Volleyball Printables

Activities to Learn More About Volleyball

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Updated on May 22, 2019

Volleyball is a game played by two opposing teams usually made up of six players each. The players use their hands to hit the ball over a high net, trying to make it touch the ground on the opposing team's side, scoring a point.

Volleyball, invented in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1895, combines the elements of tennis, handball, basketball and baseball. Not surprisingly, with so much action, the game has spawned a rich vocabulary to describe its rules and play. Use these printables to engage your students and help them learn some of the key terms from this sport.

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Vocabulary - Attack

Print the PDF: Volleyball Vocabulary Worksheet

Start your students off with this volleyball vocabulary worksheet, which features terms, such as "attack." In volleyball, each team plays with three players in the front row, near the net, and three in the back row. The front and back row players are separated by the attack line, a line on the court 3 meters from the net.

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Word Search - Rotate

Print the PDF: Volleyball Word Search

Most students will enjoy doing this volleyball word search, which features such interesting words as "rotate." Volleyball players on the serving team rotate clockwise each time they get the ball to serve. The player serving continues to serve until her team loses the ball. Volleyball players need to be in great shape since they jump about 300 times per game.

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Crossword Puzzle - The Spike

Print the PDF: Volleyball Crossword Puzzle

This crossword puzzle will help your students pick out yet more terms, such as "spike," which in volleyball means to smash the ball overarm into the opponent's court. This is also a great chance to teach grammar and history. In volleyball, the word is generally used as a verb -- an action word. But, historically, the term has more often been used as a noun, as in "the golden spike" -- the last spike driven into the ground when two locomotives were brought together at Promontory Point, Utah, at the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, bringing the country's east and west together.

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Challenge - Mintonette

Volleyball Multiple Choice — Beverly Hernandez

Print the PDF: Multiple Choice Worksheet

Teach a bit of interesting volleyball history in this multiple-choice worksheet, featuring terms like "Mintonette," which was actually the original name for the sport. Volleyball Side Out notes that when William Morgan, the YMCA physical education director in Massachusetts, invented the game he called it Mintonette. Though the game caught on, the name seemed unappealing to many and was soon changed. But, even today, there are still Mintonette volleyball leagues throughout the country.

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Alphabet Activity - The Block

Volleyball Alphabet Activity — Beverly Hernandez

Print the PDF: Alphabet Activity

Let your students finish their mini unit on volleyball with this alphabet activity worksheet, where you can have them order the terms correctly and discuss more well-known words like "block." Extra credit: Have students write a sentence or paragraph using the word block, then have them share their writing with their peers. This adds social skills and oral reading practice to the lesson.