Sports theme ideas

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Home : 2004 : July : 26

Sports theme ideas
By Kristin

I also do a sports theme in my 2nd grade classroom.

I do All-Star Behavior, which is similar to the stop light or card pulling system. The students earn fouls that are posted on their basketball around the room. I also
have used football helmets and penalty flags for 1st down, 2nd down, etc. Another teacher in my school used 3 strikes and baseball.
My job board is a field goal post. Jobs are listen on the uprights. The horizontal bar says "Teamwork." I use clothespins with the students names to point to their job for the day.
I made an ongoing game for the whole year called Football Frenzy. We had

set teams and used this game for all subjects. Students would draw a card that said 5 yards, 15 yards, fumble, interception, etc. I then asked them a question. If they were correct, their team moved that many yards. If not, their team got a down.I even had a nerf ball that they could throw through the goalposts to score an extra point. The kids really loved this game. I'm thinking of adapting it to a basketball game this year. We also play spelling baseball.

This year, my reading corner is going to be "The Dugout" I bought a green rug to look like turf and bought blow up baseball cushions from Oriental Trading Company for the kids to sit on around the room (a dozen was $6.95) They also have basketball, football, and soccer cushions. They were very cheap. I also bought a blow up chair ($4.95) that looks like a glove that I will use as my "Author's Chair" when a student wants to share something that they have written.

I read somewhere about Pigskin Geography. Students have football helmets for their chosen team posted on a US map. Each week, they have to find out how many points their team won or lost by and which direction and distance they had to travel for their game. You could adapt this idea to any grade level. One teacher said that she used the local football team with her first graders each week as a class activity. I'm thinking of adapting it with my 2nd graders to possible have them do it individually as well. Football season could be a warm up for basketball season, whenthey would have to do it more times a week The kids could also get familiar with finding scores on the internet or in the newspaper. They could keep a journal about it.

Hope some of these ideas help. I'm still working on more for this year, so if I get any more, I'll try to post them.

Kristin