Daily Challenges Facilitator's Guide, Ages 13-18
Part of the Triple Play suite of programs, Daily Challenges helps youth build movement skills and positive attitudes toward physical activity.
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I am part of a BGCA organization I am not part of a BGCA organizationPart of the Triple Play suite of programs, Daily Challenges helps youth build movement skills and positive attitudes toward physical activity.
The Group Agreement is a shared vision a group creates to build an emotionally supportive environment. It is a tool that can bridge the gap between how Club members are feeling and how they want to feel.
Members will assess their health goals and challenges, then create a plan to achieve their goals.
To combine locomotor and fitness skills in a fun game while building teamwork and perseverance.
Two teams use locomotor skills and teamwork as they try to capture the other teams’ members.
Guide team members one at a time from one side of a space to the other by only touching objects randomly placed on the floor.
In teams, members will create and navigate an obstacle course. Members will also work on developing teamwork and perseverance skills.
To collect the most items from the opposing teams’ bases by moving quickly and with agility.
To develop, practice, and create dance steps and combinations as a form of physical activity and artistic communication.
In this session, members use their creativity to come up with a dance challenge for their whole Club to learn.
To build balance and coordination while also engaging in communication, problem-solving and building relationships with other youth.
Building on the previous session when teens learned a yoga sequence, the goal of this session is for teens to practice balance and coordination skills, discuss ways to manage their emotions, and develop their own yoga sequence to teach to others.
Practice volleyball skills (bump, set, spike) in a cooperative, skill-building environment.
Members will use hand striking and defensive skills while developing perseverance and teamwork.
Members will use volleyball skills to develop perseverance and teamwork.
Members will use volleyball skills to develop perseverance and impulse control.
To build skill in passing and catching with their hands while moving to create space.
To practice sending and receiving with hands, and practice basic offensive and defensive skills.
Members control an object with their hands while using offensive and defensive tactical skills to collect as many points as possible. Members also develop teamwork, empathy and perseverance.
To practice catching, throwing and moving into open space while being defended.
Members will practice throwing and dodging to develop perseverance skills, and work to identify and solve problems.
To practice dribbling and passing an object with hands while being defended against.
Members strike an object with their feet in a fielding game to score runs. Members also develop teamwork and perseverance.
Members kick object with feet to score points in a fielding game and self-select difficulty to increase confidence. Members also develop teamwork and perseverance.
The goal is to move into open space while passing and receiving an object with the feet. Youth will work together and communicate as a team.
To build kicking skills and improve passing accuracy while practicing teamwork and communication skills.
To build kicking skills and improve passing accuracy while practicing teamwork and communication skills.
The goal of this activity is to build skill and accuracy in passing and trapping a ball, while transitioning to defending one’s own goal.
To practice striking an object with an implement while working together with a peer.
To practice striking an object with an implement while working together with a peer.
Members will work on perseverance, stress management and impulse control.
Members will work on perseverance, stress management and impulse control.
In order to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens, Boys & Girls Clubs focus on three priority outcome areas: Academic Success, Healthy Lifestyles, and Good Character and Citizenship.
Triple Play is a suite of three Targeted Programs that work together to promote Healthy Lifestyles. The three programs were intentionally written to build the skills, attitudes, knowledge and behaviors essential to an overall healthy lifestyle. Healthy eating, physical activity and relationship building are addressed in a suite of three easy-to-use resources. Each component is a complete curriculum. Together, they help youth learn to sustain the health of the mind, body and soul.
Daily Challenges is a progressive curriculum that focuses on building movement skills and positive attitudes toward physical activity. The program consists of 32 diverse games, cooperative activities and sports that develop a young person’s ability, confidence and motivation to be physically active.
Triple Play is part of the Sports and Recreation Core Program Area. Programs in this area promote physical health by providing low-risk settings for members to explore moving their bodies and eating healthy foods. These playful experiences build movement and nutrition skills. Members develop positive attitudes toward physical activity and healthy eating to support a lifetime of healthy decisions. Targeted Programs and High-Yield Activities in the Sports and Recreation Core Program Area are linked to the Healthy Lifestyles priority outcome area.
Sports and Recreation Outcome Statement
Youth have the ability, confidence and motivation to lead physically active lifestyles and adopt healthful eating patterns.
Social-emotional skills are essential for youth to build healthy relationships with themselves and others, recognize and manage emotions, and solve problems. Opportunities to learn and practice social-emotional skills are embedded in every session of all three Triple Play programs.
Triple Play was designed to promote:
Nutritional Literacy | |
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Nutrition Skills |
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Social-Emotional Skills |
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Physical Literacy | |
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Movement Skills |
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Social-Emotional Skills |
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Positive youth development is an intentional approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive; recognizes, uses and enhances young people’s strengths; and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths.
Sports and Recreation programs, when facilitated with high-quality youth development practice, help youth develop the skills, confidence, and motivation needed to maintain a healthy eating pattern and a physically active life.
Youth development professionals can help all youth live healthier lifestyles with the following practices:
Positive Youth Development Supports Character and Social-emotional Development
All Boys & Girls Club programs offer opportunities for youth development professionals to model, recognize, reinforce and reflect on character development. Positive youth development provides direction for how you interact with, engage and model behavior for youth. You get to shape the lives of young people every day. As a result, you set the expectations and show youth what essential character traits – caring, citizenship, fairness, respect, responsibility and trustworthiness – mean, and how they look. These character traits come to life when youth practice social-emotional skills like teamwork, conflict management and emotional regulation.
Youth can start to build character using “caught and taught” approaches. Youth “catch” social-emotional skills when they observe youth development professionals modeling them, and when they interact with peers. Youth can also be “taught” skills to build good character when the skills are explicitly introduced and practiced through program sessions and activities. Use this formula to understand how character develops over time:
Staff Model Good Character + Youth Practice Skills Regularly = Character Development
Youth development professionals facilitating Daily Challenges can model good character in the way they support all youth, offer feedback rather than criticism, and encourage honesty and responsibility.
To build character traits, include many opportunities for youth to practice the social-emotional skills embedded in Daily Challenges. These include skills related to:
When Character Development is present:
When Character Development is absent:
For more information, visit BGCA.net and search for "Program Basics BLUEprint." See “Practicing Social-Emotional Skills to Achieve Character Development” in the BLUEprint. It will show you the specific social-emotional skills young people should practice to demonstrate positive behaviors indicative of the six essential character traits.
Practice Positive Youth Development to Create Inclusive Clubs
Inclusion is a core component to build a safe, positive environment in your Clubs. In order to fulfill our mission, Clubs must create safe, positive and inclusive environments for all youth and teens – including every race, ethnicity, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, ability, socio-economic status and religion. By creating inclusive environments at our Club, we improve the overall experience for all young people. When youth development professionals use positive youth development practices, they help ensure all youth:
As you implement Daily Challenges, consider strategies that help youth feel affirmed, safe and engaged with Club experiences. To view and download more information on building and sustaining an inclusive environment, visit BGCA.net and search for "Program Basics BLUEprint."
Daily Challenges is carefully designed to provide key support for your Club’s physical activity program. The program is organized into 32 sessions that guide members of all ages through all movement skills in a developmentally appropriate way. Sessions are split into units of related skills and activities. Program activities are designed sequentially. You will have the most success if you implement the program following the recommended order of sessions. Many modification options are provided for each activity, so sessions can be repeated frequently to introduce new participants to the program or reinforce previously learned skills.
Another reason to modify activities is to ensure every member has fun and feels successful. Continually adjust rules, equipment and team size to allow all youth to experience success in an activity. Modifying activities in this way also ensures those with disabilities are able to fully participate.
You may also need to modify activities based on the amount of space or equipment you have available. While it may be ideal to run each session exactly as written, when it’s all said and done, the goal is to have a good time. Creativity and fun should remain at the forefront of everything you do in any Triple Play program.
This guide is available on BGCA.net. Clubs can download complimentary copies of most national programs and resources.
# | Title | Skills | Learning Objectives |
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Unit 1 | Locomotor Skills | In this unit, youth will practice fundamental locomotor skills such as running, jumping and skipping. | |
1 | Building Your Group Agreements | Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will complete a Group Agreement as a way to build a safe, positive emotional climate for Daily Challenges. |
2 | Fitness Goals | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will assess their health goals and challenges, then create a plan to achieve their goals. |
3 | Protect the Nest | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will combine locomotor and fitness skills in a fun game while building teamwork and perseverance. |
4 | Flag Giants, Wizards and Elves | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will use locomotor skills and teamwork as they try to capture team members. |
5 | Cross the Swamp | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will guide one another from one side of a space to the other by only touching objects randomly placed on the floor. |
6 | Obstacle Course | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will create and navigate an obstacle course in teams. Members will also work on developing teamwork and perseverance skills. |
7 | Hoopla | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will practice using locomotor and tactical skills to capture the most items from the opposing teams’ bases by moving quickly and with agility. |
# | Title | Skills | Learning Objectives |
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Unit 2 | Acrobatic Skills | In this unit, youth will practice controlling their body as they twist, spin, roll and balance. | |
1 | Dance Relay | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will create dance steps and combinations as a form of physical activity and artistic communication. |
2 | Dance Surprise | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will use their creativity to come up with a dance challenge for their whole Club to learn. |
3 | Yoga Sequences | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will practice their balance and coordination skills. |
4 | Human Obstacle Course | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will build balance and coordination while also engaging in communication, problem-solving and building relationships with others. |
5 | Teaching Yoga | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Building off of the previous session where teens learned a yoga sequence, teens practice balance and coordination skills, discuss ways to manage their emotions, and develop their own yoga sequence to teach to others. |
# | Title | Skills | Learning Objectives |
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Unit 3 | Hand Skills | In this unit, youth will be introduced to using their hands to send, receive and control a ball. | |
1 | Team Four Square Volleyball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will practice volleyball game skills (e.g., bump, set, spike) in a cooperative, skill-building environment. |
2 | WallyBall | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will use hand striking and defensive skills while developing perseverance and teamwork. |
3 | Sitting Volleyball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will use hand striking and defensive skills while seated as they try an adapted sport. |
4 | Nine-Square Volleyball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will use volleyball skills to keep the ball in the air. Members will use hand skills while developing perseverance and impulse control. |
5 | Very Important Passer (VIP) | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will create space passing and receiving an object with their hands while working together and communicating as a team. |
6 | Space Invaders | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will practice throwing with power and accuracy. |
7 | Hungry Hippo Handball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will control objects with their hands while using offensive and defensive tactical skills to collect as many points as possible. Members also develop teamwork, empathy and perseverance. |
8 | Three Downs | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will practice catching, throwing and moving into an open space while being defended. |
9 | Circle Dodgeball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will practice throwing and dodging with the goal of staying in the middle of the circle for as long as possible. Members will develop stress management and impulse control skills. |
10 | Basket Dodgeball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will practice dodging to develop perseverance skills and work to identify and solve problems. |
11 | Defend the Line | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will practice dribbling and passing an object with their hands while being defended against. |
# | Title | Skills | Learning Objectives |
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Unit 4 | Foot Skills | In this unit, youth will be introduced to using their feet to send, receive and control a ball. | |
1 | One-Base Kickball | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will strike an object with their feet in a fielding game to score runs. Members also develop teamwork and perseverance. |
2 | Danish Rounders | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will build skills in striking a ball with feet (kicking) in a fielding game to score runs. |
3 | Base Capture | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Members will strike an object with feet in a fielding game to score points and selfselect difficulty to increase confidence. Members also develop teamwork and perseverance. |
4 | Triangles in Motion | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will build skills in passing and trapping with feet while moving to create space, working together to communicate as a team. |
5 | Counting Kicks | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will build skills in striking an object with feet (kicking) and passing with accuracy. |
6 | Kicking War | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will build skills in passing and trapping with feet with accuracy while transitioning to defending one’s own goal. |
# | Title | Skills | Learning Objectives |
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Unit 5 | Stick Skills | In this unit, youth will be introduced to using an object such as a racquet, bat or hockey stick to send, receive and control a ball. | |
1 | Partner Hockey | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will practice striking an object with an implement while working together with a peer. |
2 | Around the World | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will take turns hitting a ball with a hockey stick and rotating after each successful hit to ensure every member gets to play. |
3 | Hockey Collection | Movement Skills
Social-Emotional Skills
| Teens will build striking and defensive skills while also developing teamwork and communication. |
BGCA offers a range of developmentally appropriate Sports and Recreation programs to serve youth of all age groups.
Middle Childhood Ages 6-9 |
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Late Childhood Ages 10-12 |
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Early Adolescence Ages 13-15 |
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Teen Ages 16-18 |
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Other resources include Taking a Club-Wide Approach to Healthy Eating: A Resource Guide for Staff and Leadership. Find these titles using the search bar on BGCA.net.
Active kids become active adults. Research indicates that young people with better-developed movement skills are more likely to be physically active, and youth who are physically active are more likely to be adults who are physically active. Many young people (and adults) do not have the fundamental movement skills and levels of fitness to feel comfortable with physical activity. Daily Challenges is built to specifically address these gaps and build a young person’s physical literacy. Physical literacy is the ability, confidence and desire to be physically active. Programs from around the world built with physical literacy help youth get comfortable with a wide variety of movement skills, and also build their enthusiasm for physical activity and sports.
Daily Challenges gives youth the building blocks for an active life to emerge as strong, healthy young adults. The program provides age-appropriate skill-building activities that cover the breadth of movements including:
In addition, Daily Challenges addresses social, cognitive and emotional factors that influence a young person’s desire to be physically active, and intentionally includes demonstration of good character and fair play in all sessions.
The benefits of Daily Challenges go beyond physical activity – they benefit the whole child. Young people who are active have improved performance in the classroom and in life. The Aspen Institute, an educational and policy studies organization, reports that physically active children:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that youth who participate in physical activity programs have:
In short, by providing youth with an outlet to experience joyful physical activity, Daily Challenges helps youth develop healthy attitudes and lifestyles that they will carry into adulthood.