Let's Play Together

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🧠 Curriculum Alignment

Subject Area: Physical Education (PE)
Key Stage: KS2 – Year 3
National Curriculum Focus:

• Pupils should be taught to:
  • use running, jumping, throwing and catching in isolation and in combination
  • play competitive games, modified where appropriate, and apply basic principles suitable for attacking and defending
  • develop flexibility, strength, technique, control and balance
  • work cooperatively and understand the importance of teamwork

Lesson 10 of Unit: Ball Skills Bonanza
Unit Goal: To master key ball handling, striking, and movement skills through engaging activities and prepare for entry into modified team sports.

Learning Objectives for Lesson 10:
By the end of the session, pupils should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of simplified rules of rounders and cricket.
2. Apply striking and fielding skills in a team-based context.
3. Communicate and cooperate effectively during team gameplay.
4. Reflect on teamwork and recognise how they contribute to team success.

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🕓 Lesson Duration

Total Time: 40 minutes
Class Size: 6 students (Year 3)

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⚽ Equipment List

• 2 plastic rounders bats
• 2 soft balls (size 7 or foam balls for safety)
• 4 stumps or cones (to mark bases or wickets)
• Coloured bibs or bands for team identification
• 6 small flat cones to mark playing zones
• Whiteboard or flipchart with visual rules
• Optional: Whistle

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🏁 Warm-Up: Circuit Challenge (8 minutes)

Aim: Light cardio + dynamic movement to prepare for team play.

Instructions: Create 3 stations; rotate every 2 minutes (2 students per station):

1. 🌟 Skill Sprint & Throw – Shuttle run between 3 cones, followed by underarm throws into a hoop.
2. ⭐ Bat Balance & Dribble – Balance a beanbag on a rounders bat while navigating around cones.
3. 🌟 Catcher’s Quickness – One pupil throws a ball underarm, the other attempts to catch and return in a relay.

Teacher to play upbeat music (if available) to motivate pupils. This also introduces the concept of roles—batter, fielder, runner.

🧠 Variation for Challenge: Time each pair and encourage improving their individual scores by 1%!

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🏏 Introduction to Team Games (5 minutes)

Topic: What makes a team game?

Use a whiteboard or flipchart to quickly draw a simple pitch layout for rounders and cricket. Reinforce age-appropriate key terms:

• Batter (hits ball)
• Runner (runs between bases or wickets)
• Fielder (catches or retrieves ball)
• Bowler/Pitcher (delivers the ball)

Question Prompt:
“Can you name something we need to work well as a team?”
(Answers may include: sharing, listening, encouraging each other, using names.)

Emphasise that the aim today is not competition, but co-operation.

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🎯 Skill Focus: Hitting & Fielding (7 minutes)

Station-based activity, cycle every 3 minutes:

Station 1 – Bat & Run Practice

• Pupils practise hitting a stationary ball off a low tee (or self-feed underhand).
• After hitting, they run to a cone and back.
• Partner retrieves ball and resets.

Station 2 – Rolling & Fielding Basics

• Underarm bowl/roll the ball to the “batter”.
• Fielders practise stopping the ball and returning it with a throw or gentle roll.

Teacher Role: Observe technique and offer feedback:

• Encourage a side-on batting stance.
• Reinforce looking up before throwing.

🧠 Differentiation:

• Use larger or lighter equipment for pupils needing support.
• Challenge confident students to move quicker between cones or introduce one-step bowling.

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🕹️ Main Activity: Mini Team Game (15 minutes)

Game Name: RoundRic (Rounders meets Cricket)

Set-Up:
Simplified team game using combined rules. 3 v 3.

• One team bats (takes turns hitting and running to two marked bases), other fields.
• Batter hits the ball (self-feed or underarm from teacher), runs to base and back before fielder stops the ball and returns it to bowler.
• Rotate each pair through roles every 5 minutes.

Scoring Opportunity (Optional):

• +1 point for a successful hit and run
• +1 bonus for good team communication shout-outs (teacher discretion)

Safety Reminder: Always watch the batter while fielding and listen for stop signals.

⏳ Top Tip: Use a countdown timer or music to indicate swapovers and raise energy levels!

🧠 Encourage children to discuss:

• What worked well in their teams?
• Could they support a teammate differently next time?

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🌈 Cool Down: “Pass the Compliment” (3 minutes)

• Students jog slowly in a circle.
• On teacher’s signal, stop and face the person next to them.
• Share one positive comment about that person’s effort today.

E.g., “You were great at fielding!” / “You kept encouraging us!”

Follow with static stretching of shoulders, wrists, hamstrings.

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📝 Plenary – Reflect & Connect (2 minutes)

Question prompts:

• What is your favourite team role: batter, runner, or fielder?
• How did we help our teammates today?
• What skills did we use today that we’ve learnt in this unit?

Encourage pupils to look back on the Ball Skills Bonanza unit and identify ways they’ve improved (teacher may prompt with visuals or past highlights).

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📌 Extension Opportunities

• At Home: Pupils can practise underarm throwing using a soft sponge ball and a bucket.
• Cross-Curricular Link: Create team badges or chant in Literacy/Art, designing their own 'team identity' for use in future games.

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📘 Assessment Opportunities

Formative:

• Observation of each student’s ability to strike, throw, and field in context.
• Group communication during mini game – are students cooperating, using terminology?
• Student reflections during the plenary.

Next Steps / Pupil Progression:

• Introduce more structured game-play rules adapted from full rounders/cricket based on readiness.
• Develop positional awareness and roles such as bowler, base guard.

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🤩 Teacher Wow Factor

This lesson incorporates:

• Mini game creation to blend two familiar sports.
• Partner-based reflection for emotional and social development.
• Language-rich team talk to elevate conversation about sportsmanship.
• A balance of high energy and mindful closure—a full-circle PE experience any child will remember!

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“PE is not just movement – it’s memory, mindset, and meaning.” – Let’s make every lesson count!