Thanks to a school gift from last year’s fifth-grade students, the Bolles Lower School Ponte Vedra Beach campus has a new physical education resource. School leaders applied the funds, at the students’ request, to the purchase of a gaga ball pit.
Gaga ball is similar to dodgeball, but in a confined setting where players aim below the knee. The game was developed at Jewish camps during the 1970s and means “touch-touch” in Hebrew. According to GaGaBallPit.com, the object of the game is to “eliminate your opponents by striking the ball and having it hit them below the knee or waist while trying to avoid being hit yourself.”
On the Bolles Lower School Ponte Vedra Beach campus, the gaga ball pit is currently set up in the multipurpose room. Coach Melissa Stone said students have been enjoying playing it as one of the first physical education units this year. Once the unit is over, the set will be disassembled and stored for a later opportunity.
The game can be played by a whole class of students at once and involves animated running, jumping and aiming skills.
It is tradition on the Bolles Lower School Ponte Vedra Beach Campus for “graduating” fifth-grade students to raise money for a campus gift. Students usually raise funds with a Valentine’s Day bake sale and by selling campus parking spaces during THE PLAYERS Championship. In previous years, students have helped the school acquire everything from an underwater-themed mural in Ponte Vedra Hall to a large bronze plaque at the center of the campus flag pavilion.
