Basketball Learning Games

Basketball is such a fun sport. It’s a great way to get exercise, learn a skill, strengthen teamwork and so much more. Did you know, though, that basketball can be a learning game for kids too? It’s a tool that can be used to help kids practice alphabet, numbers, sight words and equations! Let me show you how to play lots of fun, hands-on basketball learning games with kindergarten, first grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade students.

Basketball Learning Games

If you have a basketball hoop and your kids already love playing basket ball you are ready to turn this sport into an educational game for kindergartners, grade 1, grade 2, grade 3, and grade 4 students! You can use these fun basketball learning games to practice a variety of subjects including alphabet letters, math, science, history, and more.  If you don’t have a basketball hoop, don’t worry! There are other options, so don’t be disappointed!

Educational basketball games

You may have already heard of this one, but we’re going to add a spin to it. Start by writing numbers on the concrete. You can do as many as you’d like, but we usually do about 10. Make sure these numbers are spaced apart from each other.

The traditional way to play is each player starts on #1. The first player, we’ll say player A, shoots. If the shot is made, they move to number two. If that is made, they continue on to 3. So on and so forth. If the shot is not made, they can either take a chance (each player gets one ‘chance’ per round, it is just another term for an extra shot), or move back to number one. Then the 2nd player, player B begins their round.

That in itself is fun, but we can EASILY add learning to it. There are a few options.

Option #1:
Player A comes up to make their first shot. Before they can shoot, they have to answer a question, spell a word or solve a word problem. If they answer correctly they can shoot. Whether they make it or not, if the question was answered correctly, they can move to the next number, which the process would start over again.

Option #2:
Played with the traditional rules, but instead of having a ‘chance’, they can answer a question, spell a word or solve a math problem to get another shot.

This is not only so much fun, but an EASY way to customize the learning level to each child. It’s not set in stone, if one child is ready for multiplication but another isn’t, you can make this game work for each one! 

Basketball educational games

Another fun idea is one that reminds me of a Price is Right game. Answering questions is how you are able to earn your shots. Everyone starts with 5 questions, each one you get right gives you one shot. The twist is, there are lines on the ground for shooting too. Closer to the basket is less points, while farther away is more. You can choose to use your earned shots at any line, but the person with the most points wins. This is also an easy way to help children of different levels of learning play together.

If your kids love playing basketball, you will love these fun ideas for practing math, phonics, science, history, and more using a hoop and a ball!