Beep Baseball in PE Class

My students and I are doing something really cool in PE class! We are teaching beep baseball as part of their PE classes! It's great because we are able to do some disability awareness in their classes. My students and I play beep at almost all of our sports & rec programs. The thing that I love is that I am not the teacher for this. My students are! I bring the equipment (and loan it to the school) but my students are the ones who stand in front of their classes and teach. It makes me smile with pride :) This is something that we are really going forward with for this school year. My students are emailing their PE teachers and setting it all up on their own (yep, that is a little ECC skill that we are working on...). 

photo from online wsj.com

The great thing about playing beep is that everyone gets blindfolded so there is no visual advantage for anyone. The other great thing about beep in the classroom is that it is great for all grades! My second and third graders play beep at programs. You can partner with your TVI to go to younger kids. It's also a great way to practice self-advocacy and social skills with younger students. They can still help present. I love it with my older students because it's fun to watch them teach their peers.  


I've also posted a beep baseball tutorial starring the fabulous APE teacher, Justin Haegele (with two of my students assisting) so teams can watch how to play. I will also post a reader friendly handout that was compiled by another awesome PE teacher (who has joined our awesome teaching team at programs). I wanted to post about teaching beep in schools for one other reason. This is the time that we are doing all of our in-services--for Braille education, low vision, paras, etc. Our kids are also presenting in their general ed classes about vision. This is a really fun way to let other students in on the vision community. 


You can also play beep baseball with your family or at family reunions, church outings---anywhere! 

Here's what you need to play:

• Large cones
• Baseball tee
• Bats (I use assorted softball sizes for the little ones. We also put yellow tape on the bat to help with contrast, check it out in the video)
•  Beep baseball (we order ours from Qwest. You can order via the National Beep Ball Association, NBBA, http://nbba.org/equipment.htm). Make sure you buy the beep balls and the chargers--trust me! The cost is $31 a ball, $8 a charger. That's a great price!)
• Bases (as you can see from the video I posted, we have used APH Sound Sources several times. You can order Sound Sources, on quota funds usually, at www.aph.org. You can also get bases for about $300 from NBBA. Those are the standard kind. I recently purchased some from Flaghouse for about $900).
• Blindfolds (you can go fancy and buy ones or use bandannas--we've done that, too!

Again, I will post the directions/rules/modifications for playing beep tomorrow. You can use the three posts on beep to get you started with your own game!!

Still feel stuck with understanding? Don't worry! Email me and help will be on the way. 

Play ball!!