Orienteering at Schools

Other languages　: Arabic

During the period when the number of coronavirus infections was very high, most of the schools in Japan refrained from letting students go out of school. Meanwhile, at "H" Elementary School in Tokyo, a recreation event that used to be enjoyed on field trips outside the school, continued within school compound.
This school event was carried out as part of mixed-age group activities (or cross-age group activities). It is an opportunity for lower-grade students to learn from upper-grade students, for upper-grade students to develop compassion and kindness toward the lower-grade students. In the meantime, it is expected that the lower-grade students foster sense of gratitude and respect to the upper-grade students through the event. Furthermore, sixth graders are expected to become aware that they are the ones responsible for leading the students of other grades. That is how the sense of self-usefulness of the sixth-grade students could be increased in the activities.

　Target Grades:　

　Activity Category:

　Time:

Elementary school

Student Council Activities (Multi-grade Activities)

About 2 hours in a year

Aims

・Upper-grade and lower-grade students experience fun of working together.
・Upper-grade students become more aware of safe group behavior.

Teaching materials and equipments

"Implementation Plan of Orienteering in Schools " (Japanese, English, Arabic, Indonesian)

Implementation Procedures

See "4. Flow of the day" and "7. Flow until the day of event " on the above-mentioned " Implementation Plan of Orienteering in Schools”.

Reference Data

Mixed-age group activities (or cross-age group activities) (Japanese, English, Indonesian)

Research conducted by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, 2001-2003
"Development of a student guidance program to foster social skills among students" - Exchange Activities and Experiential Activities to Nurture the Foundation of Social Skills: For Students to Have the Joy of Interacting with Others
(Japanese only)

National Institute for Educational Policy Research, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
"Interactions between children of different ages" to foster children's social skills - from the concept of implementing activities to activity plans for teachers -
(Japanese only)