Grade level: K-8
Equipment: Cones, tennis balls, buckets
Game Description: Many ways to play Hungry Hippos but the basic idea is simple: teams will race to collect as many tennis balls as possible. Race on foot, on scooters, with hockey sticks, or however you see fit! Lots of exercise and lots of fun.
- Use the center circle in the gym. Place 50-100 tennis balls (or alternative) inside circle.
- Create 4 teams at an equal distance away from the center.
- Give each team a bucket or a hula hoop as a collection bin.
- On the signal, the first player in each line races to the center, grabs a ball, and brings it back.
- Next player in line goes once their teammate has returned, etc, etc, until all the balls have been taken from middle.
- Count up the balls to see who wins!
- Play again and again.
I played this game and used a variety of objects and balls for my K-2 classes. For 1st and 2nd grades there was a mystery object (or two or three). At the end of the game I would tell the students what the mystery object was and how many points it was worth. Some objects were worth 2, 5 or 10 points, and I even used negative points and half points as well to incorporate more challenging math. The loved it!