Here is a new game I tried with my 5th and 6th graders. It combines skills from several sports and they had a good time playing it. I like activities that can involve all my students without being threatening and this one did that.
Cooperative Handball:
2 teams of 8-10
one team should wear jerseys
set up a chair at each end of the court and mark a box around with cones
Each team spreads out on their half of the playing area, with one person acting as goalie and sitting on the chair on the opposite end. The offensive team gets 2 balls. They need to get their balls to their goalie by passing. The person holding the ball cannot move their feet or it is a traveling call. They pass the ball to other team members to get it down to the goal. The defensive team tries to intercept or swat the ball on a pass. If this is done or the ball hits the floor it is dead. If the ball reaches the goalie, they score a point. I made 2 defensive rules: can’t go into the goal box (marked by cones), and must stay 2 feet away from offensive players. The goalie cannot come off the chair.
Since my classes are big, I had 4 teams of 9. Each offensive team started with 2 balls. When both balls were “dead” (scored a point or hit the floor) we rotated. The offensive team moved to defense and a sideline team rotated in to offense. The game moved fast so there was a rotation every couple of minutes and everyone stayed involved.