Fun Sports Games

Objectives:
- To encourage fair play, sportsmanship, teamwork and communication

- Teaching participants about sport through active physical activity

- Understanding different learning styles and explaining education
through sport as one of them

Group size: 15-30

Time: 90 minutes

Materials:
- Printed physical activity quiz

- Sport equipment (football balls, volleyball balls etc.)

- Blankets/ table cloth/ small tarp for Blanket Volleyball
- Milk cartons to empty cans for Batty Bowling

1. Physical Activity Quiz (20 minutes)

There is a lot of talk about physical activity these days... how much is
necessary to benefit our health? What kind should we be doing? Find out
how much you know about physical activity with our true-or-false state-
ments. See attachment.

True / False Stand Up Sit Down: Students have to stand up for “true” (or
stay standing up if the previous sentence was true too) and sit down (or
stay sitting down) for false. You can also play the game with other (pos-
sibly sillier) actions like touching parts of your body or standing on your
left or right leg.

2. Fun sports games (60 minutes)

Fun sports games keep your children physically active as well as enter-
tained. These fun sports games emphasize fun and socializing over win-
ning.

Name-It Ball
This sports game is designed to get your child to think fast as well as im-
prove her coordination. Get a group of children into a large circle and
give one of them a ball. Have the child select a category such as «Foot-
ball Teams». On your mark, have the child bounce the ball to another
child in the circle. That child must catch the ball and name out any foot-
ball team that comes to mind. If the child drops the ball, fails to name a
football team or names a show that has already been named, she is elim-
inated from the game.

Blanket Volleyball
This game is just like normal volleyball, but each team is given a
blanket. The team should stand around the edge of the blanket, stretch-
ing it out so it is tight. The 'serving' team should start by placing the ball
on the blanket, loosening then brining it tight so it 'throws' the ball over
the net. The other team then use their blanket to catch the ball then
throw it back.

Tips: the ball can be replaced with water balloons and instead of a blan-
ket you can use a table cloth or small tarp.

Volleyball with Human Net

Play this game with the same rules as volleyball except with 3 teams.
Have 2 teams play against one another while the third team acts as the
net. The "net" team can play a big part in this game as they give a good
twist to an old game. The "net" can take one step in any direction (only
one step) to hit the ball. The "net" can change direction of play at any
time.

Crab Football
Split up into two teams. Each team lines up on one side of a small foot-
ball field, with goals at either end. The goals can be proper goals or two
chairs. The field can be any size - it depends on the size of your group
but it can be half the size of a basketball court.
Players on both teams are assigned a number, starting at "1" on each
team. Put the football ball in the very middle of the field, then have the
umpire call out a number. The team members who have been assigned
the number crab walk to the center and try and kick the ball through for
a goal. When a goal is scored, return the ball to the center and start
again. If the ball gets stuck or you are taking too long, call another num-
ber and the original pair returns to the line. To introduce variety - call
two numbers (meaning 4 kids are playing football).

Batty Bowling
This variation on traditional bowling will improve your child's accuracy
and coordination. Grab items that can be used as bowling pins. They can
range from milk cartons to empty cans, as long as they can stand up on
their own. Place 10 selected items in a triangle formation on a flat sur-
face. From here, walk several feet away and draw a starting line. Volley-
balls, basketballs and any other athletic ball can be used as a substitute
for a real bowling ball. Allow the children to bowl from the start line and
do their best to knock all the pins down.

3. Debriefing and evaluation (30 minutes)

• How did you feel during the games?

• Did you enjoy the games?
• What game did you like/dislike the most?
• What did you like/dislike about it?
• Did you learn something anything during this activities?