Supplies
- Tennis balls or other objects of similar size
- Cones or other markers
Description
Students work in teams to get as many yellows on their side as possible.
How to Play
- Prep work: Place all the balls in hula hoops at one side of the space, and put one empty hula hoop for each team on the other side of the space to indicate where teams should start.
- Put students into teams of eight to ten, and have each team line up behind one of the empty hula hoops.
- The goal for each team is to get as many balls in their empty hula hoop before time runs out.
- The first student in each line races to the balls, places one ball between their knees and waddles back to their team’s hula hoop.
- If a student drops the ball or uses their hands while waddling, they must pick it up and go back to where they started and try again.
- Once the student drops their ball off in their team’s hula hoop, the next student in line goes.
- This continues until time is up or until there are no more balls left.
- Have teams count their balls and announce a winner.
- Play as many times as time allows, switching up teams, changing times, changing the order of lines, or changing the distance they must waddle.
Activity Prompts for Reflection
- What is something you did during this activity that you are proud of?
- What’s a mistake you made during this activity?
- If we played this game again, what would you do differently?
- What helped you remain in control during this activity?
Other Ways to Play
- Have a variety of different balls to pick from. Assign points to the different balls, making the smaller balls worth more points. Students can choose what ball to take with them.
- Instead of having all the balls together, have a designated hula hoop with balls for each team.
- If you don’t have enough hula hoops, use buckets or bins instead.
- Instead of using balls, use inflated balloons inside of the hula hoops.
Additional Notes
- Use the SEL Activity Prompts to tie other SEL competencies to this activity.