129. 1st Grade SRR: Sports Played With a Ball

Do you play soccer or baseball? These games are sports that you play with a ball. Sports are contests. People play games or run races to test their skill and have fun.

Playing sports is good for you. It keeps you fit and helps you grow. It can help your brain grow, too. You find out how to work with others. What sports have you tried?

Soccer is a game played by two teams. People can’t use their hands or arms on the ball in soccer, but may use their chests, legs, and feet to move and pass it. They try to get it into the other team’s goal to score.

Just one person stands in the goal for each team and may use hands to stop goals. A team that scores more goals wins.

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In the U.S.A., football is played using a brown ball that has an odd shape. Teams pass or run with this ball. The other team tries to stop them and get it back.

Teams score if players take the ball past a goal line. Players can kick it through a goal post to score, too. In most other places, football is the name people use for soccer.

Baseball is a team sport, too. A pitcher tosses a ball over home plate to a person on the other team. That person bats and runs to first base if the ball is hit. People on other bases run, too. The pitching team tries to catch balls or tag people running from base to base. Teams trade places when the batting team makes three outs.

Kickball is a bit like baseball. It has bases that people step on to score points called runs. The other team tries to get them out. Teams trade places after three outs.

A few things in kickball are not the same as in baseball. The ball is bigger and softer, and you don’t need a mitt to catch it. It is rolled and kicked, not hit with a bat.

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Tennis is a game played by two or four people at a time. To start, one person tosses a small ball and hits it with a racket. It flies over the net, bounces, and a person on the other side tries to hit it back. They hit it back and forth until one misses or can’t keep it inside the lines. When a side wins, they all shake hands and say thank you.