Dribbling and Math

Hiawatha Elementary School
Physical Education
Dribbling and Math
The first week in December saw the elementary students practicing their dribbling skills. Along with these coordination skills, games were included to enhance the learning experience. The final day of dribbling saw the first through fourth grade classes doing math problems along with dribbling. As the students were dribbling around the gym they would go to one of four hoops and pick up an index card with a math problem on it—grade appropriate. They would mentally solve the problem and then dribble to the cone that had the corresponding number on it to their answer. They would then continue to the hoop for another problem. At the conclusion of the game the students would team up to check the cards to see if they were in the correct place. Collectively, the 15 classes did 2318 problems and got 2016 correct for a score of 87%. The grade level best were as follows: First Grade—Mrs. Moore, 117/125 for 93.6%, Second Grade—Mrs.Brown, 152/161 for 94.0%, Third Grade—Ms. Spielman, 139/152 for 91.4% and Fourth Grade—Mr. Runer, 240/257 for 93.4%. The students really enjoyed the game and got a lot of mental math practice along with their dribbling skills.