Castle ball

Suggested grade level: 3-6

Lesson focus: Cooperative, throwing, rolling, catching, shooting at baskets Equipment: 6 hula-hoops per castle. 3 castles per team with 2 teams. 36 total hula-hoops. 2 mats and lots of gator balls.     Setup: Spread out 3 group piles of 6 equally sized hula-hoops down on both baseline sides of the gym floor. 1 mat for each team is placed on the ground under a side basketball hoop. Gator balls are placed in the middle of the gym floor.

Rules: Start with everyone helping their team build the castles. Then have students touch the back wall. Make sure students know who the guards are. The object of the game is to knock down all three castles at the same time. Teams can rebuild them as soon as they get knocked down. The middle line of the gym divides the two teams in half. You cannot crossover the midline unless you are going to jail (the mat on the floor). You can have 1 guard per castle. No double guarding. You can only have 1 jail guard. If your ball is caught you have to go to jail. If a ball rolls from the opposite team and touches your feet you go to jail. To get out of jail someone from your team must throw a ball to the jail. One person in jail must catch the ball and shoot a successful shot at the basketball hoop in order for everyone to be set free.  

Adaptions: You can add additional targets such as 2 bowling pins on each side. We also use upside down plungers inside cones and place a ball on top of the plunger. Students can make a basket on their side in order to reset the additional targets back up. All targets must be knocked down in order for the game to end.   You can also play with 4 teams wearing pinnies and break down the gym into 4 quadrants with no midline. Use cones around the castle to represent how far the students go. You can also play using no castle guards.