For our first Spotlight Saturday, we’ll be taking a closer look at a fantastic resource – PlaySport, an online activity-based resource that helps children and youth develop an understanding of and competency with skills and strategies associated with physical activities and a wide range of sports. The site uses the TGfU approach (Teaching Games for Understanding) which is a great model for lessons.

This site will probably be a great source of ideas for activities during your practicum – you can search by the following categories:

Division: Primary, Junior, Intermediate, Senior

Activity Category: Territory, Net/Wall, Striking/Fielding, Target Games, Individual Pursuits

Movement Skills: Stability, Locomotion, Manipulation, Body Awareness, Spatial Awareness, Relationships, Effort Awareness

So for example, if I was teaching a Junior-level class during a target games unit, and wanted to focus on their manipulation movement skills, I could put those search terms into the website, and have a number of games to choose from. For this search, there were three:

Beanbag Boccia, where “Participants learn about and practise sending an object toward a target to accumulate the most points.”
Pinwheel, where “Participants learn about and practise sending an object toward a target surrounded by bowling pins while standing at different distances.”
Target 5, where “Participants learn about and practise sending an object to hit a variety of different targets.”

You can select any game and view a page with the information needed to set up and run the game (or download/print it). This includes things like equipment needed, safety concerns, adaptation options, and detailed instructions, diagrams, and even videos to demonstrate gameplay.

Have you had a look through PlaySport yet? What games do you think would be really valuable to use in your practicum classrooms?