To get back on track after a wild month or two, we started our basketball unit on Wednesday March 7 with day one on our schedule for 3rd through 5th grades. We will introduce and practice dribbling this week. We all had our own basketball for skill work this week. There were short talks on why dribbling is the most important skill, correct dribbling technique, and strategies to avoid defenders: looking up, dribbling low and the crossover dribble. We praticed these dribbles to music. Next we got in groups of two and played "Two Ball DribbleWar" where partners score points by tapping the partners ball while keeping theirs going. If double dribble occurs, a point can also be scored. Students keep their own points. Next we put a ball away and played "One Ball Dribble War" where one partner tries to steal the ball from the other. Students try to keep the ball in their possession as long as possible. At the end of class we had three to five minutes of free basketball and shooting. Here I evaluated the shooting form of students to prepare for next week, and helped a few! Second grade did much of the same thing but if a class had problems with dribbling we focused more on technique and less on strategy. Other games that were played in these scenarios include dribble races and "Lot od Balls Dribble War" where three students don't have a ball and try to steal the ball from other students. If a students ball is stolen then they have to steal from someone else. Take away more balls and it gets more interesting.
In Kindergarten through first grades dribbled too and used many of the same set up skills with more focus on technique and stopped frequently for tips and advice. We had dribble races and then instead of partnering fro games, we partnered to pass the basketball. We tried two ball passing with different types of passes and then worked one one ball passing, mainly the bounce pass. These students had five minutes of free basketball time at the end of class too!
In Kindergarten through first grades dribbled too and used many of the same set up skills with more focus on technique and stopped frequently for tips and advice. We had dribble races and then instead of partnering fro games, we partnered to pass the basketball. We tried two ball passing with different types of passes and then worked one one ball passing, mainly the bounce pass. These students had five minutes of free basketball time at the end of class too!
