6th Grade Adventure in Leadership: Making Big and Small Choices

December 9, 2020

Making choices both big and small is a major part of our Sixth Graders’ everyday lives — from brushing teeth to when to complete their homework and how we communicate with each other. Now, even more, choices are part of their daily lives to keep ourselves and our community safe. A new program began this year at The Wheeler Farm campus, taking advantage of our Challenge Ropes Course, which we call 6th Grade Adventure in Leadership. Auxiliary Programs Director Bob Rojee says of the new course, “Our hope is for this unit to bring awareness to the choices we make and how little improvements can make big positive differences physically, emotionally, and socially.”

Sixth graders are in their second rotation of Adventures in Leadership called: Choices. In this rotation, students engage in a combination of mind-bending puzzles, empathetic and challenging games, and use the low ropes course to apply their decision-making skills as a team.

Adventures in Leadership Highlights: “Kaizen” + “Warrior Swing”

Kaizen, in Japanese, means incremental improvements. The activity reinforces the concept that we are all continually improving. In this activity, groups meet specific benchmarks and continually show improvement as a team. A critical component follows each group’s attempt when students discuss mistakes and look for opportunities in their next effort. Students answer open-ended questions, engage in a healthy dialogue on successes and failures, and look at how their experiences relate to everyday situations they might encounter.

“I enjoyed the Kaizen activity because we were working together and growing as a class”

The Warrior Swing is a high-fly swing (see video) that encapsulates trust, communication, and self + team choices. In doing so, the Warrior Swing combines every learned skill from both the first and second rotations empowering students to explore further and develop their leadership skills.