We all are responsible for bringing in new and fun activities in schools to engage students, make the content relevant, and have fun at the same time. An exciting way to do this is by bringing current events to the school anytime. If anything is happening in the world, country, state, or county, something that everyone, not just the beauty industry, is talking about, find a way to bring it to the school.
The Super Bowl is a sure way to engage, excite, and provide teachable moments. You don’t have to be a football fan for the Super Bowl to be relevant. Equally, your students don’t have to be die-hard football lovers to make this fun for elementary learning. Even students that are not very interested in sports find a reason to watch the Super Bowl. It may be for the halftime show, the commercials, or the snacks, but rest assured, many students have knowledge of this game. Even preschoolers know a thing or two about it. Thus, almost everyone enjoys a good Super Bowl party, and it isn’t always for the game. It is about the atmosphere, fun, friends, and for some, yes, it is about the game.
But how do you bring the Super Bowl to elementary school? Simple, come up with various Super Bowl-related activities for elementary students leading up to the big game. This article helps you channel your students’ excitement for the big game by updating your classroom playbook with various Super Bowl activities for students.
Best Super Bowl Activities for Students
Teaching the Super Bowl is a great way to get kids excited about sports or the halftime show to engage with classroom activities. Besides, creating fun Super Bowl activities for elementary school kids can imbue the spirit of competition while providing teachable moments. The nationally televised sporting event featuring the top teams in the National Football League (NFL) is a terrific opportunity for family bonding, especially if you use Super Bowl activities to help get students into the spirit of the game.
You can make the Super Bowl relevant to the elementary school curriculum through various football-related activities. Whether you’re a football fanatic or pigskin novice, you can make the most of the upper bowl frenzy. There are plenty of great ways to wrangle students’ murmurs of Super Bowl games and turn them into teachable moments. Here are a few Super Bowl activities for elementary students.
Plan A Kid-Friendly Super Bowl Party
Elementary kids love parties. Since you are already planning to watch the Super Bowl, why not invite other families and make it a Super Bowl party? You can do the following to make it appropriate for the students.
- Design Super Bowl that incorporates the colors of the teams, such as the Los Angeles Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, into the foods
- Bake a menu and helmet-shaped cookies and decorate them with team colors
- Make decorations in the colors of opposing teams
- Ask all guests to come wearing football jerseys of such teams as the Houston Texans
- Decorate football-themed cupcakes with green for turf and use decorator’s icing to pipe on white field lines
Teach Hometown History and Geography
Many, not all, but many NFL teams got their names from where they play. The New England Patriots, with their mascot of a Revolutionary War musket man, are one example. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers based in Tampa (colloquially known as the Bucs), the Green Bay Packers (named for the meat packers who worked in the area) and the 49ers (for the California Gold Rush) are other notable examples. Give the students a blank United States map and the names of all the 32 NFL teams and ask them to place the team names on the map where they belong. As they do so, invite students to guess if the name is connected to the location or not. You can take this activity one step further by adding the team logos since some, like the New Orleans Saints’ fleur-de-lis, are also tied to local history.
Use Custom Writing Services
You can also use professional writing services to prepare the best Super Bowl lessons and activities. Online essay writing services like CustomWritings can be an excellent resource for educators looking for pre-designed classroom exercises. Their proficient writers, who are experts in diverse fields, such as education, psychology, history, and sports science, can develop a curated list of Super Bowl lesson plans and resources to help you teach and engage your elementary students. Besides, the company does not focus solely on academic papers; they also offer non-academic services, such as editing, personal statements, speech writing, resumes, and scholarship essays.
Organize A Halftime Tribute Brainstorm
The halftime show often includes a salute to America’s Troops or a commemoration of a special occasion. You can use the halftime show to engage your elementary kids in thinking about various ideas and activities. For example, you can give them worksheets and ask them to write what group of people or anniversary they would want to honor. They can also write how they would honor them. This activity can be a writing assignment or even a poster or presentation where students present their ideas in written, verbal, or visual form.
Ask Students to Create Graphs for Super Bowl Teams in Math Class
Students can turn the list of Super Bowl winners into a graph that shows each team and how many times it has won. You can simplify this activity by having them graph only the teams that have won on more than one occasion. Students can also graph the number of losses each team has had as a way to expand the activity. For example, they can draw a graph about how many times Minnesota Vikings based in Minneapolis have appeared in Super Bowls and lost. A comparison of the graphs will reveal some correlations. Using the created graphs, students can identify the teams with the most Super Bowl appearances.
Is There Super Bowl for College Football?
Football is a central part of many students’ college experiences. Many students love attending college football games, and the championship games in February offer another chance to get together with friends. The Super Bowl is always a great chance for college football programs to showcase their ability to send elite talent to the next year. When it comes to Super Bowl LVI, several schools have some serious bragging rights in that regard. This year, 11 college football programs have at least three players participating in the Super Bowl.
To answer the question of whether there is a Super Bowl for college football, the answer is yes. While college football’s national championship is not comparable to the NFL Super Bowl, it also offers a tougher proposition. Since the 2014 season, college football has had the College Football Playoff, a four-team tournament that uses two preexisting bowls as national semifinals and has a standalone championship game. To date, the College Football Playoff has succeeded so far in ensuring an end-of-season game that clearly results in a national champion.
Wrap Up!
The Super Bowl is exciting for many reasons, including a great game for sports fans and a conversation-worthy show at halftime. However, it also presents many teachable moments to elementary students. Since times have changed significantly in recent years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers must continue creating classroom activities that help kids love school again. Today’s students live through unprecedented times, and we need to engage them to the best of our abilities. We should continue to help them learn and attain academic as well as socio-emotional success.
Seize the Super Bowl moment, and while at it, use it to teach!