Review using a Baseball Game
A Classroom Activity for Reinforcing Concepts
Invite a game of baseball into the classroom to help students learn new information in a fun environment.
Objective of Game
The purpose of the baseball game is to review material and to reinforce the concepts.
Rules of the Game
Divide the class into two teams. Each team should have a balance of students’ based on their educational level. One team should not have a majority of level 4 students and the other team a majority of level 2 and 3 students. Mix up the teams, but try and have a friend for each student on their team.
After the class is divided into two baseball teams, the teams will brainstorm on their name. As well, the teacher will decide on the captain of the team. The captain will rotate weekly to give all students an opportunity of having a leadership position.
Teacher will write questions in 4 levels from easy to difficult. The first level is a single hit, second level is a double hit, third level is a triple hit, and the final level is a home-run.
Teacher categorizes the questions according to the above labels and adds to them periodically. The teacher is best to write the questions on coloured paper to represent each subject. Therefore, if the teacher only wants to reinforce social studies, the students know only to ask questions that are written on blue cards. Other times, the teacher may want to test the students’ knowledge for all subjects.
A pitcher asks the question to the hitter. The hitter is allowed to choose if they are to have a single, double, triple, or home-run question. The pitcher asks the question and the hitter must answer. It is best to do time limits but give the students a minimum of 2 minutes to mull over the question.
The students will create a baseball field in the classroom. Students can use their desks as the bases. As a student correctly responds to a question they begin to walk around the bases. At the same time if the hitter scores a double hit, they walk to second and the person on second would walk to third and if their was a person on third they would walk home.
Each player that crosses the home-run base scores a point for their team. A player is out when they are unable to answer a question given by the hitter. Each team has three outs before the other team bats. Another option is to have all players have a turn at bat before changing teams, or if all players have a chance to hit with no outs, it is still the other teams turn to hit. The teacher and students are able to decide on a variety of options for how an inning is played.
The game may be played with nine innings over a course of a week or longer. The amount of innings is dependent on the volume of questions and the time restraints. The baseball game can continue with a running tally. At the end of the baseball game, there should be some type of reward for both sides. Rewards such as free time, drawing class, class party are just a sample of ideas.
