Ball Skills - Lesson 4

In the fourth lesson of a series on ball skills for nursery-aged children, the learning objectives are centered around developing the ability to throw and catch balls of various sizes with both control and accuracy. The success criteria for the lesson include being able to throw a bean bag and a ball with control, beginning to catch a bean bag using two hands, and successfully throwing and catching a bean bag. The key vocabulary introduced in this lesson consists of terms such as 'throw', 'catch', 'underarm', and 'step forward'. Essential equipment for the lesson includes bean bags, a large soft ball, a tennis ball, and cones.

The lesson is structured into three parts: warm-up, main activity, and cool down. The warm-up consists of the 'Traffic Light Game', where children move around the hall engaging in activities like jogging and side-stepping, responding to 'green light' for fast jogging, 'yellow light' for changing direction or slowing down, and 'red light' to stop and freeze. The main activity involves individual and paired exercises with bean bags, where children practice throwing the bean bag into the air and catching it, as well as underarm throwing to a partner. Extensions and variations of the exercises include adding claps between throws and using different types of balls. The lesson concludes with a cool down 'Exit Pass' activity where children form a circle, and each child catches and throws back a bean bag to the teacher before sitting down. The teacher may adjust their distance based on the children's catching abilities, and variations include using different sizes of balls to challenge the children's catching skills.