A PHE warm-up activity featuring throwing and catching balls in a game of tag!
Lesson idea:
The lesson would focus on a team sport, preferably basketball, as it involves throwing and catching a ball. The focus would be on working as a team and movement concepts such as spatial awareness, effort awareness, and relationships with others and objects. This could fall under the Big Idea – “knowing what we enjoy doing and knowing about our opportunities to participate in those activities helps us develop an active lifestyle.” In this case I would be introducing the students to games, team sports, and running, in order for them to get a sense of what interests them in terms of physical activity.
Warm-up Activity:
| Grade: 4
Topic: Team Sports (Basketball) Lesson 4 of 10
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Lesson (warm-up) focus: Throw-and-Catch Tag
Equipment: Two balls (foam) |
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| Learning outcomes: The students will be able to…
– Understand how to be aware of and communicate with one another in games/sports – Throw and catch a ball with increased accuracy |
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| Introductory activity/warm up (5 min):
Throw-and-Catch tag: A variation of freeze tag, with two taggers (can wear pinnies) and two people holding balls. The people holding balls can throw to the frozen people to save them. Once a ball is in your hands, you can toss to someone else who is frozen to save them. If you are about to be caught, you can drop the ball or throw to a classmate.
Good for spatial awareness, communication with others, running, and accuracy in tossing balls. It is a good muscle warm-up as well as an introduction to basketball and team sports. |
Organization:
This is an activity that involves the entire class, using the entirety of the gym (with the outer lines as boundaries).
Diagram (snapshot of activity):
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Teaching Points:
Stay inside the boundaries.
Communicate with who you will toss the ball to (make eye contact!).
Gentle, open-hand tags.
Ask if there are questions before beginning.
Switch taggers halfway to switch it up. |
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Safety concerns:
- Have boundaries, so there is no running into walls
- Talk to the kids about communicating with each other and being spatially aware (so as not to run into each other or throw balls at peoples’ faces)
- Make a rule that you have to make eye contact with the frozen person before tossing the ball
- Use soft foam balls instead of hard balls to avoid injury
Featured Image by Wan San Yip on Unsplash