Fantasy Football Team
Sometimes the old ideas and the simplest ideas are still thebest!
Many World Cups ago with a group of beginners in Year 5 I was practisingnumbers and how to say our names in French. It seemed a great opportunity to combinefootball, numbers and names. We created our own fantasy football teams and theidea has been rolled out many times and in many different ways.
All you need are templates for football shirts with thenumbers printed on them. The lowest order of numbers is obviously 1-11 but youcould add subs too!
The activity appealed to boys and girls because this was thecreation of their own personal fantasy football team so it was amazing how manystory characters, film stars, boy bands and cartoon characters made their wayinto these teams . However some of us took t really seriously and had tocontemplate which great footballer was their goalie etc….especially when theplayers had to be drawn from the international pool of players taking part inthe World Cup or European Cup etc that was the sporting event of the season.
So with a simple set of cards this is what we have done overthe years …since 1996 to be exact!
Manager and team
A simple number sort .
The manager can’t get thenumbered shirts in order!A different child holds each shirt and the scenariois a team photo 1-11- can the class help you put the shirts in order. It’sgreat fun misplacing the numbers in the sequence and getting the children tohelp you reorder the numbers and over and over again getting the order out ofsynch! Finally give up and let someone else be the manager and ask the class tohelp them count the shirts into the correct order.
Sound shirts andplayers from the target language country.
Who will be playing in which shirt at the match . Introduce the children to famous players fromthe target language country …not necessarily playing in the specific World Cupteam. Focus on key sounds in the names of the players. Add the sound as agrapheme to the reverse side of one of the numbered shirts. Blu-tac them to theboard number side up .Divide your class in to two teams. Can the children select a number, turn the card oversay the sound they read on the reverse and name the correct player .Which team wins?
Colours, flags andshirts
Introduce the children to five key teams in theWorld Cup. Practise the names of the countries in the target language. Look atthe flags for each of the countries and practise the colours in the flags.Blu-tac the flags to the board with no country names on them. In a bag or boxput the names of the five countries with one of the numbers 1-11 on the cardstoo. Divide the class in to two teams. Can each team take it in turns to askpolitely for a country. Pull out a card with that country on it and the teammust then say the number and identify the correct flag.
Can they say thecolours on the flag and can one of their team members
colour in the shirt withthese colours?
Fantasy Teams
Give each class member a set of smaller version team shirtswith numbers on. Ask the class to decide who they would like in their fantasyteam. They must create a mobile or a poster or a team layout for their fantasyteam with pictures of the heads of the chosen famous people or charactersattached to the shirts. The children must introduce their teams to their classmates –as if they were holding a simple greetings and question answer dialogue.
This can be done in the first and second person singular:
e.g
Hello number one. What are you called?
Hello I am called ……..
Or as third person singular question and answer dialogue
e.g
Hello ! What is player number ….called?
S/he is called …….
Or as simple presentation
e.g
In my team there are eleven players ,Number one iscalled ….., number two is called……. etc
Finally don’t forget to display the teams – as the childrenare always really proud of their own fantasy football teams !
Take a look at the sequence of lessons here we have already created for the World Cup celebrations
