up when it’s not being used. That makes for convenient storage, and it helps protect the wall and kids in the event of any collisions that might occur when the gym is being used for other purposes. It also keeps kids from climbing on it when an adult isn’t around to supervise.
With that being said, Koenig said this has been a great investment: “This is a great thing to have and it adds to the curriculum you can do with the kids and keep it a bit more fun, and it’s something new.”
Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com.
