Each row in class is a team. Give each team a name. I like them to pick the names of their favorite baseball team. Write the names on the board with a row for points next to it. You also need to keep track of strikes and outs. I don't keep track of balls and fouls as that's just unnecessarily complicated and drags the game out longer than it needs to be.
I stand at the front of the room while the JTE stands in the middle to throw the first pitch. (If the JTE wants to, s/he can pitch the whole game. If not, the student who catches the ball can pitch so the pitcher changes often getting more students involved.) The pitcher can throw under or overhanded and as fast or slow as they want, depending on the class and students and, of course, the JTE.
I start with the first team on my right. I call the first batter to the front of the room and hand them a bat. At my base school I use a kid's plastic bat. At my visiting school I use a bat I made out of a PET bottle and B4 poster board and lots of tape. Then I wrapped it in brown construction paper and labeled it Little Slugger. The ball I use at my base school is a very soft foam ball that looks like a baseball. At my visiting school I made an origami boulder and wrapped it with tape. (FYI, the reason for the differences is that a boy at my visiting school just got in trouble for breaking a window with a soft baseball and I didn't want to take a chance of that happening again due to my lesson.)
The JTE throws the ball toward the batter. The batter hits the ball and the students in the class try to catch the ball. Whoever catches the ball stands up and answers a question. I have a box of questions ranging in difficulty and, therefore, point value. Some examples of the questions I prepared are:
- What's your name? (1 pt.)
- Translate eraser. (1 pt.)
- Correct the sentence: I be going to the store. (2 pts.)
- Arrange the sentence: me/uncle/bike/my/bought/month/a/last (2 pts.)
- Make a question using the word "what" (or who, when, where, why, how, which). (3 pts.)
- How do you make taco rice? (4 pts.)
The questions really can be about anything. I randomly pick a question and ask the student who caught the ball. If the catcher can answer, then the batter is out. I usually give them five seconds once I know they've understood the question. If they can't answer, then the batter gets a chance to answer. If the batter answers correctly, his/her team gets a point and gets to go to a base. I make first, second, third, and home plate cards and post them in the room in an approximate diamond shape. One point questions are singles so they go to first base. Two point questions are doubles so they get to go to second base. Three point questions are triples, and four point questions are home runs. If a batter makes it around the bases to home plate, then the team gets an extra point. (This rarely happens since many of the questions are so easy.) If the batter can't answer the question, then I ask if anyone in the class can give the answer. Whoever does earns a point for his or her team.
They get three strikes and three outs. It works pretty closely to the way American baseball is played. For example, if someone is on first and the next batter correctly answers a three point questions, then the first student gets to go to second, third, and home earning an extra point for his/her team, while the second student stops at third base.
I've played it with several classes now and I think I've tweaked it to about as perfect as I can. If you have any suggestions, let me know by commenting.
Enjoy!
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