I don’t know if you have ever taught a physical education lesson to grade 1 students before, but it is one of my favourite things to do. I have a particularly athletic class this year, so I thought I would teach a version of kickball, called Flat Mat.

Usually when I teach lessons to my students, they are interactive, involve movement and role play.

One particular day we were short on time and I just wanted to explain the rules and get them started. I explained all the rules and where they had to run when they kicked the ball.

I split the teams up and got the first kicker up to home plate.

He kicked the ball and ran directly to third base.

With all the cheering from his very excited team, he did not hear me try tell him to go to first base. Safely laying on third base, very proud of himself, I instructed him to go first base, and then reminded the other students where they had to run when they kicked the ball.

Ok, second kicker up.

The students were all ready. “Does anybody have any questions?”  I asked. No one answered.

He kicked the ball, and ran directly after it, to catch it himself.

Once again, the cheering from the kicking team drowned out my attempt at coaching this downhill situation. The kicker caught his own ball, and the runner who was at first, was still laying nicely at first.

As a class, we resolved the situation. Move the first base runner to second. The second kicker had to give up the ball and go to first base.

Ok, third kicker. We went through the rest of the team.

Everybody had a chance to kick the ball.

Switch. Those up to kick were now in the outfield, and those in the outfield were now lined up ready to kick.

First kicker. Kicked the ball really far and ran directly to third base…

Sometimes the best lessons are the ones where everything goes wrong and we all learn together.