Let's get active and try Balloon Tennis!
With the Balloon Tennis activity you can develop the following skills:
- Coordination and fluency
- Teamwork and communication
- Stamina and endurance
- Aim and accuracy
- Flexibility
This resource is suitable for Physical Education and activity for P2, P3, P4, P5, P6 and P7 (First and Second Level Curriculum for Excellence).
Watch this
Learn how to take part in the Balloon Tennis activity with help from primary school teacher, Danny Denholm.
DANNY: Hey, I'm Danny, and welcome to Let's do this, where we will get active together.
This activity is called Balloon Tennis.
This is a great game for developing your teamwork and communication skills.
You will need a partner, a balloon, a skipping rope or something similar.
You do this one with a partner, so I've got Jarrell and Ella to help demonstrate.
Step one, join hands with your partner, either right hand to righthand or left to left, so that your arms act as a central net, like you might see in tennis, volleyball, and badminton.
Step two, player one starts the game by tapping the balloon over the net with their free hand.
Step three, player two responds by tapping the balloon back across.
Let's do this!
The aim of this game is to continually keep the balloon in the air.
NARRATOR: Too tough?
DANNY: Too tricky?
Work on your own, by tapping the balloon in the air continuously, without it touching the ground.
NARRATOR: Go up a notch?
DANNY: Want to develop your skills?
Instead of joining hands, add more challenge by holding onto a skipping rope, or a similar piece of equipment, to make a longer net.
This will mean you are further apart.
NARRATOR: Danny's challenge.
DANNY: My challenge is to set yourself a target of how many passes you can make without the balloon falling to the floor.
NARRATOR: Final thoughts.
DANNY: Working well with others will help you across and in different sports, but it goes even further than that.
It can help in the classroom and in daily life.
Can you think of a time where you have worked well with others?
NARRATOR: Let's do this!
What you need
| Equipment | Alternatives |
|---|---|
| Balloon | |
| Optional: Skipping rope | Optional: Rope, string or something similar |
Try it yourself
Follow these step-by-step instructions and give it a go!
Image caption, Create a net
Join hands with your partner, either right hand to right hand or left to left, so that your arms act as a central net.
1 of 3
Don't have a partner?
Practise tapping the balloon and keeping it in the air on your own.
How was Balloon Tennis for you?
We are all unique and have different strengths and skills. Some of us may find some skills easier than others but we can all develop and improve.
You can adapt the Balloon Tennis activity to suit your needs. If we practise our skills regularly, we can improve and progress over time.
Too tough?
If you find Balloon Tennis too challenging, don't worry!
Try these tips to make the activity a bit easier.
Work on your own by tapping the balloon in the air continuously without it touching theground.
Go up a notch?
It's great to look at ways to develop our skills and we can do this by challenging ourselves.
If you enjoyed Balloon Tennis but are looking for a bigger challenge, try these tips to make it trickier.
Instead of joining hands, hold onto a skipping rope or a similar piece of equipment to make a longer net. This will mean you are further apart.
Danny's challenge
Set yourself a target of how many passes you can make without the balloon falling to the floor.
Time to reflect
Enjoyment
The most important part of physical activity and movement is that you enjoy it. We all need to stay active in our daily lives in order to stay healthy. It’s a lot easier if you’re having fun.
After you’ve taken part in this activity, take some time to think about what you enjoyed and how you might approach the activity differently next time.
- What did you enjoy about this activity? How could you do more of this?
- What did you dislike about this activity? What would make it better?
- What would you do differently next time?
Developing your skills
The skills you’ve worked on in this activity are useful in other parts of your daily life and in sport.
Can you think of any activities or sports where you might use these skills?
The skills you've developed in this activity could help with:
- working and communicating with a partner
- playing tennis, badminton or volleyball
Physical activity skills. list
Learn more about the different skills you've developed in this activity and how we use them in daily life.
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