Clear Your Half

1. Mark an area 15 metres wide and 20 long with a halfway line of cones. Two teams, one in each half. Spread plenty of balls, at least one per child, evenly across both halves.
2. On "Go!", kick the balls into the other half. Feet only, and everyone stays in their own half.
3. The balls keep coming back, so keep going: stop one, kick it over again.
4. If a ball rolls out of the area, whoever is nearest fetches it and plays on.
5. On "Stop!", everyone freezes and you count: the half with fewer balls wins the round. Play rounds of about a minute, swap halves and go again.

There are balls everywhere and only so many feet, so every child keeps choosing: which ball first, the one at my feet or the one rolling in? Kick it straight away, or stop it and aim? And where to? A ball kicked at an opponent comes straight back; a ball sent into an empty corner stays there a while. That is the first lesson in looking up before you kick. Teammates start to spread out on their own, because when everyone chases the same ball the rest of the half fills up. Nobody knows when "Stop!" will come, so every ball counts all the time.