Football Tournament!

We've been running a football tournament in our last few lessons with the grade 8s and 9s at Abu Dis Boys in an attempt to channel their endless energy and enthusiasm. We hoped they would find football fun and interesting and we were thrilled at the results. We spent the first lesson letting the boys choose teams from a selection of forty player cards, and going through football-related vocabulary. Today was match day!

The students and teachers were all suitably impressed by our AMAZING football pitch:

Our football pitch with two teams of player cards- if you land on a red squares you draw a 'Chance' card

We started with the grade 9s, who were initially skeptical, especially when they realized our homemade effort was more about luck than skill, but soon they were yelling in frustration and throwing their hands up like real football players when the 'goal card' they drew said the goal keeper had saved the ball, and doing celebrations worthy of Amfield or Old Traford when they scored a goal!

The Grade 9s getting competitive!

We only managed one match before the lesson ended, although our students almost refused to leave! Team A scored 2 goals against Team B. In the next lesson Team C will play Team D and then the winners will play each other for the cup- I mean, teapot of sweets.

The grade 8s managed to play an entire tournament. Team A suffered a crushing defeat against Team B owing to an unfortunate tendency to draw cards telling them they had injured the other player in a tackle and given the other team a penalty, failed to score, and lost the ball...

The Grade 8s watching Team A play Team B

A snippet of the Team A vs Team B match 

Team C and D played a more balanced game, but Team D won and went on to play an exciting final game against Team B. For most of the game it looked like Team B were going to be our trophy winners but Team D snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the last few minutes of the game in a nail-biting finale which resulted in a 2-1 scoreline.

In the lesson after the tournament we will brainstorm words about great footballers and great teams. We will then ask them to write something about a favorite player or a team they support.