Adaptive Rock Wall Climbing
Here's a physical education activity that can be performed by students with visual impairments, blindness, and multiple disabilities. The activity is adapted from It Rocks, a game on the FlagHouse Website: http://www.flaghouse.com/PDF/ITROCKS.pdf.
- Cut out circles measuring two different diameters and divide them into four sets. Set A is one color and texture; Set B is another color and texture, and so on. Fleece, sandpaper, foam, corduroy, etc., can be used for the wall, and waffle grip placemats can be used on the floor.
- Place some circles on the floor and some on the wall (at varying heights). Circles can be attached to the wall with Elmer's Removable Poster Tack.
Activity 1
Student picks two colors/textures to touch. Wheelchair users may use all four if needed. Moving across the wall, the "climber" always has to have one hand touching the wall; or he must return to the beginning and start over (he fell off the wall). The object is to go from start to finish touching the fewest number of circles--stretching your body as much as possible.
Activity 2
Two teams compete. Each team starts at an opposite end and each picks two colors/textures. They must pass each other--again having one hand on the wall at all times.
Submitted by Judy Hurst, West Virginia, November 2006