Space Battle: A Team Target Game For Elementary PE

Send us a text

Join the Galactic Battle PE Nation!

Let's transform your PE class with Space Battle, a target game using four-square grids as "spaceships" where students defend their pins while trying to knock down their opponents'. This game combines strategy, teamwork, and skill development while keeping all students actively engaged throughout.

• Setup requires four-square grids (painted, chalked, or taped) representing spaceships
• Bowling pins serve as "engines"
• Teams of 4-6 students per ship
• Last team with standing pins wins, or team with most pins after time limit
• Variations are unlimited
• Excellent opportunities for strategy discussions between rounds
• Even eliminated teams can continue participating

Take care,

Dave

Grab a copy of the PDF HERE

Article on Space Battle with rules and setup.

Check out supersizedphysed.com for more resources, including free PDFs, articles, and courses to help with your PE program. Please leave a review to help grow this podcast and keep pushing our profession forward.

-Team Building Games Ebook (with preview): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Team-Building-Games-and-Activities-for-PE-Class-14063095

-Kindergarten PE Kickoff Guide: article

-Free resources include Substack and Medium articles with PE tips, games, and strategies

-A free video course on the "PE-9": principles for improving your PE program

-High Fives and Empowering Lives  book available as an ebook or paperback

-Paperback or download: HERE

-Amazon Ebook: HERE

Support the show

Become a supporter of the show: https://www.buzzsprout.com/385837/support

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello and welcome to the Super Size Phys Ed podcast.
My name is Dave and today let'stalk Space Battle.
It's a game I haven't played inquite a while but I want to
bring it back and I was thinkingabout it the other day and it's
just a great target game forelementary PE.
So without further ado, here wego.
Welcome inPE Nation.

(00:45):
So first of all, thank you againfor listening, downloading just
being a part of this wholeprocess.
I appreciate all of you, Iappreciate the new places I've
seen pop up that have listenedto the podcast.
Again, I'm very grateful andhumbled that people from
literally around the world willlisten to me talk, which is kind

(01:08):
of crazy.
But my goal, as always, is tojust bring you as much value as
possible and just create valuein the PE space and I do that by
either tactical kind of gamesor just strategies and teaching

(01:28):
tips, or even just inspirationalstuff, I guess, or
inspirational people.
So I try to give you a good mixof that.
So again, I appreciate all ofyou.
And again, you know my dog ismaking noise out there, so you
might get used to Peppermint.
Call her Peppy.
She's actually outside, ismaking noise out there, so you
might get used to peppermint,call her Peppy.
She's actually outside justcausing little problems there or

(01:50):
not problems, but you knowshe's having fun.
So Space Battle it's a game Iactually created in my former
school and I haven't played inmy current school.
I keep saying new school.
It's been my fifth year, so Ihaven't played it here yet.
I've played games like it.
It's a target game with pinsand gator skin balls, dodge

(02:10):
balls, whatever you want to callthem.
So what we usually play isPrairie Dog Pickoff, which is I
always give Joey Feith creditfor this because he did teach me
and others this game and hecreated it, at least what it's
called in the different levels.
He called them builds.
So go to thephysicaleducatorcom for a pro
dog pickoff.

(02:30):
It's on his website as well andon his youtube channel, um.
So we play that a lot.
It's, it's.
I'm not gonna get into that um,because that's a whole nother
topic but uh, or home of thegame.
But.
But Space Battle is kind ofsimilar where basically I
started because I started usingthe four-square grids if you

(02:51):
call them four-square courts asspaceships, and in my former
school I actually paintedfour-square grids under the
pavilion because it was a reallylarge pavilion and my current
one is not as big.
But I painted them like overthe summer kind of thing, and
then I noticed, hey, why don'twe turn them into something

(03:13):
different besides just foursquare?
So they became the ships.
Now, if you don't have it setup like that, that's the.
I think that's the biggestthing about this game is, uh, to
set up the grids um, kind offour square.
You don't have to.
I mean, it could just be onebig circle or whatever, but it's
that kind of size and the onesthat I didn't have set up like I

(03:33):
had some space in between.
I just used some chalk and drawsome four square grids.
Of course it does come off andI got to redo it.
But you do with painter's tapekind of thing.
You do it with any kind offloor tape if you're in a gym
and those are like the.
So those are the spaceships.
So I put four to six-ish kidsper team, you know, in the

(03:58):
spaceship.
That's their team.
Okay, and depending on how many, this is all the setup.
Depending on how much gatorskin ball your collection is or
how big it is.
You give each team about two orthree to start with.
So the objective is to we startwith bowling, rolling, and then
you can add on to throwinglater if you'd like.

(04:20):
Throw or bowl is a propertechnique.
Obviously, you're trying toknock the your opponent's pins
down and you want to be the lastship standing.
So, along with the setup, you,you need to put pins at each
corner of the four square grid.
And I will send, I'll have this.
Um, it's actually the articlewhich has a pdf in it.
Um, in the show notes you cantake a look at it.

(04:41):
I'll also put on social mediawhere you can kind of take a
look at the setup.
It it's a whole PDF I created.
So definitely check the linksin the show notes for this.
And so basically every corner,all the four corners of the ship
, have a pin, and you could alsoput one in the middle, so
that'd be like the main engine.
I call these engines and youknow it's going to be pretty

(05:02):
obvious from here.
But you're trying to knock theother team's pins down.
You need to demonstrate properbowling or rolling technique.
They must bowl from their own.
This is important.
They must bowl from their ownship.
So one foot must be touchingtheir ship at all times because
they can't just be in I call itjust outer space just rolling a
ball.
You can't just go up to anotherteam's pin and knock it down.

(05:23):
You have to have one foot onyour ship at all times to roll
it.
You can block with your handsor feet.
You can't kick the ball.
Team members may send oneplayer to collect the balls that
are scattered in outer space.
You can take one team memberand they can be the collector of
the Gatorskin balls.
Basically, once a pin is down orengine is down, it's it must

(05:46):
remain down.
The last pin standing wins, orthe team with the most standing
after two to three minutes isclear the winner of that round.
So a lot of times that's whatit is.
We just play like a threeminute round or something like
that, and it's up to you, it'sup to your, the time frame you
have, and it's up to uh, youknow how fast it goes.
Sometimes it goes really fast,sometimes it doesn't.
So I always put a time limit onit, though, because if not,

(06:10):
sometimes we're there forever.
I do play and this is not in thearticle I do play where, if
your team is out, you can stilluh, participate.
So if your team is eliminated.
Technically they can't win theround, but they can knock out
other teams, because I don'twant kids just standing there
waiting, waiting, waiting.
That's not what I.
I try to not make any game likethat, so it's an elimination

(06:32):
game, but you can stillparticipate.
If your team is eliminated, youcan knock out other teams.
So there's some variations,though, in this, and they're
really unlimited, honestly.
So here's some of the ones I'veused in the past teams can put
a pin back up after performingcertain exercises.
A team member must go toanother planet, which is like a

(06:54):
building area, and complete acup stacking sequence like a 333
, 363, something like that, andthat, uh, that means an engine
can be fixed or like a pin couldbe stood.
And a variation that Idefinitely used was you could
rotate ships between rounds anddiscuss the different strategies

(07:14):
the defensive strategies andoffensive of having a ship in
the corner versus one in themiddle.
So obviously the one in themiddle gets a lot more action,
it's a lot more difficult todefend and the ones in the
corners are easier to defend andthat kind of deal.
But you can have the studentsobviously talk about that,
figure that out amongstthemselves and in the later
rounds you can include overhandthrowing and you know that's up

(07:35):
to you, that's up to your class,that's if I also tell them they
need to show control withbowling if they want to earn the
throwing portion of it.
So you know, definitely Iwouldn't start with throwing,
i'd'd start with bowling kind ofthing and work from there.
So after that, you know,between rounds, um, as you're

(07:55):
taking a break or whatever, uh,we're outside, so sometimes just
getting a water break is verynecessary.
Um, you know I have them sit andget in groups or we do a big
team talk on a couple thingslike, like, what was your
strategy?
What can you do next round fora better outcome?
And then, what ships were theeasiest or toughest to defend or

(08:16):
target?
Why, you know why, or why not,or why were they the easiest,
why were they, you know, thehardest to defend?
That kind of thing?
You know I really enjoy thisgame Again.
I haven't played in a while, butI want to bring it back as I'm
talking about it and game again.
Um, I haven't played in a while, but I want to bring it back as
I'm talking about it and as Iwas looking at the pdf that I
created a long time ago for this.
So, um, you know, definitely,um, give this game a try.

(08:37):
It's been, it's been a while.
Like, I give it a try, let meknow how it goes.
And uh, there's.
I won't even do a tip of theday, that's just that, just it.
Check the show notes for allthe links I discussed, the
article, the everything, anddefinitely go to superscience,
phys, edcom for more information.
Have a great day, week, weekend, up nation are amazing, you're

(08:58):
awesome, you're incredible and Iappreciate you listening in.
So let's keep pushing ourprofession forward.
You.