Aim

To practice hand dribbling skills and to build cooperative strategy skills.

Some ball control ability to dribble with one hand or bounce with two hands.

Equipment Require

Intermediate sized basketballs (or rubber ball that bounces) for every team of students; 1-2 foam building blocks or 1-2 various pieces of equipment (e.g. Frisbees, poly spots, foam noodles, foam dice, foam sticks, foam paddles, etc) for each student.

Description

Designate areas for teams to build their own structures or artworks (inside a hula hoop or inside a 2 jump ropes, etc).

Have students gather in small groups of 4-6 in their designated building area of the gym. Place foam building blocks in buckets or hula hoops in the center of the gym. Alternatively, place various pieces of gym equipment in the center.

Have each team select the type of ball they prefer to dribble by hand. On the teachers signal to begin, 1 member of each team dribbles to the center of the gym to pick up a foam building block or piece of gym equipment. The student continues dribbling with the block/piece back to the team’s designated area of the gym. The other students are practicing dribbling in place while waiting for other dribblers to return.

Each team chooses 1) what they would like to build, 2) what pieces they will need and 3) who they will send to get them.

While the students are dribbling to gather building materials the teacher can observe students’ abilities to dribble and how fairly the students cooperate in each team. The building concludes with teachers’ timed signals.