Episode Transcript:
Today on the PE Express podcast, I’m going to share what activity motivated my middle school boys.
Today I want to share with you the activity that entertained and motivated my middle school boys for the past three weeks. My middle school boy classes are some of the most challenging classes. Why? Because all they want to do is play Dodgeball and basketball, and if that’s not on the agenda, then they’re going to whine about it and I don’t like whining, so it’s always challenging for me to find activities for them. I recently found success that kept my students entertained, challenged and motivated for three whole weeks. We hosted our very own Spikeball™ tournament. Now, Spikeball™ isn’t new to our school. We’ve been enjoying the equipment for about three years now, but we’ve never had a tournament. During the first week, we just refreshed our Spikeball™ skills and experience playing with different partners. To start the second week, I allowed my students to pick their own partner and come up with a team name.
I printed a free fill in the blank bracket from online and we had ourselves our very own Spikeball tournament. The bracket took about two weeks to play out because we did it a double elimination bracket and even when teens were fully eliminated from bracket play, we still had side games going on so that all students stayed active the entire time they are in PE and they also got to experience playing all the other teams. So it was the Coopers and the Oagers that played for the championship in a very intense game to 11. All of our students gathered around to cheer for their favorites and watched the Spikeball greatness from diving saves to unfortunate rim shots. We even played up the excitement by allowing two of our creative students to commentate the whole entire game complete with microphones and team interviews at the end. It was the Coopers that took the victory 11 to 8.
I will say that this is the most fun we’ve had in middle school boys PE in a while and I will definitely have to remember this and bring back the tournament yearly. If you’re not familiar with a Spikeball™, it’s a very fun and active game. It took the place of our coffee table at home for a year when it first came out and it’s still the very first thing that we pack on family trips to the lake and to the mountains. So hosting a Spikeball™ tournament was a definite win for my middle school boys class. I would love to hear what motivates your middle school kids. Thanks for listening.
One Response
Your information about Spikeball is helpful. I’m the Physical Education teacher at a K-4 Primary School. I bought a Spikeball game for myself. I haven’t played it yet. I know some of my 3rd & 4th grade students know how to play. Since I just have one Spikeball game I’m hoping to add it as a station in my PE program this year.
Thank you, Kris