Sports and Games

Let the games begin!  Springtime is a great time to get outside and play some sports.  You can play all sorts of games outside.  Just find a park and go for a run, or get some friends together and challenge each other to a game of basketball.  If it's too cold, maybe you can try out ice skating or practice your hockey skills.  Baseball is a popular sport that's played in the warmer weather.  It involves throwing or "pitching" a baseball and hitting it with a baseball bat.  Then team members run around a set of bases.  If the player steps on all four bases after hitting the ball, it is called a "home run."  Does that sound odd?  Lots of parks have local baseball teams - you can watch a game for free and see for yourself!

What are some of your favorite sports and games?

Key vocabulary:

• Challenge (noun, verb):  to engage in a contest or show skill.
• Basketball (noun):  a game played by two teams of usually five players each on a rectangular court having a raised basket or goal at each end, points being scored by tossing the ball through the opponent's basket.
• Ice Skating (noun, verb): to glide over ice.
• Hockey (noun): a game played on ice between two teams of six skaters each, the object being to score goals by shooting a puck into the opponents' cage using a stick with a wooden blade.
• Baseball (noun): a game of ball between two nine-player teams played usually for nine innings on a field that has as a focal point a diamond-shaped infield with a home plate and three other bases,, forming a circle that must be completed by a base runner in order to score by hitting of a pitched ball with a wooden or metal bat and running of the bases, the winner being the team scoring the most runs.
• Pitch (verb): to throw a baseball to a batter during a game of baseball
• Bases (noun): the raised markers on a baseball field where players stand and run to during a game of baseball.
• Home Run (noun): a term when a baseball player runs in an uninterrupted, complete circle around the bases on a baseball field after hitting the ball.

Vocabulary Activity:

Grammar Point:
Sports and games are typically associated with verbs.  Verbs are words that describe nouns in action.  "Sonia runs in the park" describes an action Sonia is doing.  When you read the sentence, "Juan throws the baseball," you can picture what kind of activity Juan is performing.  Sometimes, verbs can also be used with adjectives.  "He walks slowly to the door" and "She sang sweetly" are some examples.

Grammar Activity:
Circle all of the verbs in the paragraph above.  Do the verbs in the paragraph describe nouns, adjectives, or both?  Why or why not?