What’s up Phys Ed Fam!
Are you looking into teaching a Softball or Baseball Unit, also known as a Batting and Fielding Unit in your PE Classes?
In this post I’ll give you an overview of how I teach my 3 Week Batting and Fielding Unit and some of my favorite games to play each week to work on batting and fielding skills with my elementary age students.
If you dig the games, activities and videos and want to take a deeper dive, you can check out our Batting and Fielding Resource Pack at the bottom of the post which includes a detailed Unit Plan, Supplemental Slideshow, Printable Station Activity Signs, Printable Throwing Targets and our Batting and Fielding Cues Poster.
Rotating Units with a Spiral Curriculum
This is one of the units I don’t have the time in my schedule to teach each year, but I try to rotate into my curriculum every other year and usually swap it out with my paddles or tennis / pickleball unit so my kids are getting a striking with implements unit and practicing baseball/softball or tennis/paddles skills each year.
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Recommended Equipment
Of course you can use whatever equipment you have, but below is what I normally use and recommend if you’re looking for equipment (these are all also linked up in our Amazon Store):
- Batting Tees or Large Cones to hit off of
- Foam Balls if inside (Franklin Soft Foam Baseball or Foam Tennis Trainer), although if you’re outside I’d recommend Whiffle Balls because the foam balls will most likely get too much wear and tear playing outside
- Polyspots for bases
- Plastic Bats or Foam Pool Noodles cut in half
- For boundaries you can use small cones, spots or ropes
Warmup / Instant Activity
We always kick off our class with a warmup or instant activity and during the batting and fielding unit 2 of my favorites are SWITCH or Popflies and Grounders, although with my younger Kindy and 1st Grade kiddos I’ll sometimes just have them do something simple like walking and jogging lines and practice zig zagging the batting tees.
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How to play Switch in the video below (more deets here):
How to play Popflies and Grounders below:
After a quick warmup, we go to our Home Base Spots and get a quick stretch while I take attendance and then get into our lesson.
Intro to Batting
I usually kick off my school year with a Throwing and Catching Unit at the beginning of the year, so the Fielding Portion of the unit is more of a review, but we take some time to go over batting skills and that will be the main focus of the unit, although we will review and touch on fielding skills as well since those are an important part being able to play softball or baseball type games.
Check out how I introduce my kiddos to batting and the cues we use for the swing below:
After letting the kids do a few visualization exercises where we walk through the motions with their swing and go over the cues we play a game called One Base.
*I usually do this with my 2nd – 5th kids and with my K-1st kiddos I usually do some exploratory striking with balloons skills and do the One Base Activity the following week with them.
One Base: A Fun Batting and Fielding Game for PE
One base is a great game that can be played with partners or groups of 3, I usually try and do groups of 3 with my 2nd – 5th kids and partner work with my K-1st kids to decrease the complexity of the game.
Check out how I teach the game to my kids and some helpful tips in the video below:
As you can see from the video One Base is a great game to practice batting and fielding skills.
There are lots of ways to modify the game and make it appropriate for both young and older students.
You can play for fun and get some quality skills practice or keep score and allow your kiddos to compete for points during the game, do what you think is best for your students.
Basics of the Game:
- In the game you have a Batter, First Base and Outfielder.
- The batter will get 2 hits, if they miss or hit the Tee it doesn’t count as a hit, just try again
- After the batter hits they will practice Dropping the Bat, Run to the base and tag it with their foot and run back to Home Plate and tag it with their foot
- The Fielders will work together to field the ball and get it back to First Base where the player at First Base will catch the ball and tag the base with their foot and yell “OUT!”, First Base will hold the ball
- The batter will hit their 2nd attempt and then all players will rotate
- Rotation after 2 hits:
- Batter → Outfield → First Base → Batter
Batting Cues to Emphasize:
Balanced Stance – Bat Back – Level Swing – Follow through (Squash the Bug!!) – Drop the Bat
Safety Notes:
- The Batting Zone is the DANGER ZONE!
- Batters make sure you DROP the bat
- Have students repeat: “Hit the Ball… Drop the Bat… Tag the Base”
- I start kids with a noodle and then for my older students move them up to a plastic bat if they “Earn it” with proper safety protocols in class
The Good Sport Code Reminder
With any competitive game you might need to give some reminders about Good Sportsmanship.
I use the Good Sport Code Poster to give my kids a reminder whenever it’s needed.
If you’d like to download The Good Sport Code Poster for free you can check it out Here
Week 2 – Four Square Baseball
For our week 2 lesson, after we get a quick instant activity and review of what we learned last week, I like to play One Base with my lil kiddos and we normally just play for fun with a partner
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With my 2nd – 5th kids I teach them how to play a game we call 4 Square Baseball.
You can check out how to play the game and see some clips of the game being played in the video below:
Four Square Baseball Game Summary:
As you can see from the video, the concept of the game is similar to the “Yard of the Month / Dirty Back Yard” game that is a popular throwing game.
The goal of the game is to bat more balls into the other teams areas than they are able to bat into your team’s area.
This is a great game to play outside since the more space you have the more Batting Tees you can have which will make the game more fun and allow for more kids to practice hitting.
When playing outside I normally use a tug of war rope, team jumprope or just a long piece of rope to mark the lines that create the 4 squares on the field.
Safety Reminders:
- Just like during week 1, I only let my responsible classes use a plastic bat and if I have a student who slings a bat I make them use a pool noodle for the rest of the class to avoid any injuries
- Remind students to: “Hit the Ball, Drop the Bat, Tag the Bucket”
Fun Game Variations and Levels:
- Add more Batting Tees to the game to increase hits and make it more fun
- Add standing gymnastics mats or another divider on the midlines to create a “Fence” that batter will have to hit over
- Add Fielders on the lines to try and block the balls from making it into their squares
Week 3 – Home Run Derby and Striking with Implements Stations
During the final week of any unit I try to plan a fun culminating activity for my kids that will leave them with a positive experience related to the unit that we’ve been learning about.
For my little kiddos we normally do some batting and fielding station activities related to the skills we’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks.
For example, Partner T-Ball is always a hit:
You can check out some of my other favorite Striking with Implements Station Activities Here
With my older students we have a Home Run Derby to give them the feeling of the excitement of a Baseball or Softball Game, but with a lot more opportunities to hit the ball and field the ball and less complicated rules.
My kids always enjoy this activity, you can check it out in the video below:
So there you go, Home Run Derby is a fun activity that you can modify for your space and teaching situation.
In my experience, this activity works a lot better than trying to do a normal baseball or softball scrimmage. If you are going to try doing a scrimmage I’d recommend at least splitting up into a few different fields so you have small sided games going and kids get more opportunities to move, play and practice their skills.
Home Run Derby Game Summary:
- Each team will have a chance to bat and field during each inning
- The teacher tallies up the score for the batters based on the point values of the zone where the ball lands
- The Fielders get 2 points for each ball they are able to field into the fielding bucket before the time runs out
Home Run Derby Batter Point Zones
You’ll have to make your own point system and modify to work for your space, but below is an example of the point system I use for the game:
- Past Half Court = 2 points
- Past 3/4 Court line = 3 points
- Hits the wall on a roll = 4 points
- Hits the wall in the air = 10 points
- Hits the Basketball Goal Backboard = 20 points
You can modify the game however you’d like, below are a few variation ideas for you:
- Modify the point system however you want to make it work for you
- Add in a base and have the batter try to run to the base and back before the fielders get the ball into the bucket
- Add extra Tees to accommodate larger numbers of students
That’s pretty much it for our Batting and Fielding Unit Overview. I hope you’ve gotten some good ideas and activities that will help you in planning your next unit.
My main goal with this unit is to give my kids a fun game like experience and allow them to develop enough knowledge and skills to pursue playing the game on their own if they choose to.
If you’re interested in getting all of our Baseball and Softball resources in one awesome package, check out our Batting and Fielding Resource Pack, you can find an overview, details and links below.
The Batting and Fielding Resource Pack
If you want to take a deeper dive into the Batting and Fielding Unit, we’ve developed an awesome resource that will help you in rocking the next unit that you teach. You can see a walkthrough of what’s included in the video below:
The Batting and Fielding Resource Pack is available in our PE Specialist Membership Library (info on the program here) or on our Teachers Pay Teachers Page at the link below
Check out the Batting and Fielding Unit Resource Pack on TPT
The Resource Pack Includes:
- Printable Batting and Fielding Unit Plan
- Printable Batting and Fielding Station Activity Signs
- Printable Batting and Fielding Cues Poster
- Supplemental Slideshow with Skill Cues and Game Rules
- Printable Good Sport Code Poster
- Printable Throwing Targets
That’s a Wrap
Thanks for checking out this post.
I hope it was super helpful and I appreciate all that you do for your students!
Keep up the good work and most importantly…