1. Cooperative Games
  • Grades 3-5

  • Bean Bags

Development Goal

To develop strategic thinking and teamwork

Before You Start

  • Have the students stand on the boundary line around–this will be the line the “throwers” need to stay behind.
  • Explain the rules of the game.  Emphasize that students must stay behind the boundary line to throw a dodgeball.
  • Review safe dodgeball throwing practices (only throw below the waist)
  • Choose a student to stand in the middle.

Set Up

Can be played outside or in a gym. Place the hula hoop in the center of the playing area with the beanbags nearby, outside of the hula hoop. Create a boundary line around the hula hoop: use chalk, tape or a pre-existing line.

How to Play

  • One player stands in the middle of the play area, near the bean bags and hula hoop.  The other players stand outside the boundary line, with dodgeballs.
  • When play begins, the child in the middle has to take the beanbags between his/her feet and then throw them inside the hula hoop while jumping–no hands allowed.
  • In the meantime, the players must try to hit the player in the middle with the ball. If the ball hits him/her, then the player who hits him/her goes into the middle.
  • The trick is not to be hit while standing in the middle and to try to get the hoop full of bean bags. If the hoop is full, then s/he knocks the hoop out of the way to show the others that s/he has completed one round.

Variations

  • Background on Deweke: Deweke is a children’s street game in Botswana. There, the children try to put crushed cans into a tub without being hit by a homemade ball (likely made out of trash). Adapted from: http://www.2ukids.nl/Pages/Games/africa.html
  • Variation: To make this game more challenging, have players put the beanbags into a crate or box instead of hula hoop.