Write a Sports Match Report with Spid! 🏏

In Spid the Spider Challenges for the Cricket Cup, there is lots of cricket action! So this fun activity empowers children to become a sports reporter and write a sports match report about the big cricket game using action verbs.

This activity helps children practice:

• creative writing
• sequencing events
• using verbs and adjectives
• sports vocabulary
• comprehension and recall

What is a match report?

A match report tells people:

✅ Who played
✅ What happened
✅ Who did well
✅ Who won

What are action verbs?

Action verbs are “doing words”like:

ran, smashed, bowled, caught, cheered, leapt, dived, chased, shouted, celebrated

Use powerful action verbs to make your sports match report exciting!

How to write a sports match report

While writing a sports match report might at first seem difficult, breaking the task into small-bite-size activities makes this easier. So here is a simple four step process for children to follow!

Step 1: Create a Headline

A headline grabs attention.

Examples:

Spid’s Team Wins the Cricket Cup!
Amazing Catch Saves the Match!
Spidwell Spinners Smashed by the Spids!

Now write your own

Step 2: Answer these Questions

Consider these 5W questions to help:

• Who played in the match, who won and who was the star player?
• What exciting things happened?
• When did the match take place?
• Where was the match played?
• Why did the winning team win?

An alternative question to why did a team win/lose, and of particular relevance to sports events, is how did a team win/lose? The answers to these questions are often summarised in the first paragraph of a newspaper report.

If this was a television interview, another common question you’ll hear asked of players is “how do you feel about the match and outcome?” Next time you are listening to a post-match interview, listen out for the questions asked!

Step 3: Use Action Verbs

Can you use some of these in your report?

⬜ smashed
⬜ raced
⬜ bowled
⬜ bounced
⬜ dived
⬜ caught
⬜ shouted
⬜ cheered
⬜ celebrated
⬜ chased

Step 4: Write Your Match Report

Use this starter if you like:

Yesterday, Spid the Spider and the Spids played an exciting cricket match against ……..

Spid smashed the ball …….

Notes for Teachers and Parents

To encourage children to take their sports match report to the next level, encourage your children to include:

✔ an adjective (amazing, noisy, brilliant)
✔ an action verb
✔ an exclamation mark!
✔ a quote from a player or fan

Example:

“We never gave up!” shouted Spid.

This activity can also be extended to create newspaper front or back page with a picture box.

Encourage your children to read their match reports aloud to their classmates, and to instil confidence and help them learn, give everyone a round of applause and seek classmate’s feedback on everyone’s creative endeavours. Here are two starter for ten questions: “what is the one thing you enjoyed most about this report?” or “how did it make you feel?”.