Challenge your group to this fun game to build community, awareness and team work! The Game of the Week is… Ball Toss Race! Practice until you can do it in the shortest amount of time, add more balls, or add water balloons for some summer time play!
Before You Start:
Have the group get into a circle and have one or more balls ready.
How To Play:
- The leader will begin by throwing, rolling, or bouncing a ball (depending on the age and skill level) to another player while saying the other person’s name loudly. Explain that it is very important to remember who you have passed the ball to.
- Keep passing the ball around the circle so that everyone has received the ball one time. You can have students sit down once they have received the ball, so make sure nobody gets it twice.
- When the last person gets the ball have them pass it back to you.
- Now without the ball, see if you can go around the circle and say in order the names of the people you will pass to.
- Once students have that, try it with the ball and see how fast they can go.
Mid-point questions:
• Who has an idea for how to get the ball to everyone more quickly?
• What do you think about adding a second ball?
• Shall we time ourselves and then try to beat our time?
Closing questions:
• What do you think this game teaches? Is it fun?
• Can you think of anything that would make this game better?
Variations:
- To make the game more interesting you can add more balls and balls of different sizes.
- Catch and Throw Style (K-2): Have the students form a circle around the leader. The leader can then pass the ball to each player in the circle. When the student catches the ball everyone in the class yells out that student’s name. Go around in a circle until everyone has a turn, then randomly pass the ball and see how fast they can go.
