What’s up Phys Ed Fam!
Before I give you an overview of how I teach my students Gaga Ball I wanted to give a context for WHY I am teaching this activity.
Why I Teach Gaga Ball to My Students
For the first 15 or so years of my career, I never taught Gaga Ball in my PE Curriculum.
The way that I choose the content I teach and plan my yearly curriculum revolves around what my students have access to and what will give me the best bang for my buck in terms of practical skills that my students can use in their every day lives.
In the game of Gaga Ball, students are using the skill of striking a ball with their hands. We use this same skill in other sports like Spikeball, Four Square and Volleyball.
Gaga ball is a targeting game (or as I like to call it, a “tag game” 😁) where students are attempting to hit a ball in order to tag another student from the knees down by striking a ball with their hands in order to eliminate them from the game.
While I had seen the game on social media and it looked fun, I didn’t find it to be a priority, because I didn’t think my kids would have many opportunities to play the game and had other activities that I thought would be more appropriate.
Then it got more popular in my area and our PTO paid for us to have a Gaga Ball Pit installed on our playground.
I just mention this, because if you don’t have a Gaga Pit at your school and your kids don’t have an opportunity to play outside of class, there might be other games and activities that might be a more appropriate and more fun choice for your students, you know what’s best for your specific kids and your PE Curriculum.
However, now that we have a Gaga Pit on our Playground, my kids have an opportunity to play every day when they are out at recess, which means it’s an important activity for me to train the school on so that everyone is on the same page with rules and understanding of the game and how to play.
I do a Gaga Ball Lesson each year at the beginning of the year along with our Four Square Lesson to cover 2 of our most important recess games and make sure all of our students are on the same page with the rules of both games
The most important aspect of games like Four Square and Gaga Ball where students are eliminated from the game when they make a mistake is to be sure you are creating a culture of Good Sportsmanship (see The Good Sport Code) and reminding students that “It’s Just a Game”. The purpose of the game is to have fun playing with our classmates, and making mistakes and “getting out” is part of the learning process that helps us improve our skills and knowledge of the game.
If you can build a culture where kids understand this in your PE Program, all of your activities will go so much more smoothly and everyone will have more fun!
If I have a class that’s really struggling with this concept, I will frequently stop the class during the game and give a shout out to students who are doing the right thing and showing an example of the behaviors I’m looking for.
For example:
“Way to go Amelia, when she got tagged by the ball, she just laughed and walked out of the pit. She knows that it’s just a game and she’ll be able to get back in to play again very quickly, that makes it so much more fun for everyone! Let’s give her a thumbs up!”
“When I play sports and games, I like to play with people like Amelia who know how to Be a Good Sport, because it’s more fun for everyone”
That said, lets get into how I teach Gaga to my kiddos
How I Teach Gaga Ball to My Students
Below is an overview of my “Intro to Gaga Ball” Lesson. We only spend one lesson going over the game, which is pretty similar for 1st – 5th grades. We do have some variations in the rules for my 1st and 2nd grade students since it’s their first time playing, see the breakdown below.
The Setup
I use 8 ft folding tables to create 2 Gaga Pits for one class of 25ish kiddos (if I had double classes of 50-60 I would do 3-4 pits instead of 2 if I had the tables available or work it in as a station activity)
Daily Warmup and Stretch Routine
Normally since we are doing this at the beginning of the year in week 3 or 4 of school I just have the kids do some walking and jogging lines with Hurdles to practice our Leaping skills on the jog lines. Then we head to our Home Base Spots to do our daily stretch routine at Home Base
You Can Find the Daily Warmup Poster and Video Overview Here
Intro Activity: Slapball
I start our lesson by playing a game called “Slapball” for about 5-6 minutes as warmup game to work on striking with our hands and to give kids a lot of practice before getting into the full game of Gaga Ball
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Slapball Rules:
- No Teams – Stay on Your Feet
- Hit the ball with one hand only (No Throwing)
- If you get tagged by the ball at the knees or lower or fall down you are out
- When out earn your way back into the game by going outside the lines and do 5 of any of the chosen exercises (Squats, Curlups, Pushups)
After explaining the rules of the game to my students we play for 2-3 minutes and then discuss strategies that are helpful in being successful in the game.
Reflective Questions for discussion:
- What are some helpful offensive strategies (when you’re trying to tag others with the ball)
- Finding people when they are distracted or not looking
- Using a closed fist instead of an open hand to get more power
- Looking one way and hitting it another way to fake someone out
- Hit the ball where the person is moving towards not where they are (leading them like a lead pass or throw)
- What are some helpful defensive strategies (when you’re trying not to get hit by the ball)
- Jump, Dodge or move out of the way
- Be aware of your surroundings, look around you frequently
- Keep moving, it’s harder to hit a moving target
- Use your hands to block the ball and hit it back at the person who tried to hit it at you
After discussion we play for 2-3 more minutes using the strategies we discussed and then clean up and go to Home Base to stretch out
Gaga Ball Intro and Rules Overview
After Slapball I show them a quick Gaga Ball Example video to give them a visual and example of the game
If we’re short on time and I might skip it ( I usually skip it with 4th and 5th because they already know how to play)
For 1st and 2nd I only show them the first half of the video since we will be playing Never Ending Gaga Ball and not down to the last person
I then go over the rules of the game and we play one round with half the class while the other half of the class stands around the pit and watches. I will frequently stop the game and discuss things that happen or clarify rules if needed for a few minutes until I feel kids have an understanding of the game.
After the demo we split up into our 2 courts and I let the kids play for 6-7 minutes or so before stopping and discussing strategies of the game again.
There are many similarities to Slapball, but also some differences like rebounding the ball off the wall to try and hit someone and staying away from the ball so you don’t get hit when it’s still crowded at the beginning of the game.
Grade Level Variations:
- Kindergarten: Striking with Hands Stations
- Since my Kindy kiddos aren’t really old enough to Play the Game correctly and don’t have the skills yet we just do some striking with hands station activities to explore learning how to control something by hitting it with our hands. See an example below:
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- 1st – 2nd: Play Never Ending Gaga Ball (The game never ends, when one player gets out and leaves the pit, the next player in line comes in)
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- Play 5-6 minutes and stop to discuss strategy
- How can you avoid getting hit? (move your feet, jump, block with your hands)
- How can you eliminate other players? (aim at someone not looking, bounce it off a wall)
- Play again for 5-6 minutes
- Mix Up The Groups
- Add in the rule that once students are out they will go to the opposite court instead of getting back into their line to mix up the players
- Play 5-6 minutes and stop to discuss strategy
- 3rd – 5th: Normal Gaga Ball (All players start in the game and play down to the last person)
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- Play for fun and offer any refinements needed as you see issues arise in the games, after about 5-6 minutes stop the class to have a group discussion and clarify any rules or discuss strategies with the class
- Options to mix it up for the rest of the time left in class:
- Girls Court and Boys Court
- Play for Fun Court and Compete Court
- One side is the Tournament Pit and one is the “Just for Fun Side” – Offer kids an option to keep playing for fun or come and play in a class tournament, their choice. Once kids are out on the tournament side they can still play on the Just for Fun Side.
- Play down to the last 2 players and do the 30 second countdown with the 3 touch rule modification – Once eliminated you go to the Just for Fun Side (Kids can also choose to play Just for Fun if they don’t want to compete in the tournament)
- *Lesson Variation: if you have more time or a longer class period is you can start by playing Never Ending Gaga Ball for 5 minutes to allow students a chance to practice and warmup and then transition to the full game where students play down to the last person after that
Gaga Ball Pit Recommendations
I can’t give a strong recommend on a Gaga Ball Pit brand specifically, but it will most likely come down to your budget and how much you want to spend on a pit.
Our school went with a cheaper pit which replaced some older playground equipment (the swings which unfortunately have been outlawed for being unsafe 😭). The area already had a mulch area so they just installed it over the mulch (see below)
Here’s a great post with an overview of lots of different types of Gaga Pits
After using this pit for a few years and finding it to be one of the most popular recess locations (and discovering that mulch wasn’t a great solution for the floor) we decided to upgrade the pit to a nicer option and order a pit from GagaBallPits.com which came with rubber mats, walls and all hardware needed to install (the mats and shipping was the highest expense so if you can find those locally you could save a lot of money)
Here’s our new Gaga Ball Pit. It’s made up of 10ft plastic composite 2×8 boards and is an Octagon shape.
The new pit is a big upgrade from what we had, but I’d recommend putting down some weed fabric under the mats (as you can see ours has some weeds growing up through the mats).
I’ve also seen inflatable gaga pits, which look cool and would be a lot of fun, but I’ve never actually used one so I can’t give any feedback on those. There are also some really nice Gaga Pits that have turf or the poured rubberized flooring so they don’t get soggy or wet and the ball rolls better during the game, which would definitely be an upgrade as well, but the cost will go up significantly for those.
Gaga Ball Rules
Feel free to modify and adjust, as there are hundreds of variations and ways to play the game
Below is a great video that has rules pretty similar to what we decided at my school if you’d like to use it:
Rules that we decided on at my school:
For our 1st and 2nd Graders we do Never Ending Gaga since they are being introduced to the game for the first time and it makes it less competitive, cycles the wait line in more quickly and allows more kiddos an opportunity to play.
Never Ending Gaga Ball Rules:
- Start with 15 students per game
- Toss ball in to start game and on each bounce say “Ga” Ga” “Ball”
- No double hits and stay on your feet
- When someone gets out the next person in line comes in (the game never ends)
- You are out if:
- The ball tags you from the knees down
- You touch the walls
- You fall down or touch the ground (Stay on your feet)
- You hit the ball over the walls
- You hit the ball up and someone catches you ball
- You hit the ball 2x in a row
Standard Gaga Ball Rules
For 3rd – 5th we use normal Gaga Rules where students play down to the last person. We do this because the students wanted to play by the normal rules and I agree that it is good for them to know how to play the actual game if they every get an opportunity at a summer camp, YMCA, church or after school program.
In this version, students will not re-enter the game until there is a winner or a tie is declared after the “Showdown”
We created a “Showdown” rule to speed up the game after seeing how slow it gets sometimes when there are only 2 people left
The Showdown Rule
- Once there are only 2 players left, all other students will begin a 30 second countdown
- During the countdown the remaining 2 players are allowed to hit the ball 3 times in a row without penalty
- If there is no winner before the countdown is complete the game is a tie
Free Gaga Ball Rules Sheet Download
If you’d like a copy of our Gaga Ball Rules, you can download the rules sheet below:
If you’re looking for more resources for teaching Gaga Ball, Four Square and Volleyball check out the resource pack below
The Striking with Hands Unit Resource Pack
Are you ready to take a deep dive in teaching Gaga Ball, Four Square and Volleyball?
Check out our Striking with Hands Resource Pack for lesson plans, station signs, cues posters and follow the leader slideshows that will make your next Striking with Hands Unit a Breeze!
The Striking with Hands Unit 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 Striking with Hands Unit Resource on TPT
Thanks for checking out this post – We appreciate you!
