by Dustin Devereaux & Jonathan Mauro
Central Region RR's for HPEC
Snowball (also called Grassball at our school when the snow is gone cause they usually don’t want to stop playing)
Equipment: Depending on when and where you play you will need the following equipment, again modify as needed based on the age of the students and what you have access to.
1) Pylons x 2 (bigger kind with a hole in the top)
2) Field Hockey Stick or Broomball Stick x 2
3) Hula Hoops (biggest size you can get is better, or if playing in the winter you can skip the hula hoops and have the students make their own circular creases in the snow; if playing indoors and you have some smaller circular lines in the gym like those found on bball courts by the free throw line then they work great).
2-6 foam (nerf style) soccer balls and footballs, a combination of both styles works best to mix it up...again if you don't have these already try out what you do have and see if it works. For bigger kids you may want to use the real thing, for smaller kids you may want to use the smallest versions of these you can find for their size.
Setup: Place a hula hoop (crease in the snow, or cirular lines in the gym) on the ground, in the center place a pylon and stick the butt end of the stick through the hole in the top of the pylon so it stands upright. Do the same setup about 20 paces away in any direction (again if you have bigger or smaller students vary the distance here, or if in the gym then use whichever distanc exists between the circles). Split the students into two teams and have each team stand behind one of the targets that they will defend (other team stand behind other target of course). Hand out at least one soccer and one football to each team (around 2 object balls total for every 12 or so kids works well, feel free to experiment with adding some in and taking some out as they get used to the game).
Explain to them that they have two main objectives:
1) hit the other teams target with any of the object balls
2) defend their own target from being hit. On that note, students are not allowed within the crease area on either end whether attacking or defending.
The game begins with the object balls in the hands of the players, this is important because it means the object balls can all be used like footballs at this point (they can run with it, pass it, throw it etc.). However, as soon as a ball hits the ground (defence knocks it down or it doesn't get caught) it becomes a soccer ball and now must be played like a soccer ball. Students will realize it is easier to hit the other teams target with the ball as a football, so the fun part comes in when you tell them they can flick a soccer ball into the air to be caught by a team mate (or possible the other team if they intercept it), thus turning that object ball from a soccer ball back to a football.
Extra rules: Defensively for soccer all you can do is block shots and try to steal the ball no different than playing soccer itself, however if a team is running with a football then the defence can tag the player with the ball causing them to freeze where the offensive player now has 3 seconds to pass the ball away (they are not allowed to throw it at the target once tagged). Once any object ball has hit the target, the defensive team is allowed to pick it up and put it into play as a football (they can go inside their crease to retrieve it if necessary).
Points System the part our students (or at least we) like most about this game is that there is so much going on that keeping score is usually pointless and students often don't even notice if it's being done or not (feel free to try and keep score if you wish, but 90% of the time we play we don't bother). However, we still usually tell them this anyway as it adds fun and another dimension to the game: If they hit the pylon it gives them 1 point, if they hit the stick it gives them 2 points, and if they hit the target and knock it over it gives them 3 points. Whenever the target is knocked over the defence just resets it in the middle of the crease.
Another modification you can do for score is have them on teams, but tell them to individually keep track of their own score, then the next class when they go in teams you can say anybody with more than x # of points last game is only allowed to assist on scores today so that other kids who tend not to score as often will likely get more chances
