Promoting FairPlay in Your Classroom and School

Teacher Notes

The following activities and ideas are based on and adapted from the Sport and Recreation NZ FairPlay Manual. They are designed for immediate classroom use. Teachers are encouraged to apply the ideals of fair play to everyday classroom situations and managemet. The following unit is cross curriculum - Language/Health/The Arts


Health & Physical Education Strands

• Relationships with Other People

• Healthy Communities & Environments

Essential Skills

• self management
• competitive
• communication
• problem solving
• social
• co-operative

The Five Ideals of FairPlay

  1. Respect the rules
  2. Respect the officials and their decisions
  3. Respect your opponent/s
  4. Give everybody an equal chance to participate
  5. Maintain your self-control at all times

Activity One … Playing By the Rules
  • Have the class observe a group of 4-5 players playing a simpleboard game such as snakes and ladders or scrabble.

  • Pre - arrange with one or two of the players explaining what you are trying to do and instruct them to ‘not play by the rules’ at times eg in scrabble,
- if they don’t like their letters they can change them at any time
- they can change the letters of other players words to suit their own words …
  • Conclude the game quickly after the obvious reactions and ask groups to brainstorm and report back on the following …
- why do we have rules when we play games?
- why do we have rules in our classroom?
- why do we have rules at home?
  • Ask the students to speculate on the possible outcomes and consequences of the following … The Government suddenly announces that we are now able to choose what side of the road to drive on and/or we no longer have to stop at traffic lights.

  • Through discussion, lead students to see that not only do we need rules for playing fairly with others, but also we need rules/laws for personal safety.


Activity Two … The Language of FairPlay
  • In groups, have students brainstorm a list of words, phrases and mideas that have to do with fair play when playing games or sports.
  • Introduce the idea of a ‘FairPlay Code’. Have each group select the best 5-10 ideas that they think should be part of a FairPlay code for the class. Present ideas and have the class vote on what will be part of the classroom/school FairPlay code.


Activity Three … Ideas to Promote FairPlay
  • Display the FairPlay code on a bulletin board in the classroom. Point out to the students that FairPlay also needs regular practice to make it work.

Enact the following as dramas and suggest ways of resolving each situation

  1. A student ‘loses his cool’ and argues with a softball umpire when he is given out.

  2. One student has been told that she is not allowed to play a game.

  3. People in your touch team purposely never pass the ball to a team member because he/she is not considered good enough.
  • Design and display posters around promoting fair play.

  • Interview a sports coach about how they teach fair play.

  • Debate. ‘The most important thing in sport is winning’.

  • Cut out a short newspaper sports article and rewrite it to emphasise FairPlay by the participants.

  • Write a special fair play code for a sport or game that you particularly like.

  • Find out how your local regional sports trust promotes fair play.

For dozens more activities and ideas use your KiwiSport FairPlay Manual.



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