Boom Over Movement Game

Kathryn Gregory
Multiple Subject Teacher

Students will play a game in which they need to change direction quickly. Students are to pretend that they are on a sailboat that is in the middle of a storm. They will have to run and change direction based on verbal commands and duck quickly to avoid being hit by the imaginary boom.

Grade Level: 1 - 5th

Subject:

Length of Time: 15 - 20 Minutes

Objectives & Outcomes

Students will use spatial awareness. Students will manipulate their bodies to change directions quickly. Students will follow verbal commands while performing physical activity.

Materials Needed

  • 4 cones or a large lined court such as a tennis court

Procedure

Opening to Lesson

  • Before students go outside, or while they are sitting on their PE numbers outside, the teacher explains to the students that they are going to play a game where they imagine that they are crew on a sailboat during a storm.
  • Students are to imagine that the boat is swaying back and forth in the waves and so they need to move with the boat from the east to west to north to south as the boat moves.
  • Explain that the boom is part of the sailboat that holds the sail.
  • Students are to imagine that the captain is trying to control the boat so he is moving the sail. Sometimes, the boom has to cross the boat and all of the crew has to duck to avoid being knocked off the boat.
  • If the teacher has access, she can show a video, pictures, or make a drawing of a sailboat to help students understand the image better.
  • The teacher explains the rules to the student.

Body of Lesson

  • Students spread out an arms-width apart from each other in the playing area.
  • Teacher determines which direction is west, east, north, and south and tells the students.
  • The captain yells out a direction (east, west, north or south) and the students have to run as quickly as they can to that end of the boat.
  • The captain yells out another direction and the students have to change direction quickly and run towards that end of the boat.
  • The captain continues yelling the directions until he yells “BOOM OVER” and all of the students have to “hit the deck” and get low to the ground, to avoid being knocked off the boat by the boom.
  • The last student (or the last 2 students) to “hit the deck” are off the boat.
  • Students who are off the boat do jumping jacks (10 jacks, 10 second rest, 10 jacks, 10 second rest) until the end of the game. They can do jumping jacks or simulate swimming/treading water, but they have to keep moving.
  • The captain resumes yelling the directions and “Boom Over” until only one student is left.
  • This student becomes the captain for the next round.

Closing

  • Ask students about the different kind of movements/exercises that were done during the activity.

Assessment & Evaluation

Teacher will monitor students' movement throughout the game.

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