Teacher instructions

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

25 minutes

Tune in: Meet the teams

25 minutes

Find out: Kick some goals

10 minutes

Take action: Keeping score

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune in: Meet the teams

Step 1.

The world cup is coming to Australia! Show students this video of the Matildas world cup campaign:

We won't rest: 'Til It's Done - Football Australia (youtube.com/watch?v=WHhcVSgIOng)

Australia’s team, the Matildas, will be playing against some tough competition! Let’s meet the teams they will be playing against. Show the students the Meet the Teams slide deck. How many of the flags do they know? Do they know anything about that country? Swap to the second slide to see how many they got correct. Are their any countries there they don't know?

Step 2.

Assign each student a team. To make it more fun, you could put all of the countries into a hat and ask the students to pull one out.

Once they have their team, they will need to navigate to 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup Squads Wikipedia Page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_FIFA_Women%27s_World_Cup_squads) on their device, and find their team. Have the students work through part 1 of their worksheet: Let’s meet your team! Provide students with direction on where to find the answers within their team’s block on the webpage.

Differentiation: Students that need support with this task can work in pairs, with one student navigating and one student recording.

If needed, you can print off the team rosters rather than having students navigate the webpage during the task.

Students that need extension can take on two teams and use a different coloured pen/pencil for each team. By recording them on the same page, they can compare the statistics.

Step 3.

Is your team a defensive team, an offensive team, or a balanced team? Sometimes soccer teams play a defensive game, where they have a lot of defenders and fewer forwards, and their main goal is to stop the opposition from scoring. Other teams play an offensive game, where they have a lot of forwards who put pressure on the other team and try to keep up the attack. Other teams prefer to play a balanced game where they split their players evenly or focus most of their players in the midfield. Which type of team do you have? Have students tally up the number of goalkeepers, defenders, midfielders, and forwards for their team.

In pairs, ask students to compare their teams. Which team has more defenders? Forwards? Which team is more balanced?

Find out: Kick some goals

Step 1.

Now it’s our turn! When the countries play in the world cup, they are divided into groups. This year the groups are:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
New Zealand	Australia	Costa Rica	China
Norway	Canada	Japan	Denmark
Philippines	Nigeria	Spain	Spain
Switzerland	Republic of Ireland	Zambia	Zambia

Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Netherlands	Brazil	Argentina	Colombia
Portugal	France	Italy	Germany
United States	Jamaica	South Africa	South Korea
Vietnam	Panama	Sweden	Morocco

Using the countries from before, divide students into their groups to see who can score the most goals. Students will record their scores using the pictogram on the student worksheet.

If you can get outside and kick:

Each group will need 2 soccer balls and 2 markers. For each group, set up 2 markers about 5m apart. Balance a soccer ball on top of one marker, and have the group line up at the other marker with the other ball. Students need to kick the ball from one marker to the other and try to knock the ball down. For every ball they knock down, they colour in one soccer ball on their pictogram. Each student has 10 attempts to knock the ball down.

If you’re inside and can use your hands:

Each group will need 2 craft sticks and one ping pong ball. Tape the craft sticks upright to the side of the desk about 20cm apart to form a soccer goal. On the far side of the desk, place a piece of tape as the penalty spot. Students need to place the ball on the penalty spot and flick, hit, or push the ball towards the goal. For each goal they score, they colour in one soccer ball on their pictogram. Each student has 10 attempts to score.

When students have finished their game, bring them together again as a class.

Take action: Keeping score

Step 1.

Now we know how to make a frequency chart, let’s use one to follow the women’s world cup! Put up the ‘How many goals’ Worksheet in your classroom. Throughout the world cup, have the students add the goals that their country scores by colouring in one square per goal.

Step 2.

As the world cup goes on, discuss the display with students. You might like to think about

Which county has the most goals?
Which one has the least?
Where is Australia sitting?
Does the number of goals scored match the country’s ranking?
Did the country that scored the most goals win?

Differentiation: Students who need extension can research their country and add sticky notes with fun facts about their country around the 'How many goals' Worksheet to create a world cup display.

Reflection

Pose the following questions to the students:

Why do you think soccer is such a popular sport all around the world?
Which team do you want to follow in the world cup?
Why do you want to support that team?

Differentiated learning

Opportunities for differentiation have been included throughout this lesson.

Math and Matildas - Meet the World Cup Teams

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