Lesson Plans
Navigation Games has lesson plans for two settings: schools and camps. The activities are largely the same. What changes is the context.
What's the same
The same activities appear in both settings. Animal-O, Map Walk, Score-O, Symbol Relay, and the rest work anywhere. The maps, checkpoints, and kits are identical.
The teaching philosophy is the same. Knowledge builds over time and gets reused: students who learn to check codes, orient the map, and read symbols in early activities apply those skills in more complex ones later. Learning is experiential. Students do an activity, then reflect on it ("Was it easier the second time? Why?"), and that reflection turns experience into skill and builds belief that they can navigate. Accuracy matters more than speed, and struggling is part of learning.
We also care about more than orienteering itself. The activities are a chance to build collaboration, problem-solving, growth mindset, and connection to nature.
What's different
Schools have shorter class periods, with setup and teardown eating into that time. A teacher may run multiple grades through the same arrangement in a single day.
Students in a class span a range of abilities. The curriculum handles this through its progression: simpler tasks give early success; harder variations challenge students who are ready. Students who return year after year move through successive grade bands, each building on the last.
Every teacher brings learning outcomes to consider. The curriculum aligns to SHAPE America PE standards and connects to geography, math, and spatial reasoning.
Camps tend to have longer sessions and more outdoor space, often including wooded areas. This opens up activities that schools rarely have room for: longer courses, terrain navigation, and compass work. Counselors see the same group every day for a week or more. Camps are rarely held to formal academic learning outcomes, so the emphasis shifts toward character development: independence, resilience, collaboration, and connection to the outdoors.
The programs
Teaching from these plans
We are prescriptive only to take the mystery out of teaching for newcomers, not to insist on the exact wording or sequence. Try the first activity or two and see how it feels. You are welcome to ask our Lesson Plan Advisor to combine your reflections from each day of teaching with your original game plan, and work out together how to adapt the curriculum as you go.