Re: Help me with 7th and 8th grade gym!

Justin M

Posted on 11/10/09

More | Report Post

On 11/08/09, the kids are complaining and i don't blame them!
wrote:
> Here's my story:
>
> I am teaching 7th and 8th grade gym this year, and I'm in a
> pretty small gym (we don't have an outside area.) My
> resources are very limited: a few small sponge balls, a
> couple rubber balls, a few volleyballs (but no net), a few
> basketballs (maybe one has air), and some frisbee disks
> things. I don't have money to go out and buy equipment,
> nor will my school reimburse me if I did. All that said,
> the kids are pretty bored with the stuff we've been
> doing...like knock-out, running, and kickball. I need some
> new ideas that they will not groan about.
>
> Also, if you have any tips on grading gym, please share!
> Thanks so much!

Hi there. Here are some possible ideas for you.

- Sponge balls are not terribly exciting, but they are usually
safe, so a couple things you can do is make a cross curricular
plan where you have the students answer a question (subject
based or something crazy), and they can throw the ball at a
target on the wall (Which can be paper or anything), then award
a point based on which target they hit or give 1 point for
trying. Another idea may be too young for 8th graders but is a
quick team building exercise. Divide the class into team and
have them pass the ball to the next person before running down
to the other end of the line (essentially moving the line).
First team to move to a certain point wins.

Basketball - if only 1 is good, you can have the players make a
circle and then put 1 in the middle. The players on the outside
practice bounce passes to other players around the circle and
the one in the middle attempts to intercept it. IF they do,
switch places with the one who passed the ball.

Frisbee - now based on how much room, you could do some sort of
Frisbee golf game. Or if they are rugged enough disperse them
across the gym floor and play a musical chairs spoof where you
call out a color and they have to put a foot on the right
color. The ones who are "out" can sorta be like the sharps from
freeze tag and try to catch players moving to the frisbees.

Hope this helps.

Justin

Educational Resources

Posts on this thread, including this one