Making Your Physical Education Curriculum Fun

Making your physical education fun involves the teaming up of students, so they can watch each other’s results. PE class is always more challenging for some students than others, and one goal of a physical education curriculum is to inspire all types of students to value physical activity. The start of a new school year is an opportunity to get off on the right foot with some fun activities that get kids moving and liking it at the same time.

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The National Association for Sport and Physical Education reminds us that children need both physical education and physical activity, and that a PE curriculum is the best way to provide children with physical activity while teaching them to develop an active lifestyle. These activities help pave a smooth road for the rest of the school year, because they help kids get to know each other better and give them more responsibility for making choices about their own physical education and physical activity.

These activities can both be modified for most age groups. You can choose to integrate physical education supplies and equipment when available and appropriate. And remember to keep physical education that promotes lifelong physical activity in mind with all your planned activities throughout the year.

• Find a Friend. This activity is the perfect ice-breaker on the first day of PE class for the school year. You will need two sets of sturdy flashcards with matching images of actions or actions words.

• • Scatter the cards around the gym floor face down. Students move around the room to music until it stops, when they should pick up the nearest flashcard and perform the movement-based action on the card.
  • At the same time, the students should be looking for someone else in the room who’s doing the same action and team up with that person. From there they can meet, get to know each other, and prepare short presentations about each other to share with the rest of the class or in small groups.
  • Collaborative warm up. Work with your students during the first month of school to create a warm-up routine that you’ll use for the rest of the semester or school year. You can do this activity alongside the other curriculum planned for each day. This activity teaches the importance of warming up, as well as group collaboration, planning, and team work.
  • Week 1.  Begin by reviewing basic stretches, movements, and stationary aerobic activities that the students can integrate into the warm-up routine they’ll develop.
  • Week 2. Break into small groups and ask students to use the movements they’ve learned in PE class plus their own creative ideas to develop a 5-10 minute warm-up routine they’ll teach to the rest of the class.
  • Week 3. Each group takes turns leading the class through the routine they developed. Older students can also explain why they chose the movements and order of movements they arrived at.
  • Week 4. The class can vote for the best warm-up routine, or the best elements from each can be used to create a final warm-up routine to start each class with for the rest of the semester or school year. The same activity can be done with cool-down routines as well.