On a rainy day, physical education teacher James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 to keep his students active indoors. One hundred and twenty years later, it is one of the most popular American sports. Millions of little girls and boys dream of becoming basketball stars. Imitating the stars, children begin dribbling and shooting, but the days of fancy handwork and slam dunks are far; first come the basics. And what better way to learn the basics than a great game! One of the playground, a shooting skills builder, the Game of the Week is… Around the World!
Group Size: Any size
Grades 1-2
Grades 3-5
10 minutes or more
To provide an opportunity to practice the basic skills for traditional basketball.
Basketballs
Chalk
Cones
Skills Practiced: Shooting, rebounding and catching.
Equipment needed: One Basketball, a basketball hoop, and chalk or cones.
- Explain the rules of the game.
- Demonstrate how a player moves to the next marker and shoots again after a successful shot.
- Demonstrate how a player, after missing their shot, moves under the basket and rebounds the ball for the next player.
- Ask the students to explain the game back to you.
- Line players up behind first cone/chalk mark.
- The first student (#1) shoots from the first spot. If s/he makes the basket, s/he advances and shoots from the next spot. The same player continues around the markers until a basket is missed.
- After #1 misses, s/he goes under the basket and rebounds the ball for player #2.
- Player #2 rebounds the ball for player #3, etc.
- Player #1 returns to the end of the line.
- When all other players have had turns, Player #1 returns to the last place s/he made a basket and continues as before from that spot.
- A player is finished when s/he has successfully made baskets all the way around the court.
- Once a player makes it all the way around, they have to go backwards around the circuit.
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