Crazy basketball

This is a just-for-fun type game I used to round up my basketball unit.  My 5th and 6th grade students had fun with it and it scaled the competitiveness down for my more timid students.

Each team had 2 lists, 6 types of balls, and two die.  One list had 6 possible choices of where to shoot the ball.  The other had 6 possible types of ball they could use.  Person 1 rolled the first die and selected the matching ball.  Then they rolled the second die to find where they would be shooting the ball.  They would then attempt to make that shot.  If they missed, the same shot/ball selection went to the next person on the team.  Repeat until the shot was made.  Once a team member made the shot, the next person up would roll again and the team began attempting the next shot.  I had a scoreboard in the middle where they would run and add their points as shots where made.  Shots were worth 2 points except for the 3 point option that was worth 3 points.

Example of lists:

1. pig                                                              1.  corner shot

2. basketball                                                 2.  free throw line

3.  small foam ball                                        3.  middle lane (inside key)

4.  mini kick ball                                         4.  3 point line

5.  football                                                    5.  lay-up

6.  dodgeball                                               6.  free choice

*note:  “pig” referred to some rubber pigs that I have.  My students always love mixing them into a game; they are just funny.  However, we ended up taking them out of this game because they just kept getting stuck in the net.  I changed #1 to “free choice”.

Review:  I liked that the game reinforced some of the court positions.  Some of my students still didn’t know what a lay-up was, so it gave me a chance to do some re-teaching where it had been missed.  I also liked the team factor as the students worked well together and had fun.  The negative was that it didn’t get them moving as much as I usually like to do and it encouraged some bad shooting form when using alternate types of balls.