Physical Activity at School - Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU)

Instructions:

1. Divide the class into 2 teams. A soft bat, a sponge ball, and a tee will be used.
2. Have Team A (Visitors) pick one player to go up to bat. The rest of team is touching the wall (the "dugout"). Once their player hits the ball off the "tee", the rest of the team runs to the centre of the gym and huddles in a circle.
3. Set up bases around each corner of the gym (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and home). Use pylons for the bases or actual bases. The bases may need to be taped down to prevent students from slipping. Set up the tee at home plate for the first batter up to hit.
4. Once the batter hits the ball, he/she must run to his team and run around them as many times as possible while Team B fields the ball. Each circle around the team counts as one run.
5. Once Team B fields the ball, they must get it passed either directly or indirectly to first base. The ball must be passed in order to all the bases until it reaches the home plate. In passing the ball, the "catcher" cannot run with it, but must pivot on one foot to pass the ball.
6. The idea is to use as many of your team players as possible so that the passes can be shorter and more accurate.
7. Once the ball reaches the home plate, the "catcher" or last person to catch the ball yells, "STOP!"
8. This will indicate to Team A that they are to stop counting runs and that the last run they acquired is the total number of runs they gained on that particular hit.
9. Team A will have 3 students bat before switching and allowing Team B to hit.
10. Decide how many innings or points you want your class to go up to depending on how much time is available.

• Objective: To gain as many runs as possible while the opposing team tries to pass the ball quickly and accurately to all the bases.
• Rules:
  • The ball must make it to all the bases in order before reaching home base.
  • The players at each base must have their foot touching the base/pylon when they catch the ball.
  • Players that are huddled in the circle must help the batter count how many runs he/she is making while the ball is being fielded and passes around to home plate.
• Safety:
  • Use a sponge ball and bat to reduce chance of injury.
  • Before allowing pitcher to pitch ball, make sure all students are in the ready position and are prepared to receive the ball at any time.
  • Make sure the gym is clear of all obstacles (besides the bases or pylons).

Questions:

Q. How can you get the ball to the bases quickly and accurately?
Q. Where would you try to hit the ball to in order to score the most runs?
Q. How did you communicate with your team players?

Safety:

1. Ensure there are no obstacles on the gymnasium floor and that the floor is not wet or slippery.
2. Make sure students are aware that they must be alert at all times to avoid being hit by a ball or from being run over by another player.
3. Use lightweight equipment to prevent injury.

Modifications:

1. For the warm-up, make the ball larger or smaller to increase or decrease the difficulty level respectively. You can also make the playing area smaller to decrease the level of difficulty (regarding throwing and catching), but this will increase the difficulty of players to run away from the catchers/throwers.

Q. What happens when you change the size of the ball? Why is it harder/easier?

2. For the "T-ball to the wall" activity, have the student state to the rest of their group where they were aiming the ball before actually hitting it. For the "Expanding Railroad" activity, instead of having students run to the end of the line to help the railroad grow, have students do knee up jogging, skipping, hopping and/or side stepping.
3. For students who cannot run, jog, hop, etc., assign them a partner to stand beside them who will do their running while they do the throwing and catching.

Q. Did you do anything when you had to state in advance where you wanted the ball to go?
Q. For the railway activity, what would you have done to make it to the other wall faster?
Q. How did having your knees up while jogging, hopping, skipping, and side stepping affect your ability to make it to the end of the line? Why?

4. To make the modified game more challenging, have the teams throw to a different base when starting a new inning. For example, in Inning 1, both teams would have to throw to 1st base first then 2nd, 3rd, and home before the ball can go anywhere else. In Inning 2, have students throw to 2nd base then 3rd, 1st, and home first before the ball can go anywhere else. In addition, you could add in a pitcher to make the hitting more challenging. Play outside for a bit of fresh air and for variety.

Q. What does switching the throwing order force you to do? (Possible answers: forced to concentrate, forced to be aware of surroundings and where people are all the time).