Cone Hands 🎾 🤚🔴🔵
Theme: Reactions • Colours • Two-handed coordination
🗣️ Story/Script Intro
“Did you know tennis players use both hands — for balance, control, and power? Today you’ll need sharp eyes, fast feet, and your special cone hands to win the challenge!”
🧠 Purpose
• Improve colour recognition
• Develop two-handed awareness
• Encourage quick reactions
• Build fun parent-child interactions
🏗 Setup
• Every child has 2 mini traffic cones –different colours; have another set for parents so you need lots of the same colour cones e.g. blue and red
• Coaches and parents have extra coloured cones to hold up or use as “hats”
• Spread out around a tennis court, sports hall, or open space
🟢 Coach-Led Colour Calls
Children space out in the playing area with a cone in each hand
Get the children to wear the cone hands with one colour on each hand, thumb on the outside and two fingers inside, get the children to play the cones like cymbals.
Coach calls out a cone colour (e.g., “BLUE!”)
Players must lift that colour cone high in the air with the correct hand
👀 Mix it up:
• Call out “both!” to lift both cones
• Call “switch!” and have them swap cones between hands
• Add jump or spin before lifting the cone
👨👩👧 Progression 1 – Parent Hi-Five Challenge Good for small Tots
Pair each child with their parent
Parent holds up a coloured cone (like a signal)
Child runs to the parent and hi-fives their cone with the matching cone in hand
Progress to parents tricking child with calling one colour but holding up the other, swapping cones over
🔵 Progression 2 – Cone Hat Smash! Good for small Tots
Parents place an inflatable football on the ground
Add a cone hat (colourful cone placed upside down on top of the ball)
Children run forward and knock off the cone hat using the matching coloured cone from their hand
Reset and repeat with new colours
🔴 Progression 3 – Rolling Reaction Smash
Parents roll a football toward the child
As they roll, they call out a cone colour (e.g., “Red!”)
The child must use the matching cone to “whack” or block the rolling ball
Progress to trick calling; feed the ball out to left-hand colour but call right, so that the child has to scamper around and use the called hand
Progress to child turning away: child turns away and parent leaves it later and later to call, they need to turn and tap the ball back using the correct colour quickly.
🔴 Progression 5 – Cone hands rally (older Tots or Titans)
Progress from rolling, parents parent now bounce football toward the child and calls colour, child lets it bounce and hits back with correct colour.
Progress to rallying with parents (both wearing cone hands)
🪶 Feathers (Easier Variations)
• Use just one cone (simplify decisions)
• Use stationary balls instead of rolling
• Allow walking between stations instead of running
• Parent stands close to reduce travel distance
• Have children shout the cone colour before moving
⚡️ Progressions (Advanced Play)
Add a further progression for older children: Parent bounces ball to child and calls out a colour
• Add 2–3 colour calls in a sequence (“Red, Blue, Switch!”)
• Use small foam balls instead of inflatable balls
• Have kids spin before cone contact
• Race format: Which pair finishes all colour calls first?
· Switch to two rackets and call left and right instead of colours
🌸 Seasonal Variations
🎄 Christmas – “Santa’s Helpers”
• Red = Santa hat 🎅
• Green = Elf cone 🧝
• Knock off “presents” (cones on foam balls) into Santa’s sleigh
🎃 Halloween – “Pumpkin Smash”
• Orange cones = pumpkins 🎃
• Add ghost/witch sound effects when running to smash cones
• Call it the "Haunted Hat Whack!"
🌼 Easter – “Bunny Bounce”
• Use pink and yellow cones as Easter eggs
• Children must “hop” to each cone hat to knock it off with their matching egg-cone
❤️ Valentine’s Day – “Cupid’s Cone Catch”
• Pink and red cones
• “Catch” the love heart cone and match with a parent hug/high-five
🧺 Finishing Touch
Let children help collect cones and balls at the end — encourage sorting them into the right tubs or colours. Reward effort, teamwork, and listening.