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- Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games
Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games
by Phillip D. Tomporowski, Bryan A. McCullick and Caterina Pesce
256 Pages
There are plenty of books that help you use or create games that develop children’s physical skills, and it’s now widely accepted that physical activity can have a positive effect on academic achievement. But this is the first book that shows you how to tailor physical activity games specifically to enhance children’s cognitive abilities.
Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games, written by three authorities in teacher education, exercise physiology, and sport science, shows you how to apply current concepts in child development, cognitive science, physical education, and teacher training to create movement-based learning experiences that benefit children both physically and mentally.
You will be guided in creating environments that lend themselves to cognitive development and enhanced academic achievement. And you will understand not only how to create games to foster cognitive development but why such games are so useful in developing the whole child.
Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games offers the following features:
•Two chapters of sample games, one for preschoolers and kindergarteners, the other for elementary school children
•Expert guidance in creating your own games for children ages 3 to 12, with an emphasis on developmental ranges of 3 to 7 and 7 to 12
•A practice-oriented model of teacher education that shows you how you can best develop and implement physical activity games that support both motor and cognitive development
The book contains a running glossary to help teachers and students understand the terms used. It also discusses several models of 21st-century learning, highlighting the role that physical activity games play in a comprehensive education.
Enhancing Children’s Cognition With Physical Activity Games is equally useful for teachers working with children in school, before school, or after school and for program directors working with children in community programs. The authors link their application to research, creating a practical reference for professionals in the field, whatever their setting.
The book is presented in three parts. Part I grounds you in the research that shows how physical activity affects children’s mental development. You will learn how physical activity benefits children’s cognition and academics, how movement games help children think and learn, and how to create a motivational environment where children want to learn.
Part II helps you translate research into practice. You will explore how movements create mental maps and affect mental health, how to engage children in playful learning, and how to incorporate physical activity into your teaching and enhance your teaching models. You will also consider how to assess children at play—how to collect data and know when your program is being effective—and how to apply physical activity games in both the home and the community.
In part III, you are supplied with games for preschoolers, kindergartners, and elementary school children. You’ll find games that emphasize three principles: contextual interference, mental control, and discovery.
Each chapter concludes with practical implications for teeachers, helping you to put into context the information you have come across in that chapter.
Enhancing Children’s Cognition with Physical Activity Games helps educators create, design, implement, and evaluate problem-solving games that foster children’s mental engagement and thoughtful decision making. Kids are highly motivated by problem-solving games, and the cognitive skills they develop in solving those problems can be translated to their academic success.
Part I Physical Activity and Mental Development
Chapter 1 Understanding Children’s Mental Development
Mental Development
Skill and the Trajectory of Cognitive Development
Understanding Children’s Development From Multiple Points of View
Implications for Educators
Chapter 2 How Movement Influences Children’s Mental Development
Children’s Physical Activity
Physical Activity in Natural, Educational, and Recreational Settings
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children’s Cognition
How Physical Activity Benefits Children’s Cognition and Academics
Implication for Educators
Chapter 3 How Movement Games Help Children Think and Learn
Learning
What Influences the Shape of the Learning Curve?
Mental Energy and Children’s Learning
Developmental Tasks and Readiness to Learn
Implication for Educators
Chapter 4 Motivating Children to Learn by Playing
Motivation to Play Games
Challenge and Children’s Development
Creating a Motivational Climate for Learning and Enjoyment
Implication for Educators
Part II Translating Research to Practice
Chapter 5 Capitalizing on Physical Activity to Benefit Children’s Physical and Mental Health
How Physical Movements Create Mental Maps
Childhood Inactivity and Sedentary Behavior
Worldwide Trends in Childhood Obesity and Health
Children’s and Adolescents’ Mental Health
Implication for Educators
Chapter 6 Engaging Children in Playful Learning
Children’s Mental Engagement
Three Principles of Instruction
Teaching for Engagement
Implication for Educators
Chapter 7 Teaching Physical Activity Games for Cognitive Engagement
Who Are Physical Activity Teachers?
Skills Needed by Physical Activity Teachers
Selecting an Approach to Teaching
Enhancing the Effectiveness of Teaching Models
Considerations for Implementing Physical Activity Games Programs
Implication for Educators
Chapter 8 How to Assess Children at Play
What Is Assessment and Why Do It?
Selecting the Right Indicators of Program Success
Indicators of Program Effectiveness
Approaches to and Sources of Data Collection
Individual Differences, Measurement, and Game Development
Implication for Educators
Chapter 9 Integrating Physical Activity Games Into the Home and Community
Ecological Models
Applying Physical Activity Games to Ecological Models
21st-Century Schools
Implication for Educators
Part III Creating Effective Physical Activity Games
Chapter 10 Physical Activity Games for Preschool- and Kindergarten-Age Children
Moving From Play to Games
Games That Challenge Executive Functions
Connecting Games for Preschool- and Kindergarten-Age Children to SHAPE America Standards
Games Highlighting Contextual Interference
Games Emphasizing Mental Control
Games Highlighting Discovery
Implication for Educators
Chapter 11 Physical Activity Games for Elementary School–Age Children
Games That Challenge Executive Functions
Connecting Games for Elementary School–Age Children to SHAPE America Standards
Games Highlighting Contextual Interference
Games Emphasizing Mental Control
Games Promoting Discovery
Implication for Educators
Phillip D. Tomporowski, PhD, is a professor of kinesiology at the University of Georgia. An experimental psychologist, Tomporowski has been involved in the study of learning and the effects of exercise on mental functions for four decades. He has authored, coauthored, or edited five books and contributed chapters to a dozen of other books. He is widely published in journals on cognitive function and exercise issues in children and has received numerous grants to conduct studies in these and related areas. Tomporowski is a sought-after speaker at symposia and conventions. He is a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and a member of the American Psychological Society. He enjoys participating and instructing in the martial arts and taking part in triathlons and obstacle races.
Caterina Pesce, PhD, is a professor in the department of movement, human and health science at the Italian University Sport and Movement in Rome. She is a former physical education teacher with higher education in both sport science and experimental psychology. Since 2003 she has taught in higher education on physical activity for children. Her research focus has been on the effects of physical exercise on cognitive functioning. She coauthored a book on exercise and cognitive function and has authored or coauthored more than three dozen research publications in sport and exercise psychology and physical education. Pesce is a member of the Italian Society of Movement and Sport Sciences, associate editor for Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, a board member of the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, and a board member of the Italian national program of motor literacy for elementary schools. She enjoys jogging and singing and, above all, being a mother.
Bryan A. McCullick, PhD, is a professor of kinesiology at the University of Georgia. He is a former physical education teacher and has been a physical education teacher educator since 1997. He has given numerous keynote addresses at conferences related to physical education, physical activity, and teacher training. McCullick has coauthored two books, contributed numerous chapters in books, and written more than 40 journal articles. He has also received numerous grants to conduct research and received awards and recognitions, including winning the Mabel Lee Award from AAHPERD. McCullick is a fellow in the SHAPE America Research Consortium, has been associate editor for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport (RQES) and is on the RQES editorial board, was vice president of the Association Internationale des Ecoles Superieures d’Education Physique (AIESEP), and has served on many other editorial boards. Among his joys are being a father and a husband, playing golf (poorly), and following the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Miami Dolphins.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_501635_ebook_Main.jpg
Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
http://www.humankinetics.com/AcuCustom/Sitename/DAM/134/E5818_502312_ebook_Main.jpg
Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
How physical activity and exercise enhance children's cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved.
How Physical Activity and Exercise Enhance Children's Cognition
To understand how physical activity might affect cognition, it is important to have a general understanding of the structures and functions of the human brain and how those structures evolved. Many reflexive functions are controlled by brain systems that are evolutionarily very old; the brain structures involved in higher mental functions emerged relatively recently. The study of human evolution reveals that the physical activity of our early ancestors essentially guided the development of the modern human body and mind.
Our ancient ancestors faced life-threatening situations. To survive, they had to seek food, water, and shelter. Those who lacked the physical and mental skills essential to obtain these necessities perished. Brain size has been implicated as a crucial factor in the evolution of humans. The modern human brain consumes considerable energy - about 20 percent of the body's total energy production. Supplying the brain with the energy necessary to function efficiently led our ancestors to gradually alter their dietary intake and their behaviors. A hallmark accomplishment about 2.5 million years ago was the creation of tools that could be used to hunt and survive. The capacity to create and use tools requires complex cognitive and motor skills. Tools were made for specific tasks, and over time tool production became more sophisticated. As early humans migrated out of Africa, they learned not only how to deal with the immediate challenges of the environment, but also how to plan for future events. Survival depended on the ability to acquire and use knowledge about changes in terrain, weather patterns, sources of food and water, and shelter.
Over hundreds of thousands of years, the physical and mental characteristics seen in modern humans slowly changed. About 60,000 years ago, rapid changes in human cognition occurred. With language and the ability to think and reason, humans came to dominate the globe. Civilization emerged only 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, but within a short period of time, humans adapted to virtually every geographical area on the planet. In summary, the study of human evolution highlights the evolutionary role of physical activity and movement in the emergence of the brain structures responsible for complex cognitive and motor skills. The sections that follow address the link between physical activity and the development of brain and cognition across the life span and particularly during childhood.
Linking Physical Activity to Changes in the Brain
Although the brain is the center of thought and reasoning, relatively little was known about its structures until quite recently. Advances in technology and new tools over the past few decades revolutionized scientists' understanding of the brain and how it develops. Chapter 1 provided a brief description of brain development. Research conducted by neuroscientists over the past two decades has shed light on how physical activity and exercise may modify particular parts of the brain, which, in turn, alters the way children think and behave.
Four brain structures are likely to be influenced by physical activity - the cerebellum, motor cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus. As seen in figure 2.2, the cerebellum is a large brain structure that plays a key role in reflexive movement control and the fine-tuning of precise motor movement patterns. Recent research has shown that the cerebellum connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in the control of movement and learning new skills. Studies conducted with animals have revealed that complex physical activity produces long-lasting structural adaptations in the cerebellum (Iacoboni, 2001).
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Brain areas that change with physical activity: cerebellum, hippocampus, motor cortex, and prefrontal cortex.
cerebellum - An area of the brain that connects with every major brain structure and plays an important role in movement control and learning new skills.
motor cortex - A strip of brain tissue that sends commands to control muscles involved in movements.
prefrontal cortex - An area of the brain that consists of neural networks that make up the executive of the brain. It is involved in an awareness of current conditions, the retrieval of stored memories, and the formulation of action plans.
hippocampus - A structure located deep in the brain that plays a role in memory and learning.
Research conducted with laboratory animals, typically rats and mice, provides information about the effects of exercise that is not possible to obtain from humans. There is considerable support for the benefits of routine exercise on brain function in animals. Exercise leads to changes in neurons that control arousal and attention, increased levels of proteins that maintain brain health, the growth of new neurons in brain networks involved in learning and memory, and increased brain blood distribution (Hillman, Erickson, & Kramer, 2008).
Researchers who first showed that exercise causes improved cognition in humans were studying human aging. A number of studies conducted by Kramer and associates at the University of Illinois in the United States provided the first solid evidence that routine aerobic exercise increases older adults' executive functions (Kramer et al., 2002). Since then, experiments have linked exercise to alterations in brain structures and functions (Erickson & Kramer, 2009). More recently, these positive findings have been extended to younger adults and children (Krafft et al., 2014; Voss, Nagamatsu, Liu-Ambrose, & Kramer, 2011).
Linking Physical Activity to Children's Cognition
The ancient Greek philosopher Plato considered routine physical activity critical for children's education. His views have been supported by physicians and educators for centuries. However, until quite recently, relatively few studies considered whether and how physical activity influences children's thinking. Two general approaches have been used to study the effects of physical activity: one examines the effects of single bouts of acute exercise; the other examines chronic exercise training, which involves repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years (Audiffren, 2009). Acute exercise produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes. Chronic exercise training produces structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness. An understanding of the differences between the two approaches is important for appreciating the methods central to the physical activity games presented in later chapters.
acute exercise - Physical activity that produces temporary changes in children's physical arousal that affect thinking processes.
chronic exercise training - Repeated bouts of exercise over several weeks, months, or years that produce structural changes in the brain and improvements in physical fitness.
Both acute exercise and chronic exercise training benefit children's mental functioning - but in different ways. As children start moving, their heart and respiration rates increase; they become more aroused. Several studies have found that children's attention and learning improve immediately following physical activity that produces moderate levels of arousal (Tomporowski, 2003a). Studies highlight the importance of the nature of children's physical activity. Budde and colleagues (2008) found that a 10-minute bout of activity characterized by high demands on motor coordination control to mentally engage children improved their executive functions more than less demanding activity did. Similarly, Pesce and colleagues (Pesce et al., 2009) found that a 40-minute bout of a sport game led to better classroom learning than less mentally engaging aerobic exercise did. Although the type of activity and the duration of the bouts were quite different in the two studies, both showed that movement task complexity is an important factor. These findings are in direct opposition to the long-held view of many teachers that increases in children's arousal generated by recess and games interfere with academic classroom behavior and learning. In fact, the opposite is true. Physical activity, performed in the right way, may prepare, or prime, children to learn.
Also, physical fitness derived from habitual participation in physical activity seems to provide long-lasting benefits to cognitive functioning. Studies that compare physically fit and less physically fit children consistently show differences in brain structure and processing speed, which highlights the benefits of routine physical activity (Chaddock, Pontifex, Hillman, & Kramer, 2011).
The first experiment to clearly show that chronic exercise training improves children's mental function and alters brain function was conducted by Davis and colleagues (2011) at the Medical College of Georgia in the United States. They assigned overweight children randomly to a 20-minute or 40-minute exercise session, or to a nonintervention control group. Children in the exercise groups attended a 13-week after-school program in which they played games designed to maximize intermittent vigorous activity and to elicit high heart rate levels. The effects of the exercise programs on cognition were measured with a comprehensive test that provided measures of executive function, attention, spatial organization, and memory, and included a standardized test of academic achievement. The researchers discovered that exercise influenced specific measures of cognition and academic achievement.
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
Team bowling that requires more complex skills found in sports
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Team Bowling
Team Bowling may not sound like a game requiring even moderate physical activity. However, this game not only elicits some vigorous physical activity, but also requires more complex skills found in sports such as basketball, soccer, and most notably, team handball.
Teacher Essentials and Explanation Points
Similar to team handball in many respects, Team Bowling involves the use of rolling, passing, and shooting skills to knock down an opposing team's pins. As in the sport of team handball, players face ball-handling, running, and shooting limitations. Teams can range from five to seven players (depending on class size and the space available), and the shooting line should be roughly 10 to 15 feet (3 to 4.6 m) from the pins. Each team has five to seven pins. Play areas look roughly similar to team handball courts (see figure 11.1) and have two teams of up to seven players each. One team per play area wears pinnies. As in traditional bowling, students try to knock down pins. However, in Team Bowling students are on teams and try to knock down the pins of the opposing team. To start, cluster the pins relatively close together.
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Activity map for Team Bowling.
You will need to clearly outline the rules. We recommend that you use a rules sheet (as may be used in golf) in the form of a poster or slide that can be hung or projected onto the gym wall to remind children of the rules. The rules require all players to roll handballs along the ground when passing or shooting at opponents' pins. When a player acquires a ball, he may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling the ball at a pin. However, players on the opposite team can intercept any passes or rolls at pins as long as they are not inside the area delineated by the shooting line. All children will be tempted to use their feet, but they may intercept a rolled ball with their hands only. Be sure to remind players that they may not go behind the designated shooting line unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
Teams may quickly adopt long passes as a strategy for moving the ball down the court quickly. Although this is a good strategy, it may exclude many children from playing. Consider allowing teams a certain number of long-range, full-court-type passes per round. Also, make sure students do not camp out on one side of the court the entire time; everyone should strike a balance between playing offense and defense.
Challenges Posed
Ask children to consider how a shooter may knock over more than one pin at a time, the best way to keep the other team from stealing the ball, the length of shot that has the highest probability of success, and how to guard the person with the ball. Children need to be aware of tactical issues, and some tactics require help from others.For example, children must learn that they need to pass the ball repeatedly to be successful in this game. Passing requires that the offense be spread out, and this requires the defense to spread out as well. Close-range shooting is more effective than long-range shooting, but it requires a more concerted effort from teammates.
Almost invariably, passing and shooting from close range seldom occur during the first few trials of this game. We suggest that you stop the game and point out to the class instances in which a team used multiple passes while spread out to shoot (but not necessarily make) a close-range shot. In fact, it is probably even more critical for you to do this when the shot is not successful because children usually equate success with making a shot, regardless of how it was achieved. Stopping to discuss a missed shot based on good decisions, and labeling the shot correct can underscore the notion that strategy is critical and will, more often than not, result in success.
Small Modifications and Moving On
Note whether children make good passes before they can shoot the ball.They will likely struggle with the three-step rule at first, but their performance will improve with time and reminders. Children should be able to complete multiple passes per ball possession and have regular chances to shoot before moving to the next game. Actually, a team should exhibit the ability to spread out during play rather than cluster around the ball (during offense or defense).
To modify the game, you could require a certain number of consecutive passes before a team shoots the ball, or require that everyone on a team touch the ball before a team member may take a shot.
Game Breakdown
Because the skills needed for Team Bowling are minimal, it is quite inclusive, which helps with groups of children with varying ability. Furthermore, equipment is readily available if needed.
Equipment
Needs based on a 30-student class:
- Two or more team handball balls (or other similar balls)
- Five to seven bowling pins per team (or similar targets, 30 maximum)
- 10 or more cones (tape or poly spots may also be used to delineate the shooting area)
- Pinnies or flag belts (for team identification)
Skills Needed
- Rolling and passing (a ball)
- Aiming at a target
Rules
- Players may pass the ball in any manner, but must roll the ball when shooting at the pins.
- A player holding the ball may take only three steps before passing to a teammate or rolling to (shooting at) a pin.
- Players may intercept passes with their hands only.
- Players must stay outside of the area designated by the shooting line during play unless they are going to retrieve a missed shot by the other team.
- Out-of-bounds balls result in a turnover to the team without the ball, from the spot where the ball went out.
Questions
- Is it possible to knock over more than one pin at a time?
- How can you keep the other team from stealing the ball?
- Is it better to take a longer or closer shot? Why?
- Should everyone try to guard the person with the ball? Why or why not?
Learn more about Enhancing Children's Cognition With Physical Activity Games.
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