Library Obstacle Course

How many of us have said time and time again, "Use your walking feet!" to a child racing through the Children's Room?  While running isn't normally allowed in the library, running, leaping, crawling, and diving were encouraged during our library obstacle course program!

Last summer I offered an obstacle course just for tweens that was a huge success.  I decided to try it again over spring break and opened it up to younger school-age kids as well.  A lot of kids at our library are big fans of the show American Ninja Warrior, so I think the idea of an obstacle course was especially appealing.

Having kids work together to design their own obstacle course can be a great way to give them a bit more ownership of the program and to encourage teamwork.  It's also beneficial to allow the kids to run through the course multiple times so they can focus on improving their times.  I wanted to have kids focus on improving their own performance rather than competing against each other because the biggest aim of this program was to have fun with exercise and physical activity.

We are fortunate to have a rather spacious area in the library where we could do an obstacle course, so we were able to spread out.  If you don't have a large space, you could just make an obstacle course that is a bit smaller in size, or you could even move it outside.

I ended up providing a few suggestions to get the kids started, but they really made most of the decisions and came up with some innovative ideas of their own.  I had to veto a few ideas that were very creative but also rather dangerous.   I made sure that we taped down a clear starting line and finish line so that I would be able to time them running through the course.  I timed them on my phone and then shouted out their times when they finished.  After all the kids went through twice, we took the course apart and built a new obstacle course.

I provided the kids with the following materials to build the course:

• Pool noodles
• Mats 
• Hula hoops
• Hula hoop holders 
• Plastic adult chairs 
• Plastic toddler chairs 
• A roll of tape 

Using these materials we came up with obstacles such as:

• Jumping over pool noodles set a foot or so apart
• Doing a "tire race" through the hula hoops
• Crawling under pool noodles set between two chairs 
• Crawling through a row of chairs
• Diving/crawling through hula hoops 
• Weaving between chairs 
• Making hopscotch out of tape on the floor
• Jumping over hurdles made from pool noodles and hula hoop holders (you can easily use boxes or books to hold up the pool noodles instead)  

Most of these materials our library already owned and are used fairly regularly in our programming; for us they were an investment.  I understand, of course, that not all libraries can justify buying all of these items and in some cases might not have the space to store them.
 
Here are a few suggestions if you aren't able to purchase some of these items:

• Try propping up a hula hoop between two chairs and taping it to the floor.
• Pool noodles can be duct taped together to make circles
• Give them any other random items you can think of!  Traffic cones, bean bags, frisbees, a library cart, a sleeping bag....the sky's the limit!  The kids will come up with creative ways to use them.

The kids were excited to see their ideas included in the course, and they were proud when they were able to improve their own times.  They were, of course, also highly entertained when Miss Melissa tried to go through the course (quite unsuccessfully).  I ended up knocking over more of the obstacles than anyone else and was unsurprisingly a lot slower than most of the competitors.  I'm only 5'1", so I joked to co-workers afterwards that this was the first time in my life that I was at a disadvantage because I was "too tall."

When it was time to clean up, there were definitely more than a few shouts of, "Just one more time!"  This is a program I hope to try again in the future, and I'll be excited to see what kind of obstacle courses the kids create!