Skill Development: Targeting a Specific Skill

For today’s, “Teaching a Skill Tuesday” we are going to play a Target Toss game. It takes very little equipment. It is good for all ages and can be played indoors or outdoors, sitting or standing. When children aim at a target, they are developing the skills of underhand throwing, throwing for accuracy and throwing for distance. These skills get transferred into such games as football, basketball, playing darts, even bocce ball and bowling.

This game is very adaptable, so use your imagination!

Some simple ideas to playing this game are:

  • Set up a target on the ground outside, or on the floor in your home. You can label each ring/circle with numbers if you want to count points, or just leave them blank.
  • Some suggestions for materials to use for the target include:
    • a hula hoop with a paper plate, scrap paper, or small flat object in the centre
    • a circle drawn with chalk outside with smaller circles drawn inside, (you could also draw circles using a stick in the dirt outside)
    • string to form a circle, or tape to put on the floor
    • a small towel or blanket, with a sock in the centre
  • Use any small toy to toss such as, bean bags, stuffies, plastic lids, pebbles/stones (outdoors)
  • Mark a reasonable distance from which to toss your object
  • Try to get your objects in the centre of the circle, or the highest points if you are counting points

Challenges:

  • How many objects can you put in the centre?
  • If you are counting points, how many points can you get with 10 throws? After 5 minutes? Can you get to 25 points in 10 tosses?
  • Increase the distance. How many objects can you get to the centre now? How many points?
  • Try tossing a smaller object, or with your nondominant hand.
  • Try tossing from a sitting position.

Variations:

You could create a target using paper and markers. Tape it to your wall. Make a ball using socks, rolled into a ball. Stand back from the wall and see if you can hit the target. If it’s easy, stand further back. Once you have found a distance that is challenging, see how many times you can hit the target in two minutes. Try this five times and each time, record your number.