Ball and Cone

 Ball and Cone

Two cones (or bowling pins) are placed about a metre in front of the whiteboard, a short distance apart. One cone belongs to team A, the other belongs to team B. Two balls are placed on the other side of the classroom, opposite the cones.

WHITEBOARD

cone                     cone

Team A                                          Team B

#1s                                  #1s

#2s                                  #2s

#3s                                  #3s

#4s                                  #4s

#5s                                  #5s

#6s                                  #6s

The teacher calls on “[#1]” students (i.e., the student from each team who has been allocated the number [1]) to compete in knocking their cone over with the ball. (A good way to randomly select a pair of students is to roll a dice which will correspond to their student number.) The distance from which the ball is thrown can be experimented with. Obviously for younger students with less coordination, you will need to decrease the distance to keep it easier. When a student is successful in knocking their cone over, they quickly ‘tidy up’ their cone and ball by putting them back in the right place. Then they sit down. The first student to successfully knock over their cone, tidy up, and then sit down is the winner and is awarded points. (If a student accidentally knocks over the other team’s cone, then that team is the winner.)

After this you go back to drilling the flashcards/vocabulary/sentences and after another half minute or so you repeat the game, this time calling on a different pair of students, e.g., [#3] students.

Alternative Versions

An alternative version of this idea is to use a hoop instead of a ball, which must be thrown over the cone. 

You can also experiment with different sized balls and cones to change the level of difficulty.

In fact, after playing this game a few times, you will find yourself coming up with many alternative versions yourself.

The ball can be bowled (rolled along the floor) instead of thrown.

Use a puppet instead of a ball.

Use jenga blocks instead of a cone.

Also, you may try placing the ball at varying distances from the cone.

There is even a version that involves placing the ball on top of the cone, flipping the cone over to catch the ball.

And another that involves turning the cone on its side and competing to roll the ball into the cone, golf-style, using hands, feet, a bat, etc.