Keentan
Skills:
Physical: balance, upper and lower limb coordination, teamwork, reaction time, hand-eye coordination
Cognitive: sustained attention, selective attention, visual processing, divided attention
Social: understanding of personal space, turn taking
Number of participants:
4 or more
Equipment:
- medium-sized ball
Description:
- one child is in the middle of the group;
- the children surrounding the child pass around a ball to keep it away and must jump up like a kangaroo when they pass the ball
History:
This game originated from the Aboriginal peoples from the north west central districts of Queensland. Keentan means “play” in the Wik-Mungkan language.
Modifications to make the activity easier:
Change the equipment: use a larger ball to decrease physical demand
Change the task: allow the child to jump first, and then throw the ball to decrease physical demand
Modifications to make the activity harder:
Change the environment:
- increase the number of children on the teams to increase social demand
- have a time limit for how long the child can hold the ball to increase physical demand
Change the equipment: use a smaller ball to increase physical demand
Goal examples:
- the child will be able to jump and pass the ball successfully 4 out of 5 times from 3m apart
- I can catch and throw the ball to my friends
