Unique Games and Resources
Listed here are unique games, projects, and activities from PE-specific websites.
Use as needed if you're running out of your own ideas.
The most important thing is your children stay active, whatever it takes!
Little Sports videos
PowerUp Fitness At Home
Physical Education Distance Learning Fitness Cards
10 Common Household Items To Use for Exercise
1. Milk Jugs
Instead of recycling, students can fill these with water and use almost like a kettlebell. One full gallon weighs about 8-1/2 lb, which could lead to a great muscular strength workout for the upper body.
2. Couch
Yes, possibly the most comfortable place to relax in one’s home can be used for fitness. This piece of furniture can be used for triceps dips, elevated push-ups (feet on couch), and other weight bearing exercises. Encourage students to focus on these exercises during commercials.
3. Chairs
Not sure if your squat technique is correct? Try placing a chair behind you as guidance. As the body comes down to a near 90° angle, the feeling should be that you’re in a sitting position. Don’t sit down entirely, stop and begin your upward movement once you feel slight contact with the seat below you.
4. Board Game Supplies
Raid the game closet and look for items that can be used for exercise. This can include dice, playing cards, and play dollars. Monopoly money is a great example of a way students can track their exercise repetitions.
5. Towels
These can work on any wood or tiled floor and be used for core exercises or even a yoga mat. Place the towels under your hands or feet to increase the challenge of core exercises like mountain climbers. Have your students kick it up a notch by having them perform a seal walk by having them walk down a hallway using just only their arms (feet relaxed on towel).
6. Backpack
This serves as a perfect weighted vest. Students can fill their bags with bottled or canned foods and choose a weight that is challenging, yet achievable. Using weighted vests is great for building cardio endurance. This equipment could be utilized during family walks around the neighborhood.
7. Tape Measure
This or any measuring tool within the household can be used to track progress with exercises such as a standing long jump. Tape measures can also be used to create dimensions for game areas and lengths of fitness assessments like the PACER (20m/65’).
8. Box
Flip over and use as a plyometrics box. It’s important to test its durability by making sure it can withstand a weight bearing impact. Don’t worry if you cannot find a box that will work for these jumping exercises. Look for any safe platform to jump on. If you have a partner, that person can hold equipment like a chair in place for the jumper. And if your students want to practice box jumps or steps ups outside, have them look for any tree stump that has a large enough landing or stepping surface.
9. Couch Cushion
Remember to take your shoes off first. Just like a Bosu, a cushion can be used as a base of support to perform many balancing activities. The uneven surface of the cushion will challenge the body to stabilize more muscles in the balancing process.
10. Tarp
Works great to absorb the force of any throw or strike. Find a safe area to hang a tarp, or any other durable netting, and swing away. Grab a disc, baseball, soccer ball, and even a golf club. Important, test the durability of the tarp and secure it properly before using. One wouldn’t want to replace a neighbor’s window because their mammoth golf drive couldn’t be contained.
Yoga with Animals
Playworks Play At Home Guide:
"The games in this guide can be played anywhere, but we have assembled them for kids who are playing at home due to school closures."
https://www.playworks.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Play-At-Home-Playbook-3.23.20.pdf
Coin Flip Craze Workout
#ActiveHomeChallenge--posted every morning at 8 am!
Learn to dance Hip Hop style
Martial Arts videos (3): "Speed", "Fast Hands", "The Leopard":
Yoga breathing exercises when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed
Fun At-Home Active Games:
Dice: Introduce variation or an element of unpredictability to an activity. The number you roll is the number of activity reps. Dice are also great for math (multiply/add the different dice). Incorporate Yahtzee® into your activity!
Sidewalk Games: Sidewalk chalk can be used for hopscotch, 4-Square, targets, etc.
Balloons: Balloons are great for any striking activity. Also, how long can you keep it in the air to pass it to a partner?
Active Tic-Tac-Toe: All you need is some chalk or tape!
Playing Cards: These are great for performing fitness challenges. The suit determines the type of activity and the number determines the amount of reps.
Speed Stacking with fitness variations
Warm-up and dumbbell (weights) activities with homemade equipment
Cha Cha Slide Plank Challenge
Yoga with Victoria Otto
- DIY At-Home Walking Trails (indoor or outdoor)
BOKS is our before-school program at EES--check out the online version below!
TUNE INTO BOKS FACEBOOK LIVE WORKOUTS
Each weekday at 12 pm EST BOKS will be hosting at-home BOKS classes through Facebook LIVE.
Please visit https://www.facebook.com/boks/ to tune into our live workouts. There will also be a recording of these listed on this page.
Activity Works website--go to the bottom of the page and try the 3 free videos entitled "Healthy Snacking", "Dinosaur Discovery", and "Food on the Farm"
Superhero workouts, like I have in the EES gym--pick your favorite!
Toilet paper push-up challenge, then create your own!
Sidewalk Chalk Fitness Challenge
1-minute fitness challenges
Jump Rope Challenges
Fitness Brain Bites (for 3rd-5th graders)
Agility Brain Bites
Fun, active worksheets from Spark Academy PE website:
https://djo4pzi1mqag4.cloudfront.net/uploads/lesson_part/pdf/data/1266/Family_Health_Home_Play.pdf
Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Calendar
https://djo4pzi1mqag4.cloudfront.net/uploads/lesson_part/pdf/data/1268/Healthy_Choices_Home_Play.pdf
Making Healthy Choices Worksheet
https://djo4pzi1mqag4.cloudfront.net/uploads/lesson_part/pdf/data/1272/Heart_Health_Home_Play.pdf
Heart Healthy Activities
https://djo4pzi1mqag4.cloudfront.net/uploads/lesson_part/pdf/data/1274/Nutrition_Home_Play.pdf
Nutrition Worksheet
Lifetime Wellness Activities
GoNoodle: Free movement and mindfulness videos
Many students do activities from this site in their regular classrooms!
Daily #ActiveHomeChallenge
Every morning at 8 a.m., we’ll be sharing an activity challenge to share with students at home! With family permission, upload a video to social media or PE Universe using the hashtag #ActiveHomeChallenge!
Follow us on Twitter at GopherSport to see the most recent challenges!
Home Skill Development Activity Cards for
- Jumping Skills
- Basketball
- Speed Training
- Volleyball
- Hand/Eye Coordination Skills
- Soccer
- Balance and Agility Skills
https://openphysed.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/MMNOW00-CompletePacketVol1.pdf
This is a wonderful resource for games at home that require limited or adapted equipment. Check out the list below!
- Rock, Paper, Scissors (Regular, Victory, Championship, Balance Pose, Around the World, Strong/Stretch/Sweat)
- Active Charades (Stations, Crazy 8 Emoji Dance, Letter, Word, Animal, Sports, Movie)
- Invisible Dumbbell (Weights) Stations
- Shadow Ball Stations
- Tabata Fitness Stations--brief, high intensity workouts
- Floor Tape Line Games (Whatcha' Doing, Wave Relays, First Things First, Best Foot Forward)
https://www.wevideo.com/view/1614233931
Paper Plate Tabata (High Intensity Fitness!)
https://www.wevideo.com/view/1614427122
Balloon Challenges and Activities
https://www.wevideo.com/view/1614597216
Towel Fitness and Challenges
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChIjW4BWKLqpojTrS_tX0mg
Just Dance has a ton of dance videos with various themes from the Trolls to Billie Eilish!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMuJxd2Gpxo
The "Sid Shuffle" from the movie Ice Age.
https://app.sworkit.com/collections/kids-workouts
Another website for kids workouts that is free. This is also an app you can download on your phone!
https://darebee.com/workouts.html?start=75
This website has thousands of child-oriented workouts with catchy names i.e. Team Zombie, Stay Home, the Atomic. Each workout also has different levels so you can adapt them accordingly.
http://americanparkour.com/news/top-10-parkour-games-for-kids/
par·kour:
/pärˈko͝or/
- the activity or sport of moving rapidly through an area while negotiating obstacles by running, jumping, and climbing.
You can adapt these activities as needed (best to be played with family members!)
You can also play the game "The Floor/Ground Is Lava" in which players must avoid touching the floor or ground when one player calls out "the floor/ground is lava, quicksand, etc."
https://www.shapeamerica.org/uploads/pdfs/2020/calendar/March-2020-Elementary-Calendar-English.pdf
March Mind and Body Calendar--daily exercise
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnpxQr3KXNw
Try a Tabata workout. A Tabata workout is one that consists of 20 seconds of high intensity activity, followed by 10 seconds of rest on-and-off for eight rounds. Above is a Fortnite Tabata to try out.
1-Minute Fitness Challenge
PE at Home Bottle Flip
PE at Home Tossing and Catching