Astra Zeneca Resource

Living things and the processes of life
The processes of life

Pupil Activity

Objective of Activity - To reinforce the helpfulness of peak flow monitoring and to develop an understanding of peak flow ranges.

Materials:

2 Nerf^© balls or other soft, sponge balls
Red, yellow, green stickers (or coloured tape/paper)
Red, yellow, green colouring pencils
peak flow graph
pen
peak flow meters
mouthpieces

Method:

Divide the class into two teams.
The teacher will be the scorekeeper.
Each team member is given a red, yellow or green sticker.
This is stuck on the pupil’s back.
The coloured stickers represent the peak flow zones.
The same number of each coloured sticker is divided evenly between the two groups.
The red sticker is worth 1 point, the yellow sticker is worth 2 points,
and the green sticker is worth 3 points.
The playing area is divided in half by a mid line.
Each team goes to their side.
Each team is given a Nerf ball.
The object of the game is to throw and hit other team members with the ball without them catching it. When a player is hit by a ball, they are out and they sit out the game.
If the ball is caught then the person who threw the ball is out and the team that caught the ball gets double points.
Once a player is out they have to take their peak flow reading and plot it on the peak flow chart.
The graph will be divided into appropriate ranges.
The team gets the appropriate points depending on which range their peak flow is in. Each pupil needs to know their baseline before beginning this game.
When a team loses all its players, the game is finished and the other team gets a bonus of 10 points.
Add up all the points and the team with the highest points wins.

Peak Flow Ranges

Green Zone: 80% - 100% of personal best

Yellow Zone: 50% - 79% of personal best

Red Zone: less than 50% of personal best

Background:

This activity has been developed from Children’s Asthma Camps.

See web link http://www.asthmacamps.org/asthmacamps/

Nerf balls are available from most toy departments.