Part of Lesson Plan: FFA: Creating My Plan for Success "myPLAN"

Activity Overview / Details

Instructor will either assign groups and post them before students enter or arrange desks (if applicable) into groups of 4-5. Each group will be given a small puzzle kit. Instruct students to leave all materials where they sit until you give the instructions. Make sure that one group has a picture to the puzzle, one group has a picture to the WRONG puzzle and the rest of the groups have no picture at all. Tell students "When I say go, you will be timed on how fast you can put the puzzle together on your desk...GO!" You may end the activity when the first team wins or continue on for some time to focus on the difficulties of the groups with no or the wrong picture. Have a prize available to the winners (candy bars for example). When you end the activity, ask students to share how the activity went, what was good/bad? Why did some groups finish faster than others? Be sure to point out that not everyone had the picture or PLAN available to them. These groups likely struggled. Make the connection that having a plan generally leads to more success. "Thank you for your level of competition in the puzzle activity. As we have seen having a plan is important to our success, and it can't just be any plan as a couple of the groups found (the ones with the wrong picture). Over the last few days, we have explored the history, benefits, and reasons for being an FFA member. Today, we are going to make sure that you are successful in your FFA career over the next 4 years, so you have success rather than frustration--this all begins with a good PLAN!