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Weekly Tribes – Beach Ball!

Beach Ball!

This can be a large ball with questions written on it, or just the beach-type ball.  There are two ways to do this.

One version is to write questions (or tape them on, so they can be removed/replaced later), then you simply toss the ball to a specific person and when that person catches it, he/she will be touching a question.  The catcher decides which question (if both hands are touching questions) to answer, and after doing so, tosses the ball to another student.  Be sure the questions are designed for more than one answer, as it is likely that questions will be answered more than once.  Use both inclusion and academic questions.

Here are some samples:

  • Where would you like to visit and why?
  • Name a possible catalyst of the American Revolution.

The other version of beach ball is all about influence.  Have your students sit on the ground, about arms’ width apart, in a big group.  Toss the ball out and count how many ‘hits’ they can get to, keeping it off the ground.  This sounds easy, but it is not!  Students will be challenged to get past 7 at first..but once they begin to work together effectively, they can get past 30.  (Each time the ball is hit into the air, is a ‘count’).  Only one student can ‘hit’; if two touch the ball simultaneously, the count begins again.  Be SURE to stop the action and reflect, reflect, reflect…on what is working, what could be improved upon, etc.

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