Popcorn Pitch – A Food Fight Therapy Activity
Food fight!! Okay, not really, but throwing paper popcorn is still loads of fun! This therapy activity is a great way to reward students after they have worked hard. They’ll want to earn as much “popcorn” as possible, which makes them eager to produce as many targeted responses as possible. You can use this activity with speech or language tasks and with a wide range of ages.
Materials:
- Scrap or recycled paper, yellow and/or white, ripped (Letter size paper ripped in fourths works great.)
- Stimuli for what you are working on
- 2 paper bags, one for each team (You can use large grocery bags or small lunch bags.)
Directions:
- Divide the students into two teams. Give each team a paper bag to hold their “popcorn”.
- For each production or answer the students give, they earn a piece of paper popcorn and add it to their team’s bag. The first group can ball up the scrap paper to make the popcorn pieces.
- Clear a space in the room or go to an open space for your popcorn fight. Position the students around the outside with an empty space in the middle. You can give each student a turned-around chair as a barrier to hide behind if you want.
- Set a time limit for your popcorn pitching and let the fun begin! The students can throw their own pieces and also throw back the ones that were thrown at them until the time is up.
- Make a game out of cleaning up. See how fast all of the popcorn can be tossed back into their bags.
Tips:
– Only allow two players to be in the middle space collecting thrown pieces at a time.
– Require players to be in the outside space to throw popcorn pieces. This keeps players from throwing them from the middle space.
This is definitely a fun, energetic activity the students will remember and ask for again and again! Have fun!
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