I started my day in a jersey and we had our game day huddle on the carpet to explain how the game worked. I tried to keep it simple- I could lie and say I was keeping it simple for the kids but it's totally for me! Past experience says simple keeps management easier!
Huddle time/Rules of the game:
1. We discussed how real football worked in very simple terms. (Get to the other side for a touchdown) So we were going to try to get our footballs across the field.
2. We talked about what time out meant in football. (The coach goes over the plan, right?) I explained what time out meant for our game. (See next section)
3. Kids got their football packets. To get their football on the field they had to complete the kickoff page.
4. Each page was marked with yards. The pages need completed in order- so once a child would finish 10 yards correctly they could put their football on the 10 yard line.
5. Kids work independently around the room.
6. Time out is the only time to get your paper checked. If it's not time out then keep working on the packet.
In a nutshell, that's what I discussed before starting. We had designated "time outs" about every 15 minutes or so. The kids would line up near me and I would check off pages and tell the kids to move their football to the "20 yard line" or whatever the corresponding yards were on their completed and correct page. Once the line died down we had "time in" or work time. The kids worked fairly quiet because they wanted their football to get down the line. We had an extra added bit of friendly competition between the classes. The three classes were competing to get the most total yards as a team.
During work time I could pull kids that were struggling and help them. If a seat at my table opened up I offered it to anyone in the class that needed or wanted help. It was a good rotating door type of help. After about 10-15 minutes of work time we went back to a time out. This seemed to work best for my group of kiddos.
We had a lot of fun and it actually lasted 2 days! The kids were excited and enjoyed it for both days and were very sad when it was over.
FULL transparency:
I was exhausted after each day so you may need some extra energy in liquid form! (or need an after school nap) My second group of kids could not handle day 1 of the transformation. We started and I stopped them. Unfortunately this happens, and I don't want you to think that my day went perfectly! They did get to work on football day on day 2, I think they saw how much fun the other classes had and didn't want to be the class with no footballs on their field!
Overall this was very successful and fun! The kids loved it and bought in to the theme. Our ELA teacher also did some football activities. She created the cutest Venn diagram in the shape of a soccer ball and football to compare the sports the first day. The second day they compared several sports figures to one another. (She picked Pele for soccer and our boys picked the football player.)
If you are looking to do a similar transformation here is a link to my exact pages, but you don't need to use my pages to do a simple football transformation! You can easily use pages you already own and write 10 yard increments in each corner to get the same effect.
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