Running Through the Forest
Running Through the Forest is a relationship mapping exercise that helps participants build useful connections and understand how people, roles, or ideas relate.
How to run it
- Have students stand on their home bases
- Tell all of the students to imagine that they are not on the yard, but that they are in a forest.
- Explain that the class is going to be explorers going on a walk through the forest using their imaginations.
- Suddenly yell that there is a bear or some kind of predator chasing them and speed the jog to a run.
- Add in the “branches” and the “fallen trees” so that the students are warming up their other muscles as well by jumping and ducking.
- After the students are winded, slow them down again.
- Have students stand on their home bases Tell all of the students to imagine that they are not on the yard, but that they are in a forest.
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Materials:
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Prompts to use +
Have students stand on their home bases
Tell all of the students to imagine that they are not on the yard, but that they are in a forest.
Explain that the class is going to be explorers going on a walk through the forest using their imaginations.
Have students stand on their home bases Tell all of the students to imagine that they are not on the yard, but that they are in a forest.
Run this with your AI assistant +
Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.
Adapt this exercise for my exact room. Exercise: Running Through the Forest. Readiness: Publishable Draft. Core moves: Have students stand on their home bases; Tell all of the students to imagine that they are not on the yard, but that they are in a forest.; Explain that the class is going to be explorers going on a walk through the forest using their imaginations.; Have students stand on their home bases Tell all of the students to imagine that they are not on the yard, but that they are in a forest.. Return a concise facilitator script with timing, wording, safety notes, and remote/in-person adjustments.
Origin unverified
- Where we observed it: The strongest current observations come from Playworks; aggregators are listed as additional observations, not origin proof. (1 source observed, including Playworks.)
- What that means: we track where an exercise has been observed in public sources. We do not claim to know who created it, or how popular it is.
- No efficacy claims: appearing in this library is not a claim that the exercise is proven effective. Facilitator judgment and context decide whether it works for a given room.
- Corrections: if you have evidence of an earlier or more accurate source, read our methodology and trust boundary and tell us.