guided reading cards About Level 27 Cards Only Unusual Sports Caitlin’s Dr Fred Hollows: Rumi and the The Elephant Information Report Swimming Surprise A True Hero Robo-tel and the Blind Men (Informative) Narrative Information Report Narrative Narrative (Imaginative) (Informative) (Imaginative) (Imaginative) Level 28 Cards Review Stop-Motion Preparing for a Night Skies Thunder Phobia The Black Phantom Animation Natural Disaster Information Report Narrative Narrative Procedure Procedural Recount (Informative) (Imaginative) (Imaginative) (Informative)For(Imaginative) Stop-Motion Animation Videos The Tree The Clean Up el 27 PM Lev PM Unusual SportsPhillip Simpson What Is an Unusual Sport? A sport is a competitive physical activity. Some sports are very well known and are played by millions of people around the world. Some sports are more uncommon. A sport is unusual if it requires unusual equipment or if it has odd rules or a unique aim. Some unusual sports are played only in specific places. Unusual Sports There are many different archery competitions for Archery children and teenagers.Only Archery is a sport that uses bows and arrows. There are many kinds of archery practised by people all over the world. The most popular form of competitive archery is target archery. Target archery can be held indoors or outdoors. Indoors, the distance to the target is shorter, ranging from 18 metres to 25 metres. Outdoors, distances range from 30 metres to 90 metres. Competitors have 3 or 6 arrowsReview in each round. They have to fire their arrows within a set time. At the end of each round, the competitors retrieve their arrows, and a new round begins. On the targets, there is a series of rings. Each ring Forhas a number value ranging from 1 to 10, representing how many points it is worth. The closer to the centre the arrow hits, the more points the archer scores. The inner ring, worth ten points, is called the “bullseye”. At the end of the competition, the archers add up the points for all the arrows they shot, and the person with the highest score wins. 1 Only A team competes in the World Women’s Curling Championship. Curling The sport of curling is usually played in places with cold winters, because it is played on ice. It is particularly popular in Canada. In this sport, players push large, round stones along the ice towards a target area, which is called the “house”. Curling stones are made of granite, and have a handle at the top so that they can be grasped. Players wear shoes with good grip, so that they do not slip on the ice. Curling is a team sport. ThereReview are two teams, each with four players. Each team has eight stones. The teams take turns shooting their stones towards the house, and each team member has two shots. The team member who pushes the stone is called the “curler”. The aim of each turn is to get a stone as close as possible to the centre of the house or, alternatively, to knock one of the opposing team’s stones out of the house. The house consists of four circlesFor of increasing size, one inside the other. It looks like a bullseye. Curling stones are extremely heavy, so they move quite slowly. After the curler has pushed the stone towards the house, no one is allowed to touch it. Instead, the other members of the team help to guide it in the right direction by quickly brushing the ice in front with brooms, to make a smooth and easy path. The two players who do this are called “sweepers”. Curling is becoming a more popular winter sport. It has been played at the Winter Olympic Games six times. 2 Caber Tossing The sport of caber tossing is played as part of the Highland Games. The Highland Games are held every year in Scotland, to celebrate Scottish culture. The caber toss is the most famous event in the games. A caber is a long, heavy wooden pole or log, usually made of pine. It is tapered, meaning that it is narrower at one end. Cabers can be many different lengths and weights, but most cabers are about the same size and weight as a telephone pole. The competitor stands the caber upright. They lift the caber and hold it with both hands under the bottom of the pole, allowing it to rest against their body. The competitor then runs forward and tosses the pole end over end. A caber must be tossed so that it flips over and lands on the ground pointing in the same direction that the caber tosser ran. This is called the “12 o’clock” position. The winner is the competitor who lands their toss closest to the 12 o’clock position. How far the caber is tossed is unimportant. Only A caber tosser lifts his caber before throwing it. Review For 3 Only A yukigassen player skids behind a snow block shelter. Yukigassen Yukigassen (say: yoo-ki-GASS-en) is a snowball-fighting game. It was invented in the town of Sobetsu in Hokkaido, Japan. Two teams compete against each other. Each team starts with seven players in the field. Both teams throw snowballs at one another and try to dodge the other team’s snowballs. When a player is hit by a snowball, they are “out”. The game is played on a big,Review flat court covered in snow. There are shelters made of blocks of snow at various points on the court, which the players can hide behind. Each team has a flag on their side of the court. The aim of the game is to capture the other team’s flag without being hit by a snowball or, alternatively, to get every member of the other team “out”. The first team to capture the flag or get all of their opponents out wins the period. The first team to winFor two periods wins the game. Before each period, each team makes 90 snowballs to throw at their opponents. The snowballs are made by a special machine that can quickly make many snowballs of the same size and weight. Players wear helmets with face protectors. Players can hand snowballs to each other during play, or roll them to one another across the court. People play yukigassen in snowy places around the world. Many countries have annual yukigassen tournaments. 4 Fencing Fencing, or formal sword fighting, is a sport that has been played for centuries. Fencing is an individual sport, and competitors face each other one on one. The objective is to score as many points as possible. Competitors score points by touching their opponent with their sword. Today, the points are recorded electronically, because the touches are often too difficult to see. A tone sounds and a coloured light flashes on the scoring machine when a competitor lands a touch. Fencers must wear proper shoes and gloves. They also wear masks, chest protectors and jackets. There are three different kinds of swords they can use: the foil, the épée and the sabre. The foil is a light, flexible blade. Points are scored with the tip, which must touch the torso area. This area includes the shoulders and the back, but not the arms, neck, head or legs. A foil fencer wears a metallic vest (called a “lamè”), which covers the torso. A touch on the lamè will be detected by the scoring machine. The épée (say: EPP-pay) is similar to a foil, but heavier and with a stifferOnly blade. In an épée match, points must be scored with the tip, as with a foil match, but the entire body is a target. The blade has a spring-loaded tip. When it is pressed down, by landing a touch on the opponent’s body, a light on the scoring machine lights up. The sabre is broader than both the foil and the épée. In a sabre match, both the edge of the blade and the point can be used to land touches. The target is the area from the hips to the top of the head. A sabre fencer wears a lamè that covers the torso from the shoulders to the waist, both arms and the back, which records the points. The blades used in fencing are not sharp, and competitors rarely get hurt. Fencing is becoming increasingly popular with children.Review For a fencing match 5 Hurling Hurling is a sport that has been played for over 3000 years. It is 27 Level PM a team sport, played on a large pitch with goalposts at each end. Hurling is played around the world. Players use a stick, or “hurley”, to hit the ball. The ball, or “sliotar”, is roughly the same size as a hockey ball, with raised seams. The hurley and the sliotar are both hard, so players wear helmets. Players can hit the ball while it is on the ground or in the air. A player can use the hurley to pick up the ball and carry it in their hand for four steps. After that, the ball can be bounced on the back of the hand, but it can be caught only twice. Players can also run with the ball balanced on their hurley. Unusual Sports Unusual Sports Around the World Only Many unusual sports are played around the world. Some of them require unusual equipment and some have interesting rules. They all involve physical skill, agility and mental strategy. Most importantly, they are always fun to play. Retell this Information Report Read this information report again. Record yourself as you retell the information report.