What’s Up PE Fam!
In this post I want to share with you some of my favorite soccer activities and also share some awesome resources we’ve created to help you plan an awesome soccer unit yourself!
Why Soccer?
According to the internet (Dr. Google that is), Soccer is the most popular sport in the entire world. It’s also super accessible for most kids regardless of economic status. All you need is a patch of grass (or dirt) a ball and a couple objects to mark a couple of goals and boom, you can play a soccer game with your friends.
So if you’re considering what subjects to teach in your PE curriculum, I’d say for those 2 reasons (popularity and accessibility) Soccer should be up there on your list.
One of the main reasons I teach soccer each year is because we have 2 soccer goals on our recess playground and it’s a pretty popular sport in our area. When planning my yearly curriculum I try to pick the subjects that I think will have the most “bang for their buck” with my students.
I ask myself what skills are most relevant and most likely be used by the students. Because of the student interest in soccer, the global popularity, the accessibility and opportunity for my students to play daily at recess, I think it’s an important skill set to give my students.
Below you’ll find a few videos from one of my soccer units that I hope help you get a visual of some of the games and activities I use to teach my students the skills for soccer.
Soccer Unit vs Kicking Unit
If you’re in the “Kicking Unit” camp, over the “Soccer Unit” camp – I totally understand and respect that.
I honestly don’t really think it matters too much what you call it, but the reason I choose to brand my units with the sport name is explained in the post below:
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Soccer Unit Intro
We always kick things off by getting back to the why – as a student I always appreciate teachers explaining to me WHY we are learning something, so I do my best to explain that to students anytime we start a new unit.
I also go over my expectations on management and my start and stop signal so we can quickly transition between each task and not waste any time ?
*Sidenote: The follow the leader footwork video mentioned is one of the videos included in our FTL Soccer Pack which is linked up at the bottom of this post.
I also usually try to “Hook” my students at the beginning of the unit by showing them a super cool youtube video of a professional player so they will be motivated to do their best to improve their skills – there are tons on youtube, but below is an example:
Practicing Footwork
I throw in some Footwork Ladder Drills into our Daily Warmup Routine to kick things off for our soccer unit.
We start the unit by working on some stationary soccer skills using a Follow the Leader Style format to practice our footwork and try to keep our Eyes Up and Use Soft Touches and Close Control throughout the Soccer Unit. I normally use my Soccer Follow the Leader Videos or Animated GIF Slideshow for this, but sometimes I just take the kids through it myself as well.
When everyone has had some practice and is warmed up, we start dribbling around in open space and work on staying inside the boundary lines and keeping the ballin control.
Teaching Shielding with Bumper Ball
With my older students I also teach them the concept of “Shielding” which is the term used to describe how you protect a ball in a soccer game. After explaining it to them we practice shielding the ball with a fun game I call Bumper Ball, check it out below.
So to summarize, I usually go around myself and practice “warm defense” so students can work on shielding the ball from me. I also sometimes pick a few students to help me out and become a “bumper” to play warm defense (especially with a large class or double classes, I would recommend getting some students to help)
If your soccer ball goes out of bounds in a game it’s a Turn Over (we are building in some of the actual rules of soccer into our modified games), so I tell students they need to earn their way back into the game by doing 5 exercises of their choice (Squats, Pushups or Curl ups).
The Partner Bridge Challenge (or “Meg Challenge”)
Another really fun activity and a great way to practice dribbling with control and also have some teachable moments with your students about goal setting and practice is a game I call the Partner Bridge Challenge or The Meg Challenge, you can check it out below:
As you can see this is a really great way to differentiate instruction for your students and challenge all kids no matter where their skill level is – in order to “Hit the Wow” (related to our Daily Self Assessment) kids have to beat their own score during the first round.
I love it watching kids get motivated to try and beat their score and then having a great discussion about practice, and how doing something twice will make it easier the second time around. It’s also a great time to talk about the power of a goal – since kids had a specific goal in their mind during the 2nd round it really helps motivate them to give their 100% in order to beat their score.
You can see another example of the activity below:
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Passing with the insides of our Feet
Nothing fancy here, we just work on passing a ball with control using the insides of our feet. I explain to the kids that we should NEVER use our toes to kick the ball, since our toes are pointed that would cause us to lose control of the ball (and also possibly injure ourselves).
We get some practice using the insides of our feet to pass the ball with a partner
Soccer Noodle Tag
Once we’ve got the basics down we play some fun modified games to practice our skills in an open environment.
A fun game to work on foot dribbling and passing is soccer noodle tag, it’s a fun variation of Fire and Ice Tag that works great for practicing the skill of finding open space and also controlling the ball while dribbling and passing to a teammate, you can see me explain it below:
*Here’s an overview of Noodle Dance Tag if your interested
You might recognize this one, because I’ve blogged about this activity before – If you want to try it out you can check out more details and download a free lesson plan below:
Soccer Station Activities
If you’ve read many of my posts or follow me on social for a while, you’ll know I’m all about some station activities, especially for my K-1st Kiddos.
I always implement some station work with my younger students during our soccer unit to maximize the time they have to practice the skills and focus on improving so that hopefully when they get older we can play some fun modified games.
To see my thoughts and general tips on teaching with station activities (and to get our Free 15 Printable Station Signs) Check out this Blog Post
We’ve designed some really nice printable soccer station signs with custom illustrations and kid friendly language, which are linked up at the bottom of this post if you’re interested.
Here’s an example from a Kindy class of some of the soccer stations I do with my kiddos
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Practicing Shooting
Everybody LOVES to shoot a goal. So I try to work in some fun modified games in addition to the station activities with the soccer goals and we can usually get into some pretty decent gameplay by the end of the unit.
One of our favorite games is Soccer Spot Shot, which is a spin off of a game I play in our basketball unit, so my kids are pretty familiar with the rules already which is helpful.
Basically, you split up into teams and practice shooting the ball using your laces or the inside of your foot from different polyspots around the room. If you make it – you get to keep the spot!
You can see an example of the game in the instagram post below:
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More Soccer Resources
I hope that gives you a great start on planning your next soccer unit, if you’d like some more resources, you can check out two of our premium Membership Resources below:
The Soccer Unit Resource Pack includes the Unit Plan, Cues Poster, Soccer Golf Scorecards and Printable Station Signs.
While the Soccer Follow the Leader Pack comes with some great Follow the Leader Videos and Animated GIF Slideshows to give your students some awesome visuals during the unit.
Both of these resources are available in our membership (info on the membership here) and are also for sale on our Teachers Pay Teachers Page.
You can see a preview of each resource below:
The Soccer Unit Resource Pack
- A 4 Week Unit Plan with Additional Activities and over 20 fun soccer games and progressions
- The Soccer Cues Poster to give you a summary of what students should take away from the unit
- Soccer Golf Scorecards for a fun game of Soccer Golf
- Printable Station Signs with 28 fun Soccer Station Activities
Check out the Soccer Unit Resource Pack
The Soccer Follow the Leader Pack
- 2 HD Follow the Leader Videos – students follow along to different footwork challenges
- 3 versions of the Basic Follow the Leader Video
- 3 versions of the Advanced Follow the Leader Video
- 2 Animated GIF Looping videos that show a review of all of the footwork challenges
- An Animated GIF Slideshow that includes all tricks in Animated GIF Form and can be used to edit and progress at your own pace through all of the different tricks
Check out the Soccer Follow the Leader Pack
That’s it friends! I hope that was helpful – have an awesome day!
Have Fun and Teach On!
Tre' says
I’m super happy I found this resource. This is my second year teaching P.E., 5th, and 6th graders, and my district is putting together a PO to purchase your membership program!
Do you use indoor soccer balls for this unit or gopher dodgeballs? I already have gopher soft and hard shell balls, but my only soccer balls are outdoor. I wanted to extend my soccer unit and move it into the gym since I’m limited by the rainy weather here.
Marcus says
Hey Tré,
We use all types of soccer balls, giving the students choice and differentiation when using equipment.
We use gator skin, indoor, and outdoor balls.
Emma G. says
Hi there! I enjoyed reading your blog about teaching a soccer unit. You have many great ideas, as you have definitely considered the pandemic and how to keep students safe. I am actually a collegiate soccer player and I truly think you do well to cover all the fundamental skills. You have many activities that will help to keep learners engaged. I am sure they enjoyed and will continue to enjoy this unit in the future. Keep up the great work!
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Emma,
Thanks for reaching out! Glad you’re enjoying the resources and feel they are authentic for young soccer players.
We really appreciate the kind words! Thank you!