Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Use Football To Your Advantage

Take advantage of the upcoming Superbowl excitement and work with students on making their own football fields.  This activity provides numerous opportunities for the students to precisely cut with scissors, use two-hands to manipulate thin strips of paper and utilize early math skills. 
Pre-cut long strips of paper about 1" wide, then have the students cut the strips in half or in thirds, lengthwise.
For younger students, demonstrate how to glue down the 50 yd line and the end lines before you ask them to add the remaining yardlines.  If needed, you may want to draw guidelines on the background paper (green paper in the photos) as a visual cue for where their paper yardlines should go.  Students will need to mark, then tear or cut off the excess length of paper from their yardlines, then glue the yardlines in place.
Older students can write the 10, 20, 30, 40 along one edge of their yardlines.  Some teachers may wish to keep these projects as "evidence" for the student's alternate testing portfolios.
Add goalposts and write the name of your teams on their respective endzones.  One of my students enjoyed drawing stick figures of the opposing teams.

No comments: