Sportsmanship

I LOVE to incorporate games into my classroom lessons, small groups, and when I meet with individual students.  Games help teach students good life skill lessons like sportsmanship, patience, teamwork, and having a positive attitude. Poor Sportsmanship is one of my biggest pet peeves!!  This is a subject I cover a lot!  It gives me GREAT satisfaction when after a game is played, it ends on positive terms.  This month, I created The Poor Sport Halloween Gang to teach students what sportsmanship traits can TAKE AWAY or ADD to a game.  I think it's important for students to recognize these sportsmanship traits and do their best to be positive even when things don't go their way. Here's a quick bio of the characters:

Vladimer the Vampire: "Sucks the fun" out of every game.

Mumford the Mummy: Gets "wrapped up" in what everyone else is doing.

Beaker the Mad Scientist: "Mixes up" rules when losing.

Wilda the Witch: "Stirs up" trouble.

Fast Finger Franky: Cheats when nobody is looking.

Boz the Bat: Goes "batty" when losing.

Gus the Good Sport Ghost: Goes with the "flow" has "good game spirit."

We give POWER to words by using phrases over and over.  There are some phrases I want to send to the GRAVEYARD and not hear them again.  I bought a styrofoam headstone from the Dollar Tree and used velcro to attach dead word phrases.  Phrases like..."That's not fair!" or "They cheated!" take fun away from the game.

Before EVERY game played,  I ALWAYS front load each class with my expectations of good sportsmanship. I'll say things like....

"I'm so excited, we're going to play a FUN game today!  I have a question....If my team loses, do I put my head down on the desk and shout out, "that's not fair!!"?  The kids always answer "NO!!"  I say, "What should I do or say if my team loses?
Then I say...
"Well, if my team wins, do I look at the other team and say..."Ha Ha our score is 10 and yours is 0!"?
"What should I do or say instead?"

I have found by talking about other classes makes a difference too.  I'll say...
"I was so amazed about the great sportsmanship I just witnessed in the last class!  One team had 7 points and the other team had zero.  I was so worried they would be bad sports about losing. But, I was so impressed!  The team that was losing was cheering on their teammates.  Not only that, but the winning team was also saying encouraging things like.. "good try."
I have found giving real life examples seems to make students want to do their best.

These characters are available at my TpT store.  Click here to go to my tpt store for more information
The download includes:
Halloween Characters color/black and white versions
Character descriptions
Dead Word Headstone page with phrases
Blank Dead Word Headstone page to write your own ideas
Dead Word phrases that are pictured on styrofoam headstone

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!