Get a Kick Out of Super Bowl Classroom Activities

The days leading up to Super Bowl Sunday, and the Monday after, are more than just football. They’re a chance to energize your students. These Newsela Super Bowl activities bring science, literacy, and social studies to life while tapping into students’ love for the game.

‍Jump to:

• Engage students with science using Super Bowl activities
• Practice literacy with football-themed Super Bowl activities
• Discover the Super Bowl’s history with social studies activities

[Engage students with science using Super Bowl activities](id-sci)

Football is more scientific than you might think! Have students explore scientific principles and disciplines through football with Newsela STEM resources.

Key takeaways:

• Students can explore physics, engineering, and health science through football.
• Real-life examples, like helmet safety, make lessons accessible.
• Hands-on resources encourage critical thinking.

What physics principles can students explore with football?

Football involves more than strength and strategy. Students can investigate motion, velocity, and impact using football examples and resources on topics like:

• Newton’s three laws of motion and how they influence the world around us, both on and off the field.
• How the impact location and velocity can affect the severity of collisions in football.
• The perfect way to throw a football.

How does engineering make football safer?

Engineering innovations directly affect athletes’ safety. A real-world example was when Patrick Mahomes cracked a helmet in a 2024 playoff game. But the helmet wasn’t broken. It did exactly what it was supposed to do. 

Students can become product designers for a day with the following lesson:

• Watch a video that explains the Design Thinking Process.
• Read an article about Mahomes’ helmet-shattering incident.
• Extend the lesson by asking students to use the Design Thinking Process and a flowchart worksheet to improve a product they use often.

How can students learn about brain injuries in sports?

Sports injuries have real scientific explanations. Students can explore how brain injuries occur and why safety matters. Share the following activity with students:

• Share a news clip about concussions in young athletes.
• Read an article that explains how seemingly harmless head hits can still cause lasting brain damage.
• Create an activity that uses the engineering design process to make different football helmets or gear designs that could help prevent both minor and serious brain injuries for athletes.

How can I teach Super Bowl science concepts with video?

Newsela STEM with Generation Genius science videos makes it easy to teach the concepts behind the Super Bowl in a fun, engaging way for every grade band. Try these selections from our library:

K-2 Science:

• The Five Senses
• Pushes and Pulls
• Introduction to Traits

3-5 Science:

• Variation of Traits
• Balanced & Unbalanced Forces
• Energy Transfer
• Brain Processing of Senses
• Collisions
• Patterns of Motion & Friction
• Human Body Systems
• How Do We Use Food?

6-8 Science:

• Comparative Anatomy
• Potential vs. Kinetic Energy
• Newton’s Laws of Motion

[Practice literacy with football-themed Super Bowl activities](id-ela)

Key takeaways:

• Literacy lessons can be more engaging in a football context.
• Students practice reading comprehension, writing, and debate skills using football as an entry point.
• Lessons integrate both fiction and nonfiction resources to deepen understanding.

What makes football a fun writing topic?

Writing about football can make essay practice more engaging. Students can analyze player qualities and craft evidence-based arguments. Try it with the following activity:

• Ask students to think about the question, “What does it take to be great at football?”
• Share an interactive video about how to explain and elaborate on a claim in a paragraph.
• Have students explore additional articles about football and its players to collect evidence to support their claims.

Newsela Knack: Have students complete the assignment in Newsela Writing to deliver instant, rubric-aligned feedback.

How can a football debate strengthen argument skills?

Debate encourages students to research, reason, and present arguments effectively. Football-themed topics make learning relevant and timely. Choose from topics like:

• Should contact sports be banned?
• Should college athletes be compensated?
• Are esports really sports?

What impact are women making in the NFL?

Students can examine gender equality and representation in sports with modern examples of women athletes and coaches in the NFL. Explore how women are changing the sport with this lesson: 

• See how U.S. Women’s Soccer player Carli Lloyd kicked a 55-yard field goal and what that could mean for the future of female kickers in the NFL.
• Read about Toni Harris, a Detroit woman who has dreams of playing in the NFL.
• Have students use a Venn Diagram to compare Carli and Toni’s football experiences.

Why is teamwork important in football and in the classroom?

Teamwork is essential in sports and life. This lesson can help students see this abstract concept in action:

• Ask students to consider the question, “Why do you think it’s important for people to work together and support each other?”
• Assign the Aesop fable “A Bundle of Sticks” about a father who used one to teach his sons about harmony and unity.
• Extend the lesson by creating a craft stick demonstration to show how a bundle of sticks is stronger than individual sticks. Turn it into a STEM lesson to see who can build the tallest, strongest bundle.

What can students learn from the Super Bowl halftime show?

The Super Bowl halftime show is an opportunity to explore symbolism, social commentary, and cultural identity. 

Students can look at resources about last year’s show, performed by Kendrick Lamar, to deepen their media literacy and critical thinking about what the performance communicated. Explore these resources:

• An interactive video on symbolism.
• An article on the meaning of the “American Dream.”
• An article that teaches students about the literary concept of allusion.

What Super Bowl stories can students choose for independent reading?

See how football culture influences literature by exploring these engaging novels and book studies:

“Friday Night Lights” by H.G. Bissinger

This nonfiction book study covers the tale of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team in Odessa, Texas, and its journey to the Texas state championship. 

Use the unit lessons to build background knowledge and dive deeper into historical and social contexts, like: 

• Race and sports
• Gender and sports
• The future of football

“Before the Ever After” by Jacqueline Woodson

What happens to professional football players after they retire from the NFL? Jacqueline Woodson explores one path in her novel “Before the Ever After.” 

Use this novel study to build background knowledge about the author and themes discussed in the book, such as friendship, family, and life after professional sports.

• Watch Jacqueline Woodson’s TED Talk about how reading slowly helped her become a better writer.
• Discover how soon experts think is too soon to play tackle football and what it means for brain injuries earlier in life.
• Read an article about how finding and keeping close friends can have a positive impact on health.

[Discover the Super Bowl’s history with social studies activities](id-ss)

Look back at what makes the Super Bowl one of the can’t-miss sporting events of the year and some of the most interesting moments from recent matchups:

• Get the recaps of recent Super Bowls and have your students predict who could win Super Bowl LX.
• Discover how the Super Bowl’s halftime show became just as popular as—if not more popular than—the game itself.
• Read about the introduction of the forward pass into American football and how it transformed the game into the sport we know today.

Host a reading Super Bowl in your classroom

Bring the big game right to your classroom with the Newsela Independent Reading Challenge! This monthly, gamified event encourages students to practice literacy skills by reading about topics that interest them. 

If you’re not a Newsela customer yet, sign up for Newsela Lite and get a 45-day free trial of all our premium and differentiated content and activities and our Independent Reading Challenge to plan exciting Super Bowl classroom activities.