Am I just now finding out about this?!

So today was a little crazy because it was a Friday and there's a dance tonight.  And during the final hour of the day (homeroom) the kids were done.  Just done.  We decided as a team to play this game called Silent Ball that I'd heard the other teachers and students talking about.  Basically, it works like this:
1.  All the kids stand in a circle (to cut down on group size, we initially split our group of 120 students into 3 groups).
2.  They throw a stress ball to one another across the circle.
3.  If anyone makes any noise or talks, they're out.
4.  If you drop the ball, you're out.
5.  If you make a wild throw or throw too hard, you're out.

I was skeptical because it sounds so simple.  I really didn't think that a group of 7th graders would/could be perfectly silent for 15 minutes, nor did I think that they would enjoy just nicely throwing a ball to one another.  They did, though.  It's actually quite hard not to giggle when you're looking across a circle at other people who are trying not to giggle, and that makes it fun.  Also, after a couple of minutes, we added at least one other ball to each circle, which made it more challenging (some kids collaborated and would nicely toss two balls at one person, making it more difficult to catch them).  They really got into it, too!  We eventually joined all the circles into one circle after enough people had been eliminated.

So, how did I not know that Silent Ball existed?  Is it a thing?  Do people play this wonderful silent game all over and I'm just now finding out about it?!  Either way, it was AWESOME!

And I promise, classroom pics post coming soon!  This weekend!  I will make it happen!  :)