Learning through creativity

Organisation

• Organise small teams of six to eight and set up a relay course
• The players can be in lines or patterns and you can choose different ways for them to run through cones or obstacles while balancing, carrying, walking with or dribbling a ball
• Be creative, adapt to the players’ abilities and make it a race to keep it fun and exciting. Remember: children love to be challenged!
• Ask the players to do the exercise wearing a marker/cone on their heads as if it were a helmet

Ways to make the exercise easier

• Keep the challenges simple, like holding the ball in one hand or above their head without dropping it while moving through the course

Ways to make the exercise harder 

• Increase the speed of the activity
• Increase the physical challenge by introducing different movements (e.g. hopping, jumping, skipping)
• Add extra balls or make the challenge more difficult

Great questions to ask the players 

• What was it like to do the exercise with a marker/cone on your head?
• What happens if you try to go too fast?
• Can you race the other teams and make lots of noise when you finish?

Safety tips 

• Create a safe space to play

Organisation

• Make four teams and a square playing area
• Each team starts in a corner and has a ball
• As the players move from one corner to another, challenge them to move or carry the ball in different ways
• Be creative, adapt to the players’ abilities and make it a race to keep it fun and exciting. Remember: children love to be challenged!
• Make it a relay race; the players take it in turns to go around the whole square

Ways to make the exercise easier

• Let the players decide how to move the ball from one corner to another

Ways to make the exercise harder 

• Ask the players to perform a skill while running between each corner
• Only allow the players to use their feet

Great questions to ask the players

• Can you copy the previous player?
• Can you keep your ball under control at all times?
• Can you manage not to drop your ball?

Safety tips

• Create a safe space to play
• Make sure that only one player from each corner completes the circuit at a time

Organisation

• Two teams of 4v4 play against each other and try to score by receiving the ball in the four corner areas
• Vary the corners in which the players can score. Start with two at each end and then progress to diagonal or opposite corners
• Each variation will ask different skills of the players. Every time a pass is received in the corner, a point is scored, and the waiting team can keep score
• The first team to five points wins; then, rotate the teams

Ways to make the exercise easier 

• Start the game by playing throw and catch

Ways to make the exercise harder

• Only allow the players to use their feet
• A strong team can have fewer players

Great questions to ask the players 

• Can you try to find players on your own team when you make the pass?
• Can you run into a corner ready to receive a pass?
• Can you call your team-mate when you are in a position to receive the ball?

Safety tips

• Create a safe space to play