Are You Ready For Some Football in Your Classroom?

With Super Bowl 2006 around the corner I have had many requests for ideas to use with a Super Bowl or Football Theme. As a result, I started searching online for educational activities that were realted to football or to the Super Bowl. The pickings are very slim out there. I did list the links I found and some may be helpful to you as you plan your Super Bowl or Football Theme/Unit in your classroom. I also included a few ideas and pictures that were sent to me. Finally I created a few printables you could use with the unit. Hopefully this will help you plan a football or Super Bowl Theme Unit in your classroom. GO STEELERS!!!

Teaching Heart Teachers Share Some Football Ideas!

When I worked with pre-kindergarten students, the teacher had Super Bowl Friday. The students had a choice of dressing up in the colors of the team they wanted to win or dress up like cheerleaders. We had a mock football game in the classroom on the carpet (where we have circle time) or we had it in the hallway. The teacher would bake two cakes in the shape of the football. She would have the students take turns decorating the cakes with frosting.   Stephanie

We do a Souper Bowl and collect cans of vegetables and boxes of rice and pasta to donaate to a soup kitchen.  You can do a pictograph with the cans and boxes which involves patterns and sorting for the younger groups.  You can talk about volunteerism with older students.  You can talk about homeless people.  You could do a drive between classrooms.  It takes a team to win a Super Bowl game.  It takes a Team to collect the vegetables and help less fortunate people.  My classes donate to my church's soup kitchen and volunteer at the Soup Kitchen in February.  I've done this with my 3rd grade for the last 3 years and they really enjoy it.  This year my BETA club is doing it and the 4th and 5th grade students are colelcting the canned goods. Lynn in Valdosta

Divide the class into 2 teams.  Designating a color of tile for each team (red vs blue tiles).  Each team gets a colored nerf football that corresponds to the color tile team they are.  When the whistle is blown and the timer begins for 2 minutes, each team passes footballs to their teammates only and count successful passes.  Jumping to catch a pass is allowed as long as they land with at least one foot on their tile. Two nerf footballs are going simultaneously.  They must keep at least one foot on their square at all times and may not move to another square until the end of the 2 minutes and "scramble" is announced.  The older grades (4th +) are allowed to intercept footballs forcing the opposing team to start back at zero.  If a ball hits the ground due to an unsuccessful pass the counting starts over with zero count to the player who retrieves the ball.  The counting needs to be loud enough for all the hear which keeps the excitement high.  At the end Cooperation and encouragement are emphasized.  It comes natural for the success of this game and the kids catch on right away.  The only thing you may want to watch is that they are not passing back and forth to the same person.  The ball must not ever go back to the person it was passed from. Sally

Here are some "academic activities" that will be/have been going on in our building regarding the Steelers:
**  Phonemic Awareness using players names...counting syllables/same beginning sound
**  High frequency word football game:  I made a football field on the chalkboard..you could get really creative and make a more colorful one, but mine worked.  I drew the 10yd. lines.  I had two footballs..one Steelers, one Denver.  The kids were in two teams.  I flashed a sight word and the first student to say the word, their ball moved ten yards.  When they made a "touchdown" the captain got to choose anyone on their team to spell a word of my choice.  I used Roethlisberger, January etc...I had on a Ben shirt and January was on the board, so if they used their "resources"  they were able to spell the words!  You could also do this with math facts/number recognition. 
**  Upper grades wrote their own Steeler fight song.
**  Football Toss-measurement
**  Copy the info regarding Steeler logo off the internet.  Have the kids read it and do comprehension questions. - Terri Lombardo
(Remember, you can modify Terri's great ideas to go along with your favorite team!)

Terri Lombardo's Kindergartners are pretty excited about the black and gold! Below you can see some of the ways her class is getting ready for some football and learning at the same time. All the clipart found in Terri's pictures came from the Steeler website/kid zone. Thanks for sharing these great pictures, Terri!!!

Football Vocabulary Words For a Football Word Wall
Here are some words that you could write on little football graphics and place in a pocket chart.
Your students could practice reading the words and using the words in sentences.
You could also pick a few to add to the weekly spelling list.

For the Super Bowl, print the logos for the two playing teams on slips of paper. Give each logo to each student, so that they have one of each (Pittsburgh - Seattle). Have them fold a sheet of paper in half and write, I think this team will win the Super Bowl on one side. On the other side of the paper have them write, I think this team will not win the Super Bowl. Then allow the students to glue the logo under the statement of their choice. Then hand out envelopes. Have your students place their votes in the envelope, seal the envelope, and write their name on the outside of the envelope. Collect the envelopes and create a graph with the results. Hand out the graph and have the students answer questions about the graph. When the Super Bowl is over, hand out the envelopes and allow the students to see if their guess was the right one. Then you can discuss percentages with older students.

Free PDF Printables From Teaching Heart

Football Books To read To Your Class!

Links To Check- Out

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