Elementary Games
Scooter Soccer
Equipment: a soccer ball, indoor soccer nets or cones and as many little scooter boards as there are players
Playing area: In the gym
Objective of the game: To hit the ball with your feet passed the goalie and score more times than the other team
Game play: The game starts with a coin toss. The winning team starts with the ball at the center of the gym. The players sitting on their scooter board, hit the ball with their feet. They pass it between each another while wheeling around to position them in a scoring opportunity and kick it passed the goalie
Rules:
- Every player must sit and stay on their scooter board
- Players use their feet to pass the ball to other players
- Players can’t grab the ball, just hit it with their feet
- Goalies can use their feet and hands but must remain on their scooter boards ( a variation if it’s too easy to score is that the goalie doesn’t have to be on a scooter board)
Soccer baseball ( Kickball)
Equipment: soft rubber ball, 4 bases or cones
Playing area: grass field
Objective of the game: to run to all the bases and score more runs than the other team
Game play: spit the kids up into 2 groups and designate one as the kickers and one as the fielders. The kickers’ then get pitched the ball by the teacher or other student. The kickers kick the ball and try and run around the bases before the other team tags them out.
Rules:
- When the kickers kick the ball they must run and touch all the bases before scoring a run
- If the ball is caught by the opposing team the runner is out
- The teams change positions when all the player have taken a turn
- Every player goes until they kick the ball there is no outs or balls
Secondary Games
Ultimate Frisbee
Equipment: 1 Frisbee and 8 cones
Playing area: A large grass field (soccer field) cones are places at the 4 corners and at approx ¼ of the field length from the goal line at each end.
Objective of the game: to pass the Frisbee across the opponents’ goal line and have it caught by your team to score a point. Goal is to have more points that the other team at the end of the game ( timed or to 15 points)
Game play: the defensive team throws the Frisbee to the offensive team. Both teams are standing on their goal lines. The offensive team can catch or let the Frisbee hit the ground and then pick it up. The offensive team throws the Frisbee to other players on their team and tries to
Rules:
- You can’t move when you have the Frisbee
- If the Frisbee is caught by the other team, is thrown out of bounds, blocked, deflected and hits the ground it considered a turnover and the defense becomes the offense
- Defense cannot hit the offensive player with the Frisbee, they can only try and block or deflect it when the offensive player tried to throw the Frisbee
- There is no physical contact in this game for safety reasons
- The Frisbee must be caught in the goal area before it hits the ground to score a point
- Once a team scores the Frisbee is turned over to the opposing team
Orbs of the Monarch
This game is a a dodge ball variant that was created by yours truly. If you have any suggestions on how to make the game better , please comment to assist in making this a game that others can play and enjoy.
Playing area: In the gym
Objective of the game:
- Place one of the three orbs in each of the pedestals in the center of the court by the king or Queen
Equipment:
- 6 large gator dodge balls (one colour)
- 3 smaller balls ( one colour)
- 3 smaller balls( another colour then the other 3)
- 2 indoor hockey nets
- 8 cones ( dependant on size of gym)
- 3 Hula hoops
Players:
- 2 kings (male)
- 2 Queens (female)
- Minimum of 4 Knights per side
Boundaries: The basketball court lines all around ( half court and sideways if court is too big)
- Knights have to stay within the castle section up to the cones on their side
- Kings and Queens can travel anywhere up to the center line on their side of the court
Starting the Game:
- King and Queen start in the castle and the knights start touching the baseline wall
- The yellow balls are placed 3 aside at the knights boundary line
- The orbs start in the teams castle
Rules and strategic implications:
- Kings and Queens are the only ones that can handle the 3 orbs and place them in the pedestals in the vault at center court (This rule makes the knights on the team work together to formulate offensive and defensive strategy)
- Kings and Queens can carry and use both the orbs and yellow balls ( gives more scoring opportunity if strategy is used)
- If a King or queen is struck while in possession of an orb, it is dropped in the place where they were hit ( Makes the game more difficult for the last royal to collect the dropped orb. Adds to the difficulty)
- The hockey nets are the castles and protect the King and Queen, Knights cannot use the castle for protection ( gives protection to the valuable kings and queens)
- The castles can be moved anywhere within the knights playing area but must be done by 2 knights grabbing both sides of the net and moving it , while still trying to protect the King and Queen. If one of the knights that is moving the castle is hit and leaves the game, then the castle must stop movement until another knight takes the other side of the net ( increases strategy in the game)
- Knights can only use the yellow balls ( Makes for more strategy and critical thinking)
- You can pass yellow balls among knights , queens, and kings on your team
- Kings and queens can pass orbs between each other on one team
- No head shots! If you hit someone in the head you are out ( this rule is for safety of the players)
- When collecting balls that have gone outside of the playing area you can only take the ones that land on your side of the court. Once you have collected the ball you must return to the baseline wall, touch it and the return into the game. ( by heading to the back wall it gives opportunity for the other players to know that they are coming back into the game. This only happens when the court is too big)
- If one team monopolizes the yellow balls and the other team has none then a reset is called and the balls are placed back into the starting position ( makes the game fair when one team is down players by eliminating a ball monopoly)
- If a ball is thrown at you and you catch it, then the person that threw the ball is out -applies to Kings Queens and Knights ( Gives opportunity to a defender to become the attacker if they can use their skill and catch a moving object)
- If you have a ball in hand you can deflect other balls being thrown at you ( this rule creates defensive and offensive opportunity and creates passing.
- Kings and Queens can deflect with orbs ( Makes it a bit easier for the king or queen to use the ball towards their advantage while defending or attacking)
Suggestions for improvement:
- Start the kings and queens at the center of the court so they have to run back to their castle and then get their orbs. This would be to eliminate the possibility of them taking all the orbs and placing them on the pedestals before the knights on the other team have a chance to get a ball to tag them out.
- Create 6 pedestals instead of 3. Instead of 3 pedestals at the center of the court , place 3 at both ends of the court, in front of the castles. So in order to score you would have to penetrate deeper into the opposing teams’ defensive zone. This would create a larger degree of difficulty to the game making the players change their strategies and tactics in order to score.
The model of Teaching Games for Understanding Comes from the idea of teaching the game first, developing game appreciation, tactical awareness, helping the kids to make decisions and then learning the necessary skills involved in the game to raise performance. The TGFU approach is probably best described by Bunker and Thorpe’s explanation of the model. They describe the model as a “game centered games teaching where the WHY of game playing is taught before the HOW of skills to play the game. This process involves teaching children a modified or simplified game that is suitable for their physical, social and mental development. In such a game children gain an appreciation for the demands of an adult game. This appreciation invites the children to realize tactical awareness of how to play a game to gain an advantage over their opponents. With such a tactical awareness children are capable of making appropriate decisions about "what to do" and "how to do it." For children, increased decision making encourages them to become more aware of the possibilities innate in their game playing. This awareness leads to more meaningful learning for children as they enter into practice situations to develop either a technical or a strategic manoeuvre practiced to gain a tactical advantage”(Bunker and Thorpe, 1986). There are 4 different categories that are involved in the model that Bunker and Thorpe just described: Target, Batting/fielding, Net/Wall, and Invasion/Territory. For this model and each of its 4 categories there are things called tactical problems. Tactical problems are areas of a game that need to be practiced to increase efficiency at the sport. There are 3 components to tactical problem that impact their understanding of the game that they play, these components are space of the object in play and the special awareness of others and game boundaries, the timing of movement and how to create more of it, and the force that would be need to be applied to an object or player in the game. 
