Looking for ways to add some movement and fun to your classroom? You may be surprised to learn you can achieve this with something as simple as a tennis ball.
This rubber ball can be used in a variety of games and activities for all age groups! Whether you’re looking for educational or entertainment value, we’ve got 20 ideas you can add to your classroom.
Tennis Ball Games for Preschool
1. Monster Ball
This is a great activity for preschoolers to practice fine motor skills and grow hand strength. Cut a slit in a tennis ball for a “mouth”. Make sure the slit is long enough that the mouth will open fully. Draw a face or hot glue eyes on it. Have your kids practice picking up marbles, rocks, or gemstones with their monster balls.
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2. Crab Soccer
Crab crawling is a rite of passage as a kid. Combining crab crawling and soccer are great motor movement activities. To walk like a crab, crawl on your hands and feet with your back facing the floor. When your students conquer the crawl, it’s time to add in the rubber ball. Students pass the ball between themselves while keeping their bodies off the floor.
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3. Ball Bounce
Have your students practice their colors and vocabulary. Using different colored tennis balls, each student chooses a color and then tosses the ball toward the vocabulary flashcards. Whichever card the ball lands on, the student has to say that vocabulary word.
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4. Preschool Warm-Up Activities
Coach Smith has created an awesome video demonstrating 8 movements with tennis balls that are fantastic for working on your little ones’ mobility and hand-eye coordination skills. Simply project this video in your classroom and encourage them to mimic each movement using their own tennis balls, making sure to assist any of your students who need a helping hand.
Learn More: YouTube
Tennis Ball Games for Elementary
5. Bananagrams
Bananagrams is usually played with tiles, but we’re going to play with tennis balls. Write one letter on each ball and put your students in pairs. Give them 9-10 balls and see who can create and connect all their words.
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6. Tennis Ball Tower
Students love building things, and Smart Chick created a challenge perfect for elementary students – a tennis ball tower. The students compete to see who can build the tallest towers using only straws and tape.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
7. Four Square
Four Square is a classic outdoor activity. Instead of using a soft playground ball, try playing with a tennis ball. Set up the four-squared court and let the kids find out who is king!
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8. Silent ball
Silent Ball is the favorite game of many teachers. Students toss the ball to a classmate. They must stay silent, and if they drop the ball, they’re out.
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9. Tennis Ball Multiplication
Let’s practice multiplication! Student one says a number and passes the ball. Student two says another number and passes the ball again. Student three must then multiply those two numbers and tell the product. Then the child starts over with a new number and repeats it.
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10. Elementary Warm-Up Activities
If you’re looking to increase the difficulty of your warm-up activities, this video from Coach Meger is the perfect choice for your Elementary learners. Prompt your kids to pick up their tennis balls as you have them attempt these challenging exercises that are specifically designed to improve their ball skills.
Learn More: YouTube
Tennis Ball Games for Middle School
12. Catapults
This is an extra challenge your students will love! Challenge your middle school students to build a catapult to launch a tennis ball and hit a target five meters away.
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13. Trashketball
This game is normally played with a basketball or a paper ball but who says you can’t play it with different kinds of balls? You just need a trash can and your ball of choice. When students answer review questions, they get the chance to shoot a ball into the trash can for points.
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14. Tennis Hockey
The truth is, we can play most ball games with tennis balls and hockey is no exception. Instead of using a puck, use a tennis ball and instead of a hockey stick, use tennis rackets!
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15. Bowling
A tennis ball might not be able to knock over a bowling pin, but it could knock over water bottles or plastic glasses. The key is to roll the ball slowly and not let it bounce too much.
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16. Relay Races
Got PE time with your middle schoolers or need them to burn off some energy? Set up these fast-paced relay races for them where you’ll divide them into two teams and set them off on a race against each other. The game aims to have each player run through a cone maze and then hand a tennis ball to their teammate at the end of the course.
Learn More: YouTube
Tennis Ball Games for High School
17. Tennis Ball Bounce
Kevin Butler does a great job of coming up with games for his students! In Tennis Ball Bounce, students earn tennis balls for every correct answer they get during a review. They then try to bounce their ball into their bucket for points.
Learn More: The Kevin J. Butler
18. Choose Your Victim
This is a game I play during many of my reviews and no, it is not a painful game (most of the time). I give the students a topic such as pronouns and toss them the ball. They then create a sentence, toss the ball to another student, give that student a pronoun, and the process continues.
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19. Slope Line Graphs
Check out this activity from MathByDesign. The students graph how many times they can bounce a ball in one minute. Not only does it get your students active, but it also will make the concept of slope line graphs much more appealing to them.
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
20. Pass The Story
I love any activity that stimulates my students’ creativity. To play this game, start by giving your kiddos a theme and have them start with “Once upon a time…”. Then they’ll pass the ball to one another, each adding a line to the story when they have the ball. The final person to get the ball then concludes the story and then you can start over with a different theme.
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21. Curling
While curling is a pretty popular Olympic sport, it’s possible that your children are completely unaware of it. In this version, you’ll introduce them to this competitive sport by replacing its equipment with tennis balls and challenging your players to see who can roll their ball closest to the bullseye that you’ll lay out on your classroom floor.
Learn More: World Curling Federation
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