Many elementary age children take physical education as part of their academic curriculum. In this regard, throughout a typical school day of a child he/she has a physical education (also referred to as “PE”) class intermixed with his/her academic classes.
Typical PE classes focus entirely on physical activities that help a child learn the skills to be active in life. For example, PE classes teach fundamental locomotor skills, such as walking, running, hopping, jumping and skipping. In addition PE classes may also focus on nonlocomotor skills such as turning, twisting, swinging, balancing and bending. Addition physical activities in PE class may focus on teaching manipulative skills, such as catching, dribbling, throwing, or kicking. Other types of activities may include those directed toward improving gross/fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, spatial awareness, and agility/balance.
The present disclosure is a game that has a mixer positioned at a location on a gaming area and a plurality of balls randomly dispersed throughout the gaming area. In response to a command, a player on a team collects one or more of the plurality of balls, the score is incremented based upon the balls collected, the player throws the collected ball(s) into the mixer, and the mixer disperses the ball(s) back into the gaming area.
The disclosure can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The elements of the drawings are not necessarily to scale relative to each other, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the disclosure. Furthermore, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.
The present disclosure related to a physical and academic game that effectively integrates academic skills, e.g., reading and spelling, into basic physical skills. In this regard, the physical and academic game comprises a mixer goal that is placed in the middle of a playing area, e.g., a gym, a school yard, or other indoor or outdoor physical education arenas. Balls inscribed with letters of the alphabet are placed in proximity to the mixer goal. Children playing the game are tasked with building words from balls inscribed with letters of the alphabet. In order to perpetuate the game, once a child (or group of children, e.g., a team) have built the tasked word, the children throw the balls making up the word into the mixer goal, and the mixer goal disperses the balls back into the playing area.
In the embodiment shown, the floor mat 107 is a substantially square piece of fabric. However, the floor mat 107 may be other shapes and made of other types of materials in other embodiments. The floor mat 107 rests upon a gaming area 113, which can be, for example, a gym floor or a playground yard.
In the embodiment depicted, the four flexible poles 103a-103d are flexibly and removeably coupled to the floor mat 107. In this regard, the floor mat 107 may have openings and/or stops integrated therein to retain the poles 103a-103d with respect to the floor mat 107. Note that the floor mat 107 may not be used in other embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, the ends of each pole 103a-103d may comprise feet (not shown) coupled thereto that retain the poles in the positions shown in
The poles 103a-103d are inserted through casings 108a-108d, respectively. Each of the casings 108a-108d is a fabric channel of the ball receiver and disperser 104 through which the poles 103a-103d may be inserted. Note that when the poles 103a-103d are inserted within the casings 108a-108d, the poles 103a-103d bend such that the mixer 100 stands upright. Further, in bending the poles 103a-103d create a point 110 of the ball receiver and disperser 104.
In the embodiment depicted, the ball receiver and disperser 104 is a pyramidal shape having four faces 111a-111d. Note that the ball receiver and disperser 104 may be other shapes in other embodiments. For example, the ball receiver and disperser 104 may be rectangular or square.
The ball receiver and disperser 104 further comprises openings 106a and 106b, respectively. In the embodiment depicted, the openings 106a and 106b are triangular. However, the openings 106a and 106b may be other shapes in other embodiments, e.g., circular, square, etc. Further, the ball receiver and disperser 104 is coupled to flaps 102a and 102b. In one embodiment, the flaps 102a and 102b are sewn to the seams 112a, 112b and 112c, 112d, respectively. The flaps 102a and 102b are positioned such that a portion of each flap hangs below the ball receiver and disperser 104.
Further, the mixer 104 comprises the ball dispersion ramps 101a and 101b. Note that in the embodiment depicted in
The mixer 100 is used in a game, the rules and details for which are described further herein. Notably, during the game, a ball (not shown) is thrown into one of the openings 106a or 106b. The ball then falls through the force of gravity toward the ramps 101a and 101b. The flaps 102a and 102b create a barrier for the ball. In this regard, the flaps 102a and 102b ensure that the ball thrown is directed toward either ramp 101a or ramp 101b such that the ball thrown is dispersed into the gaming area 113. In this embodiment, the ball rolls downward on one of the ramps 101a or 101b and is launched from the mixer 100 to the gaming area 113.
In this regard, the ball receiver and disperser 104 receives a ball 201 through the opening 106a. The ball 201 falls through the force of gravity, and the flap 102a or 102b directs the ball 201 down the respective ramp 101a or 101b, which in
In the embodiment shown, the floor mat 107 and the poles exhibit the same structure and function as the embodiment depicted in
In the embodiment depicted, the ball receiver and disperser 306 is a pyramidal shape having the four faces 111a-111d. Note that the ball receiver and disperser 301 may be other shapes in other embodiments. For example, the ball receiver and disperser 301 may be rectangular or square.
The ball receiver and disperser 301 further comprise the openings 106a and 106b, respectively. In the embodiment depicted, the openings 106a and 106b are triangular. However, the openings 106a and 106b may be other shapes in other embodiments, e.g., circular, square, etc. Further, the ball receiver and disperser 301 is coupled to a funnel 309. In one embodiment, the funnel 309 is sewn to the seams 308a-308d. The funnel 309 is further coupled to a tube 310.
The mixer 100 is used in a game, the rules and details for which are described further herein. Notably, during the game, a ball 304 is thrown into one of the openings 106a or 106b. The ball then falls through the force of gravity toward the funnel 309. The ball 304 rolls along the inside surface 312 of the funnel 309, which directs the ball 304 to the tube 310.
The ball 304 falls through the tube through the force of gravity, and lands on the dispersion ball 302. The ball 304 bounces off the dispersion ball 302, and the ball 304 is dispersed to the gaming area 113. The dispersion of the ball 304 to the gaming area 113 is random and is based on the position at which the ball 304 strikes the dispersion ball 302.
With reference to the previous described figures, an exemplary game in accordance with the present disclosure will now be described. The game description following shall assume only two teams for ease of explanation and discussion. However, any number of teams may play the game of the present disclosure in other embodiments.
During set up of the game, a player or instructor (i.e., a teacher) places a mixer 100 (
Further, the point the point indicator pieces 701 (
Further note that the task cards 600 (
Additionally, builder trays 500 (
A plurality of players (not shown) is divided into teams. In the embodiment described herein, the game is described using two teams wherein each team comprises six players. However, each team may consist of any number of players in other embodiments, and there may be more than two teams in other embodiments. Thus, for the two teams created there are eight point indicator pieces available for retrieval and two sets of task cards (each set having an identifier that identifies the team associated with the set) in the gaming area.
Further, the wristbands 801-804 are worn by a subset of the players. In this regard, each team has a captain player and a point guard player, and each captain/point guard wears identifying wristband, e.g., the captain may wear a red wristband whereas the point guard may wear a yellow wristband. The other players on each team are referred to as “letter ninjas” herein.
When the game begins, the captain retrieves a task card 600 or 900 from the set of task cards identified for his/her team. The captain places the retrieved task card 600 or 900 next to the builder tray placed for his/her team. The task card 600 or 900, as described herein, identifies a word that the team is to spell in its builder tray 500.
The letter ninjas travel around the gaming area 113 looking for one or more balls 401 (
As the letter ninjas bring the balls 401 to the builder tray, he/she places the retrieved letter on the opening 501 associated with the letter position in the work. In another embodiment, the letter ninja may give the ball 401 to the captain, and the captain builds the word in the builder tray 500.
Once the letter ninjas have retrieved all letters in the word indicated by the task card 600 or 900 retrieved, the point guard travels to the point indicator pieces and retrieves one piece 701 (
Once the word is spelled on the builder tray 500 and the point indicator piece 701 collected, the letter ninjas retrieve the balls 401 from the builder tray 500. The letter ninjas travel to the mixer 100 (
The teams race against one another to build its complete point indicator 700, e.g., retrieve and position four pieces of the circular shaped point indicator to form a complete circle. In this regard, each team continues to build words identified by the task cards 600 or 900 until the team has a complete point indicator 700.
The mixer and game components may further be used for players who are non-readers, e.g., prekindergarten. In this regard, the instructor may instruct each player to find all the balls identifying his/her favorite color, and throw such balls 401 into the mixer.
For nonreaders, an instructor may also instruct each player to retrieve balls 401 having a particular color, e.g., red balls. Once the class has collected all the red balls, the students may throw the balls in the mixer.
This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/936,142 entitled Physical And Academic Game and filed on Feb. 5, 2014, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
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