School Yard Golf
Grades 1-2
Chalk
Development Goal
To develop cooperation and decision making skills.
Before You Start
Skills Practiced: Fine motor skills and strength perception.
Equipment Needed: Golf Balls/ Tennis Balls, Hockey Sticks, Chalk and Cones.
- Demonstrate safety with hockey sticks and golf balls.
- Review the course and point out which obstacles to look out for.
- Group students into teams of two or three, each team should determine an order that allows them all to take turns.
- Players should be able to tell you how to play, taking turns and maintaining safety.
Set Up
Look around your yard and create a mini golf layout. Find hills, divots, ramps, stairs, planter boxes, tables etc. to utilize as obstacles. To create a course, mark each hole with a number, 1-18. A standard golf course has 18 holes so adapt to what your space permits. Each hole should have a tee box, a place to start, and a cup/cone where each hole ends.
How to Play
- Each team will receive one ball and one hockey stick.
- You may use Rock Paper Scissors to determine which team will tee off first.
- The object of the game is to hit your ball into the cup in the fewest amount of tries.
- Once all teams have teed off, the team furthest from the hole should be hitting.
- If the ball advances past another team, the team who is now furthest from the hole gets a turn.
- If the ball fails to advance past another team, that team hits again until they are no longer the team furthest from the hole.
- Players should be taking turns hitting the ball for their team.
- Each team needs to count how many hits it takes to get the ball from the tee into the hole.
Variations
- Use a Frisbee instead of a golf ball.
- Play a Scramble: All players get to hit every time it is the team’s turn. Once all have hit the ball the team decides which ball it will use to take their next hit. All other players pick up their balls. Everyone gets to hit again from that spot when it is their team’s turn. The team must use each person’s hit at least once.