Wheels, Wheels and More Wheels - Activity Instructions

Activity Description

What is it like to be in a wheelchair? In this activity, children explore all the wheely cool things you can do in a wheelchair, and put their critical thinking skills to work as they consider how to increase accessibility for our wheelchair using friends. This is a ‘Find Out’ activity following on from reading Two Mates, by Melanie Prewett.

Tune In

Read the epilogue page ‘Hi from Kim (Raf’s Mum)’ to the children and then have the children brainstorm all of the things that Raf can do using information gathered from the story and epilogue. Raf…

goes to the beach
rides his quad bike
rides his sister's horse
plays video games and lego
plays dress ups
goes fishing and hunting
learns to play guitar
goes swimming
plays chess

Find Out

Ask the children, “Why do some people use wheelchairs?” Their answers may include

they can’t move their legs
they don’t have any legs
their legs aren’t strong enough for walking sometimes
their legs aren’t strong enough for walking at all
they got hurt and have to use a wheelchair for a little while until they get better
they got hurt and now they will always need a wheelchair

Show children the following clip:

We're The Superhumans | Rio Paralympics 2016 Trailer (youtube.com/watch?v=IocLkk3aYlk)

“Wow! We saw a lot of cool things in that clip. Let’s focus on the people in wheelchairs. What were some of the things people in wheelchairs were doing?” (playing music, playing rugby, doing backflips, racing, dancing, playing basketball, fencing, so many things!)

You may want to play the clip again and this time specifically look for what the people in wheelchairs are doing.

Take Action

Let’s explore what we can do on wheels. Let’s use some of the equipment we have with wheels on it to get around our yard and challenge ourselves to see what sort of things we can on wheels!

Offer the children the opportunity to explore the use of tricycles, balance bikes, scooter boards and pedal rollers. You might set up some activities like a basketball hoop, a soccer goal, or an obstacle course.

Have discussions throughout their experience about things that might be a little less accessible, for example, sand pits or climbing frames. Are there things we could do to make them easier to use while on our wheels? How would we help a friend in a wheelchair to enjoy these things?

Also have discussions about things that need problem solving while you are on wheels. Are the places that are tricky to manoeuvre through on wheels? Or things like the toilet or bathroom sink, that are tricky to reach and use?

Wheels, Wheels and More Wheels

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Summary

Activity type

Target age

Activity Guides and Printables

Activity Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

In this activity