Homerun Derby Preschool Style

Usually I wait to teach baseball until Spring Training starts, but being hopeful that the M's might make it to the playoffs this year, I decided to start baseball now (sorry M's but I have many friends who are A's fans in the Bay Area that are excited).

My first three years of teaching PE, I taught at the middle school level, (I am one of those random people that really like middle schoolers), and I was amazed at how little they knew about the fundamentals of baseball. When teaching our Incrediball unit (a "soft" version of a softball - unless you get hit, then it doesn't feel too soft), I noticed that the kids had no idea how or where to run after they hit. So I vowed then and there no student of mine would be clueless when running the bases!

To keep it simple for the preschoolers, they hit the ball off the tee...

and then ran to colored bases (I didn't take a picture of this because it was hard to get a good picture of the "diamond" but I used three different colored poly spots). Each base is a different color, so we would cheer them on telling them what color to run to. A few tried to field their own hit, but once they got the hang of it, they really loved it - even those that "bunted" got homeruns.

With a group of 16 kids ranging from 3 on up, safety is key, so I put out my "line-up behind this circle" poly spot...

I love using what is going on in the world of sports to teach the kids new skills and hopefully encourage an interest in following sports - at least the "big games".