I taught some beginning tossing and catching skills to my kindergarten classes this week. The sequence went smooth and the students had a great time. I began by placing poly spots around the floor and had them all sit on a spot. I then demonstrated tossing a bean bag with one hand and catching it with two hands. I had previously taught them levels for tossing: low is eye level, medium is as high as you can reach, high is towards the ceiling. For this activity, I told them to toss at a medium level. I stressed for them to stay standing on their spot to encourage them to make careful and straight tosses up. After a few minutes of practice, I showed them how to toss, clap hands once, and then catch. They loved trying that one. Next I collected bean bags from every other person and demonstrated tossing underhand to a partner. The cues I taught were: swinging arm straight back, stepping onto opposite leg, ending with throwing hand pointing at partner. More practice time.
For an ending activity we put the bean bags and poly-spots away and played a game called “Clean Your Room”. I have also heard it called “Snowball Fight”. Divide playing space in half. Dump soft yarn or foam balls equally on both halves of the room. I tell the students they are brothers and sisters and the gym is their bedroom that they share. They all want their half of the room to be clean. Class is divided in half and assigned a half of the gym to “clean”. I start some fun music and they try and throw all the balls out of their half of the room. When the music stops, they freeze and see who has the cleanest room. It is crazy and fun! We just played for a couple of minutes, but it was a happy and active way to end the lesson. All classes asked to play it again next week. *tip: I have a rule that they can only touch one ball at a time
The lesson took about 25 minutes. With a 5 minute warm-up it was perfect for a 30 minute class period.