Many children don't have upper-body strength to support themselves on our wall, which has only handholds. But they can travel some distance if another child helps by holding their ankles. The wall has only handholds because Peterson is finding that many of today's children need to build upper-body strength. A t other times, Peterson's classes look similar to Amy Thompson's. Peterson sets up a maze of colorful six-inch markers and puts on a tape by legendary soul musician Wilson Pickett.
Students gallop and skip through the maze to the music.
Then Peterson connects the markers with wands, making them into hurdles, and the kids explode over the jumps with glee. B ack in Thompson's room, a third-grade class is discussing what to represent next. They decide on a bulldozer, and with no help from Thompson they quickly assemble themselves into a hooked shape that will grind its gears and scoop vigorously. The student who has waited outside will come in and guess what her classmates have become. They, too, think they're just having fun.