Every Olympic year, I present the students with the challenge of inventing a new sport that combines two real sports from either the Summer or Winter Games. The creativity always amazes me, as the students are challenged to come up with visual aids, rules, scoring systems, and even uniforms! Paragraphs are organized by Introduction, Details, and Conclusions, with an emphasis on painting a picture in the readers' mind of what this new sport would look like. My older students were challenged to get creative with hooks and intentional fragments. Enjoy these samples from across the grades!
Hit Soccer, by Eleanor (2nd grade)
I have created a hard new sport for the next Olympic games. It is called "Hit Soccer." This challenging sport combines golf and soccer, and will make you happy to watch.
Let me explain how to play. One player kicks the golf ball with his feet. The other player hits the soccer ball with the golf club. Winners are first to get the golf ball in the hole, and the soccer ball in the net.
The uniforms are t-shirts with the number on the front, and a hat. It's play on the largest field, and there's a referee, people cheering, and points.
In conclusion, my new sport is the hardest new game!
Volleyskating, by Maya (4th grade)
I have created a fabulous new sport for the next Olympic games. It is called "Volleyskating." This amazing new sport combines volleyball and figure skating, and will be very exciting to watch.
The Winter Sport of Volleyskating will have the same aspects of a volleyball game. Teams get one point if they make a serve, and they get three hits on a side. The game is to 25 points, but you get two extra points in a serve if you do a figure skating trick! The players would need all their gear (including butt cushions), of course. However, to look stylish, they would wear a cute customized outfit that the players would choose for themselves. The team colors have to be light blue, white, and light purple.
With all the stylish outfits and the cool moves, my sport is to be considered awesome!
Ice-Tennis
By Roselyn (4th grade)
You love the speed of ice hockey, but your friend likes the finesse of tennis. You and your friend are going outside to have fun, but you only have time for one sport to do. I have a solution! It is called “Ice-Tennis.” Now both of you can have fun.
Let me tell you how to play. Both teams hold a tennis racket while wearing hockey or tennis uniforms. Players try to hit a tennis ball into a hockey net and they can use the racket to block the shots if they are a goalie. The goalie uniforms are just ordinary uniforms, but athletes have to wear a tu-tu on top of their pants. If a player scores in the hockey net, then it’s two points. if the shot misses the net but players passed it the whole way, that's worth one point.
To choose the outfit that the team would wear during the game, the head coaches would have to arm wrestle, and whoever wins will get to choose either hockey uniforms or tennis uniforms. The winners will get $2,000 and second place will get $100. IF athletes fall then they will get a penalty of 10 minutes where they will have to sit out of the game.
A tennis racket instead of a hockey stick? A tu-tu for the goalie? The best tennis player wearing a hockey uniform? Well…this game is far more interesting then you thought? Wouldn’t you love to see this sport in the next Olympics?
The Amazing Sport of CURCKEY
by Aletheia (5th grade)
Fighting. Stones. Defense. Tutus! Welcome to the world of Curckey, a mix of curling and hockey!
Here’s how to play. Hockey sticks are used instead of brooms to curl the stone into the goal, however there are little fibers lining the edges of the sticks, and there will be 5 curling stones out on the ice. When the game starts, the winning team of rock-paper-scissors gets to go first. To start, you curl the stones, and aim for the hockey goal. Sounds simple, right? Nope. Instead of being able to curl in peace, as you’re releasing the stone, people from the other team can push you and break your concentration. To stop your opponents from doing that, though, your teammates can defend the other team by either a: actually grabbing onto your opponents and making sure they don’t go anywhere near the person who’s curling the stone, or b: forming a little circle around you and defending your opponents inside out. When you score a goal, you gain 1 point.
The uniforms, unlike the aggressive sport that the players that are wearing them play, are very cutesy and sparkly! It is mandatory to wear both your team’s hockey uniform and your favorite color tutu on top! The game will finish after 45 minutes of gameplay, absolutely no overtime, and if there’s a tie? FIGHT!!! The rules for the fighting are that you take off your tutus and throw them at each other; however, get ready players to do a lot of laundry because before the fight, players line their tutus with their team’s color paint. Now, if you didn’t know, tutus are quite hard to throw at people, so the rules are that the first team to have all of their players stained with paint, loses, as fighting while throwing tutus is quite difficult. (The fight does not count as overtime.)
Paint splatters everywhere! Tackling players! Fun for everyone! Just imagine all the joy Curckey could create!
Skatesurfing, by Grayson (6th grade)
Hello, and welcome to Skatesurfing! This sport is a combination of skateboarding and surfing. Now, let's get to the rules.
First, you start off by putting your surfboard right in front of you, then paddling out into the ocean. When you catch a wave, the height of the wave measured in feet is added to your score, but however long it takes you to stand up on the board in seconds is subtracted from your score. Then, when your wave reaches the skate park, you jump off the surfboard and onto the skateboard.
When you get on the skateboard, you start going through the skate park. there are ramps, rails, curbs, and more! Also for each trick you do, you get more points. When you get to the end of the skate park, the amount of time you took, rounded to the nearest minute, is multiplied by three, then subtracted from your final score.
Also, there are so many tricks! Kick flips, rail grinds, rock-and-roll! Plus you get points for all of them! For example, a kick flip is ten points, a rail grind is five points per second, a rock-and-roll would be 25 points!
Would you try my sport? I know I would!
Feel free to comment if you would try any of these sports! I know some are a few too life-threatening for this teacher!! But I sure love the creativity.
