Grade 2 - Invasion Games

Central Idea:

• Progressing towards skill mastery can help achieve an active lifestyle

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Learner Outcomes:

• Active Living:

  • Apply a variety of simple tactics to increase their chances of success during physical activities

  • Demonstrate understanding of factors that contribute to personal enjoyment of being active as they participate in a wide variety of individual and small-group activities and lead-up games

• Identity:

  • Identify and understand the consequences of actions

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Learner Profile:

• Knowledgeable

• Inquirer

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Attitude:

• Cooperation

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Approaches to Learning:

• Thinking:

  • ​Acquisition of Knowledge

  • Synthesis

  • Application

• Self-Management:

  • ​Safety

• Research:

  • Observing​

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Lesson 1: Pre-Assessment / Tuning In:

• I opened this unit with a simple game called Crossover. I deliberately did not tell the students the new unit. This way they can use the information they have from the game and make an educated guess into what it could be.

  • Divide the class into 2 teams.

  • ​Create your playing space and divide it into 2. A basketball court is a reasonable size.​

  • When a student “attacks” and crosses over onto the opposing teams’ side that attacker can be tagged.

  • When an attacker is tagged by a defender, that attacker raises their hand, goes out of the playing area, runs to the end of their side and does a punishment of some sort. I usually tell them to do 3-5 jumping jacks.

  • If the attacker is not tagged, they can cross the baseline of the court, raise their hand and yell, “goal!”

  • That attacker then goes out of the court and back to their side and can attack again.

  • I usually set a time limit of 3 minute halves.

• I love it since it requires minimal preparation but there are so many learning opportunities with a huge amount of physical activity for the kids.

• I started with layer 1 of Crossover whereby only one side is attacking and the other team is defending.

• After the 3 minute round, I switched the roles of the team.

• I gathered the kids and asked whether they worked it out. None knew, so I told them – Invasion Games. I then played 3 videos showing a basketball game, a football game and handball. I asked them afterwards how these 3 games relate to Crossover.

• We went back out for another couple rounds of Crossover but this time, level 2. Both teams can attack and defend at the same time.

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Lesson 2:

• We started this lesson with a quick game of Crossover level 2. Afterwards, we gathered and unpacked the Central Idea – progressing towards skill mastery can help achieve an active lifestyle. We determined what skill mastery was and reasons behind why working towards it can achieve an active lifestyle in Invasion Games – or basically, any physical activity.

• We then got stuck into the problem behind Crossover level 2 – team members were not staying in their positions and usually a lonely defender is doing their best to protect the goal line. We got into our first strategy for the unit and the theme for Crossover – Positions.

• In Crossover Level 3, only 4-5 people with beanbags can attack, these people are known as attackers. Those without beanbags are defenders. The teams organized themselves and got into position. To ensure everyone had a turn to attack, the beanbags got passed to someone else once an attacker crossed the midline.

• To ensure I am promoting the learner profiles of the unit: Inquirers and Knowledgeable, I opened the discussion floor by asking if anyone had any questions about the round of Crossover they just played. I wrote the questions on the board and asked if anyone in the class wanted to try and be knowledgeable and share their knowledge with the class by answering any of the questions listed. By doing this I am encouraging the kids to ask questions and allowing them to also demonstrate their knowledge.

• We then got into Crossover level 4. Same concept as previously, however once an attacker scores a goal they are stuck on the goal line and need to be rescued by another attacker.

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Lesson 3:

• We reviewed what was introduced briefly: central idea, learner profile, crossover and positions. We then went into the next activity: Slide Tag.

  • ​Same premise as Crossover whereby you run across the opponent's territory to score a goal.

  • Same size playing area as Crossover.

  • Divide the playing area into 6 areas, alternating between safe and non-safe areas for the attackers.

  • The non-safe areas are where the defenders position themselves.

  • How many areas you want is up to you, however I do make the non-safe areas larger than the safe areas to ramp up the challenge.

  • The attackers start at one side of the field and have to run across the different areas to ultimately score a goal

  • The defenders once positioned cannot move into another area unless they call a timeout.

• We played one round each so both teams could be the attackers and defenders. Afterwards, we went over the key element of this activity: Zones. Attacking zones and defending zones. This combined well with positions – the kids already acquired the knowledge of positions and they were applying it into determining where they should position their defenders.

• We did several more rounds of this with a brief break in between rounds to go through the learner profile questioning with inquirers and being knowledgeable.

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Lesson 4:

• We repeated Slide Tag again but with a second layer whereby if an attacker scores, they are stuck on the goal line and need to be rescued by another attacker.

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Lesson 5:

• By this stage, the students were getting a reasonable grasp of invasion games and the skills and the basic strategy behind them. It was time to put a ball into the equation, which does challenge their motor skills. Catching a ball when stationary can be challenging for some, particularly 7-8 year old’s. However, putting it into a dynamic playing environment is really tough. Fortunately, we just completed a Striking and Fielding unit where catching and throwing was very prominent. Therefore, I had a good degree of confidence they could do this.

• We engaged in a game of 5-pass.

  • ​I separated the class into 4 teams and had 2 games happening at once to allow maximum participation by all students.

  • The object of the game is to successfully pass the ball to your teammates 5 times.

  • A successful pass is one that is not intercepted or dropped to the ground.

  • If a team does 5 successful passes then the opposing team does 3 push-ups  - or whatever consequence you choose.

• After a round of this, no teams got 5 passes, let alone 4. This was to be expected. Fortunately, I got introduced to this great video from James Mandigo by Nathan Horne of iPhys-Ed.com

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• Therefore, the theme of 5-Pass was Maintaining Possession, since you need to keep the ball within your team for 5-passes. I asked the kids which of the 3 plays is a successful example of Maintaining Possession. Afterwards, we went back out to play a few more rounds of 5-pass.

• The kids improved and they started to recognize the importance of moving around to give the ball holder more options to pass. I also gave the kids the chance to call a time-out whenever they want within the rounds if they feel the team is losing its way.

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Lesson 6:

• We did a brief review of the unit so far and then went into Mini-Coaching. Mini-Coaching is great since it targets the ATL skill of “Observing” in the Research branch. Acknowledgements to Joey Feith, the Physical Educator where I got this teaching strategy from.

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• For Mini-Coaching, I do the following:

  • There are 4 teams.

  • 2 teams are playing each other.

  • 1 team is observing a team playing.

    • Each person in the class is assigned to watch one other person.

    • I.E.: Student 1 of Red team is observing Student 6 of Yellow team and vice versa

  • ​The fourth team is practicing on another court.

  • The team observing has to do the following:

    • ​I uploaded the Passing and Catching Peer Assessment document onto the kids’ Seesaw journals.

    • They select “Edit item” and now they can draw or label onto the document.

    • They needed to tally how many successful passes their respective player completes.

    • Each successful pass is tallied as either “receiver not open” or “receiver open”.

    • At the end of the lesson, the students complete the document by providing some feedback for their player to practice as homework.

      • (Acknowledgements to Nathan Horne of iPhys-Ed.com who did an immense amount of research to discover ways to authentic assess invasion games.)​

      • You can find the document on this link:

        • ​https://www.iphys-ed.com/blog/assessment-in-invasion-games-part-three-assessment-tools/

• We completed the rounds and ended the lesson by entering in feedback onto the mini-coach document and uploading onto Seesaw for me to approve, which then gets put onto Seesaw.

• Below is an example of a piece of feedback one of my student's gave their peer.

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Lesson 7:

• We started the lesson by looking over the feedback received and did a quick round of 5-Pass to apply the feedback given by their mini-coach.

• We then went into our new activity – 3-Pass and Shoot.​

  • Add in a handball goal for this layer.

  • Same concept as 5-pass whereby you need to do successful passes to your teammates however, the teams now need to do only 3 passes.

  • Once the 3 passes are completed the handball goal is now open for a shot attempt to occur.

  • There is no goalie line and no limit on the number of goalies.

• After a round of this we went back to the Mandigo video and focused on the theme of 3-Pass and Shoot – Creating Space in Attack.

• The kids correctly observed the successful plays in the video and attempted to apply this in their games.

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Lesson 8:

• We built upon the 3-Pass and Shoot game by heading into Handball for this lesson. However, since we had not practiced dribbling, I modified the game where they could not run with the ball but rather pivot only.

• Handball is a great game since it is very accessible and leads nicely into other sports – football, netball, basketball, etc.

• We played a round of this and then reviewed the video once more.

• I then introduced the theme for Handball – Marking, a defensive strategy.

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Lesson 9:

• By this stage, my grade 2s were introduced and applying some quite advanced theory in invasion games:

  • ​Positions

  • ​Zones

  • Maintaining Possession

  • Creating Space in Attack

  • ​Marking

• Since a few of my students wanted to learn a bit more about basketball. I decided to do some shooting activities and combined both Handball and Netball.

• Fortunately, in my gym we have 6 fixed basketball hoops, with 4 of them being height adjustable. I then was fortunate enough to find a mobile basketball ring as well.

• For their shooting practice, I did the following:

  • I split the kids up into 7 groups.

  • They lined up at their respective basket.

  • If they made the shot, the moved to the next basket, which can be either higher or lower.

  • If they missed 3 times, they could move up regardless.

• After 5-10 minutes, I gathered the kids and went through the learner profile questioning again. One student asked how they could shoot better. I opened the floor to let a “knowledgeable” student share their knowledge on this subject.

• We did another 5 minutes of basket shooting and then went into our game of Hand Netball.

  • ​We had 2 games played at the same time as per my love of Small Sided Games.

  • 1 player from each team is designated the shooter.

  • The shooters reside in the key of the basketball court (We only played half-court).

  • No one else in either team is allowed in the key.

  • Once the ball is picked up by a player they need to shoot.

  • The defender cannot touch the shooter when in possession of the ball.

• We rotated the shooters around every so often.

• Teams had the capacity to call a time-out whenever they wanted.

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Lesson 10:

• Unfortunately, this unit had to be cut short due to a great deal of interruptions due to this unit being at the end of the year.

• I did hope to go deeper with the Mini-Coach system whereby I wanted to use this assessment sheet from iPhys-Ed, which breaks down the passing even more so into 4 options:

  • ​Uncatchable pass, receiver not open​

  • Uncatchable pass, receiver open

  • Catchable pass, receiver not open

  • Catchable pass, receiver open

• With this being the last lesson, I asked the class whether they wanted to do a full game of Handball or a game of Hand Netball. Handball was unanimously voted for.

• We only had one court available for this lesson, so I divided the class into 3 teams, 5 minute games. However, I did ask the class what the waiting team should be doing during the match. They correctly said to watch the game and make a plan. Fantastic.

• I am honestly so impressed by my grade 2s for this unit. They completed every single outcome, approaches to learning skills, learner profile and the attitude. They broke down the Central Idea effectively and applied it. There is much more for them to practice in terms of their physical skills – coordination, etc. However, their current theory of invasion games is sound. This gives a good footing for next year where we can go further into the Mandigo video with other strategies, such as: Getting the ball back and Attacking the Goal. I feel the under 9 Handball team next year will be an impressive one.

• Questions, comments, feedback? Please let me know here!

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