Equipment - one dowel rod for every 2 students. Dowel rods should be approximately 18" long and 3/4"-1" in diameter.

Grade Level - 4-12

Students should find a partner. Have each partner group hold a dowel rod between them at about waist high level. Each partner group should face each other and stand shoulder to shoulder with another partner group. You can split the class up into small partner groups (3-5) or group the entire class together. The formation will appear as a "ladder" with the students being the rails, and the dowel rods being the rungs.

One student will then attempt to walk across the "ladder." The walker should be instructed not to stay on any one rung for a long amount of time, but the walker also should not run.

One variation on this is to have the pairs at the beginning of the ladder move to the end of the ladder as soon as their "rung" has been walked. This will make a never-ending ladder.

This activity promotes cooperative behavior, and also allows students to rely on others. Safety is of utmost importance. Any student who does not perform his/her duties as part of the ladder should be removed. In three years of using this activity in my classes, I have only had to remove one student. My middle school students absolutely loved this activity