Sports

Books

Ages 4- 8

  • Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki
  • Béisbol en los Barrios by Henry Horenstein
  • Bon Odori Dancer by Karen Kawamoto McCoy
  • Jingle Dancer by Cynthia Leitich Smith
  • We Love Soccer! by Peggy Harrison
  • Goal by Robert Burleigh
  • Game Time by Stuart J. Murphy

    • Activities

    Go Team! Pennants (www.kidspartyfun.com/pages/themes/soccer.html)

    Materials: Construction paper, markers, crayons, stickers, glitter, glue, scissors.

  • Cut out pennant (elongated triangle) shapes from paper.
  • Have each child decorate a pennant in honor of their favorite sports team. If they don’t have one, they can create an imaginary team.

    • Dancing Musical Chairs

    Materials: chairs, music, CD/ tape player.

  • Play musical chairs after reading a book about dancing.
  • Invent silly dance moves for the kids to do around the chairs and try to incorporate different types of dancing you may have read about.

    • Personalized Trading Cards (www.kidspartyfun.com/pages/themes/baseball.html)

    Materials: poster board, markers, crayons, stickers, glitter, glue, scissors.

  • Cut out rectangular trading card shapes a bit more over-sized than usual.
  • Let the kids decorate their own sports trading cards. They can make them about themselves, a character in a book they just read, or their favorite sports figure.

    • Ball Prints (http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/sports/art.htm)

    Materials: large, shallow containers; paint; paper; small sports balls (baseballs, golf balls, tennis balls).

  • Put some paint (not a lot!) into the containers.
  • Have the kids roll their sports ball of choice in the paint and then on to their papers to create unique patterns.

    • Snacks

    Popcorn Candy Clusters (http://www.recipesource.com/misc/kids/crunchy-snacks1.html)

  • Ingredients: 1 c (8 oz) semisweet chocolate chips, 1 c freshly popped corn, 1 c nuts, cookie sheet, mixing bowl and spoon.
  • Melt chocolate chips in microwave. Add in popcorn and nuts and stir until they are well-coated.
  • Drop by spoonfuls on to a cookie sheet.
  • Freeze for 5 min and serve. Can be stored for later in plastic bags.
  • Think Chocolate Crackerjacks, a baseball favorite.

    • Favorite Sports Cupcake (http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/special/cake/cake_bball/)

  • Ingredients: red, black, white, orange, and brown frosting (preferably in small tubes), popsicle sticks, toothpicks, round flat sugar cookies.
  • Let each child decorate their own sugar cookies with frosting to represent their favorite sport by creating their own basketball, baseball, football, soccer ball, etc.
  • Use the Popsicle sticks for spreading and toothpicks for details.

    • Ring Around the Posey (ww.kraftfoods.com/recipes/EspeciallyforKids/Snacks/RingAroundthePosey)

  • Ingredients for 12: 1 tub (8 oz) strawberry cream cheese spread, 1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow crème, 24 vanilla wafers, 24 apple slices, paper plates.
  • Prepare Beforehand: well-blended cream cheese and marshmallow mix which has been refrigerated for at least 1 hr.
  • With Kids: Mound mixture in the center of a plate and let kids arrange the wafers and apples around the mix like petals around a flower.
  • Dance around and play the game after eating.

    • Chocolatey Football Bites (www.kraftfoods.com/recipes/EspeciallyforKids/Snacks/ChocolateyFootballBites.html)

  • Ingredients for 18: 4 c Cocoa Pebbles cereal, 6 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate, ½ c light corn syrup, 1 tbsp butter/margarine, ½ tsp vanilla, white decorating gel, wax paper, mixing bowl and spoon.
  • Microwave chocolate, corn syrup, and butter for 2 ½ min, pausing to stir after 1 ½ min. Stir in vanilla afterwards.
  • Pour mixture over cereal and mix well.
  • Slightly moisten hands and shape into 18 3-in long footballs. Place on wax paper and let them cool completely.
  • Use decorating gel to add lacings to footballs.