Are you looking for ways to enhance your soccer unit for students in Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade? These games allow students to practice skills that are essential to soccer success in a fun way! Please use, modify and enjoy these activities with your primary students.
1. Dribble Builders and Bulldozers:
What: Dribble a soccer ball with control.
Why: Dribbling is a fundamental soccer skill that helps improve overall coordination.
How: Students will be able to keep the soccer ball close to them and in good control.
Equipment: Large Cones scattered all over the gym. Half should be standing up, the other half should be laying down. One soccer ball for all students.
Format: Students are split into 2 teams. Have them start on opposite sides of the gym.
How to Play: One group starts off as the builders. They stand up any cone that is laying down after their ball touches it. The other group are the bulldozers: after their ball touches a cone, they tip down any cone that is standing. After 2 minutes, have the students go back to their line without touching a cone. Have the groups change rolls.
2. Ring of Fire:
What: Dribbling the ball using only your feet with light touches.
Why: Dribbling is a fundamental soccer skill that can help improve overall coordination.
How: Students will be able to use only their feet to make the soccer ball go where they want it to go.
Equipment: 1 Hula Hoop and 1 Soccer ball for every student
Format: Students in scattered formation
How to play: Students dribble the soccer ball around the gym. They get 1 point every time they put out the fire by dribbling the ball through a hula hoop. Play for about 2 minutes. Have students shout out the amount of points they got on “3”.
Level 2: Students trap the ball in as many hula hoops as they can to get a point.
Level 3: Students try a pull-back in as many hula hoops as they can to get a point
Level 4: 9 lives – Students apply the skills they just practiced to avoid the hula hoops. They start by building their 9 lives. 9 side to side touches. If their ball touches a hula hoop or the wall, they lose 1 life. They are trying to maintain control and keep as many lives as they can. If they lose all 9 lives. They rebuild their lives with the 9 touches again and start over back at 9.
3. Dribble Island:
What: Students will be able to change speed and direction while controlling the soccer ball with their feet.
Why: Dribbling is a fundamental soccer skill that can help improve overall coordination.
How: Students will be able to avoid getting tagged by the pirates while keeping control of their soccer ball.
Equipment: 4 scooters, 4 pool noodles (half size), 1 soccer ball for all students
Format: Choose 4 students to be the pirates, they are the taggers riding on the soccer with the noodle.
How to play: The taggers can only ride the scooter on their bottom and tag dribbles only on the legs. All other students have a ball. They are dribbling the soccer ball while trying to avoid the tagger.
If the student gets tagged:
- They pick up their ball, go to dibble island (I use the circle cougar that is painted in the middle of the gym floor.) They do 10 side taps back and forth before getting back into the game.
- Do 10 taps on top in dribble island before getting back into the game.
- Dribble the soccer ball while weaving through a row of cones before getting back into the game.
- Find a goal and try to score a goal before getting back into the game.
4. Blast off Clean your Backyard:
What: To combine dribbling and kicking skills to get the soccer balls out of your backyard.
Why: Being able to combine the skills is an essential part of being successful at soccer.
How: Students will be able to dribble and kick with control and accuracy.
Equipment: 12 Poly spots or hula hoops, several coated-foam balls scatter all over the gym.
Format: The students are split into two teams and go to one side of the gym or the other.
How to play: This is a twist on soccer style Clean Your Backyard. The students can only use their feet. They are to dribble a ball to one of the poly spots or hula hoops, then kick it out of their yard to the other team’s yard.
5. Trap It: Keep It
What: To pass and trap the soccer ball using only your feet.
Why: Passing and trapping the soccer ball are an essential part of being successful at soccer.
How: Students will be able to pass and trap with control and accuracy.
Equipment: One hula hoop for every two students. Soccer Balls or Coated-Foam Balls scatter all over the gym.
Format: Students work in partners. One student starts as the passer, the other student is the trapper.
How to play: They start standing together in their hula hoop. When the music starts, the passer begins moving around the gym passing the soccer ball one at a time so their trapper can trap the ball without leaving the hula hoop. The round is played until all the soccer balls are in a hula hoop. Students are not allowed to take a ball from anyone’s hula hoop. The students count their points together and kick the balls out of their hula hoop. They change jobs and continue.
Modifications:
Point systems: the points can be worth 1, 2, 3, 5, 10, 20, 25 points.
Mystery Point: At the end of the round you can announce a color of ball that is worth more points than the rest.
Defenders: Have 2 or 3 students (wearing pennies) that are trying to take the ball from the passers before it gets in the hula hoop.
6. Foot – Kickball:
What: Practice kicking, passing a dribble using their feet to make the ball go where they want it to go.
Why: Controlling the soccer ball with your feet is an essential to be successful in soccer.
How: Students will be able to dribble and kick the ball with accuracy and control.
Equipment: 1 soccer ball, 1 cone, and 3 poly spots for every 3 students.
Format: Students work in small groups of 3 or 4. One student starts as the kicker, one student is the retriever/passer, the last student is the dribbler.
How to play: The kicker starts at one poly spot. They kick the ball and run to the cone, back to the poly spot and they continue running back and forth. The student at the far poly spot is the retriever/passer. They get the ball after the kicker kicks it and pass it to the dribbler, standing on another poly spot. The dribbler dribbles the ball to the poly spot where the kicker kicked from and yells stop. The kicker stops scoring. The kicker becomes the retriever/passer, the retriever/passer becomes the dribbler and the dribbler becomes the kicker.
