Ball Games Writing Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives: To learn new vocabulary. Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Skill: Writing Completion Time: 60 minutes
Age/Level: Secondary
Resources: Ball Games Writing Worksheet,
Ball Games Writing Answer Key, Ball Games
Race Quiz, Ball Games Race Answer Key,
Ball Games Dominoes Game, Ball Games
Miming Warmer

Warm-Up
• Brainstorm sports that need a ball. Write students’ ideas on the board.
• Elicit the following sports if students haven’t suggested them.

football tennis golf cricket American football

basketball volleyball baseball handball table tennis

• Play the miming game as described in the Ball Games Miming Warmer. Mime one of
the games on the board and ask students to guess what sport it is. The student who
correctly guesses can mime the next sport.

Presentation
• Elicit or teach the following verb phrases.

bounce a ball throw a ball catch a ball kick a ball

hit a ball run with a ball touch a ball drop a ball

• Play the miming game as described in the Ball Games Miming Warmer. Mime one of
the phrases and ask students to guess what sport it is. The student who correctly
guesses can mime the next sport. Students can continue the game in small groups.
• Hand out the Ball Games Writing Worksheet. Help students to understand the
following vocabulary using pictures, dictionaries, or their own language.

net goal bat racket team

club table hole hoop players

Author: Naomi Styles Page 1/4

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 Ball Games Writing Lesson Plan
• Complete question 1 on the worksheet and check students’ answers. Answers are
available on Ball Games Writing Answer Key.

KEY:
1
a goal
b hole/club
c net
d hoop
e racket
f table
g bat
h players/team

• Ask the students: ‘In tennis, can you kick the ball over the net?’. Elicit ‘You can’t kick the
ball’ and ‘You have to hit the ball with a racket.’
• Ask students to complete question 2 on the worksheet and check students’ answers.

KEY:
2
a can’t
b have to
c can’t
d have to
e can’t
f have to
g can’t
h can’t

• Ask the students to complete question 3 of the worksheet. Check their work individually
as their answers will differ.

KEY:
3
a To play football, you need a ball and two goals.
b To play basketball, you have to throw the ball into the hoop.
c To play tennis, you need a net, a ball and two rackets.

Author: Naomi Styles Page 2/4

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 Ball Games Writing Lesson Plan
d To play baseball, you have to hit the ball with a bat and run.
e In table tennis you can’t throw the ball over the net.
f To play volleyball, you have to hit the ball over the net with your hands.
g To play golf, you need some clubs, a ball and eighteen holes.
h In tennis you can’t kick the ball over the net.

• Ask the students to read question 4 and complete question 5 of the worksheet. Check
answers as a class.

5
a a ball / hoops
b basketball
c into a hoop
d kick the ball / run with the ball

• Although you can go directly on to question 6 of the Ball Games Writing Worksheet,
you may prefer to give students more practice with the language first and give question 6
as homework or as an activity at the end of the lesson.

Practice
• Put students into pairs or groups of three and hand out the sets of words on page 2 of
Ball Games Dominoes Game.
• Tell the students to put the words face down on the table. They can then take six each.
Leave the remainder in a pile.
• Tell the students to put one word from the pile face up in the middle of the table.
• The starting player must choose one word from his hand and put it next to the word on
the table, making a true sentence as he does so. For example, if the word on the table is
bounce, the student could put down basketball and say, ‘You can run and bounce the
ball when you play basketball.’
• After the student has placed his card, he picks up another from the face-down pile.
• The next student can choose the word at either end of the line to make his sentence.
• Students continue until all the words have been used.
• As the students play, monitor their sentences for accuracy.
• Give feedback to correct grammatical errors.

Author: Naomi Styles Page 3/4

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE
 Ball Games Writing Lesson Plan

Closure
• Put students in pairs and hand out the worksheet the Ball Games Race Quiz so that
there is one worksheet for each pair of students.
• Tell students that they have ten minutes to complete as many of the questions as they
can.
• Do the first question as an example for the class, e.g. football and rugby.
• After ten minutes, feed back the students’ answers, and congratulate the team with the
most correct answers.
• Possible answers are available on the Ball Games Race Answer Key.

KEY:
a football/rugby j tennis/badminton
b water polo/octopus* k baseball/cricket
c netball/basketball l ice hockey/curling
d American football/boxing m darts/ultimate frisbee
e tennis/volleyball n snooker/table tennis
f badminton/ice hockey o snooker/darts
g darts/table tennis p football/rugby
h American football/football q netball/basketball
i tennis/badminton r snooker/bowls
*(underwater hockey)

• Set question 6 of the Ball Games Writing Worksheet as homework or do it as an

individual class activity if you have not done it already.

Author: Naomi Styles Page 4/4

© Pearson PHOTOCOPIABLE