Category: ALL

In The Jungle

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Grade Level: K-2
Equipment: Cones, Beanbags, Hulahoops, Lilly Pads, Scooters, Hockey Sticks (or hurdles)
Game Description: In The Jungle is a stations-based activity where students will have the chance to pretend to be 8 different animals and accomplish different tasks. The gym is to be split in 8 stations and students will spend a couple minutes at each:

Frog: Students hop from lilly-pad to lilly-pad, 2 feet like a frog. Try 1 foot as well.
Bird: Students fly around as birds waving their arms, landing on different trees (hula hoops).
Snake: Students slither on the floor as snakes underneath hurdles.
Caterpillar: Using beanbags under their feet, with hands on the floor, students creep along as caterpillar motions.
Fish: Lying stomach down on the scooters, students will “swim” around as fish.
Cheetah: Students will run around a circle of cones on all fours like speedy cheetahs.
Horse: Jumping over hurdles, and galloping around is what horses do at this station!
Kangaroo: Students use a hula hoop to skip with and hop around as kangaroos.

Army & Navy

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Grade Level: 2-8
Equipment: None
Game Description: This fitness or warm-up/running game is a calling game. The caller (usually the teacher) calls out these commands:

Army: Run to one side of the gym
Navy: Run to the other side of the gym
Hit the deck: Lie face down
At ease: Stand up

Try adding some rules such as “first one to Army gets a point” or “last one to Navy is out”. Players must be careful to wait for the “At Ease” command before getting up to run somewhere. Or add your own ideas to modify this quick physical education game to suit your needs. (Thanks to Justin for this game idea)

Dice Tiggy

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Grade Level: 1-6
Equipment: Hula Hoops (4 different colors), pool noodles, dice
Game Description: Dice Tiggy is a unique game idea in which the teacher rolls a dice, and the outcome of the roll directly affects what is to happen next. First start with hula hoops – 4 different colors – spread out on the floor around the playing area (enough so there’s 1 for each player). Every player must start in a hoop. The roll of the dice matters in the following way: if a “1” is rolled, then the players in the BLUE hoops are it and will grab a pool noodle from the pile and go around tagging all the other players who had to exit their hoop once the roll was made. When players are tagged, they need to jump back into any hoop until everyone has been caught and are back into a hoop. If a “2” is rolled, then the players in the RED hoops are taggers. If “3” then GREEN. If “4” then YELLOW… If a “5” is rolled, then everyone does 5 quick jumping jacks or other exercise of choice. If a “6” is rolled, then the TEACHER is it! Play many rounds of this game for some good exercise and fun for all (Thanks to Brett Sinnett @commandokiddz for this game idea)

Mushroom Ball

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Grade Level: 4-8
Equipment: 1 Foam Ball
Game Description: The game of Mushroom Ball starts with students scattered in the gym (or field) and a toss-in where any student is free to go after the ball. The player who gets the ball becomes the thrower and will try to throw at any player (discuss safe areas to throw at – maybe from the knee down). The thrower may not take more than three steps before throwing the ball. If a player gets hit he must sit down as a mushroom. Watch out for the mushrooms because they are allowed to tag while sitting! If a sitting player (mushroom) happens to get a hold of a loose ball, they must attempt to pass the ball to another mushroom until all of the mushrooms have touched the ball. If all the mushrooms have touched the ball without an interception by the standing players, the mushrooms get to stand up. A winner is declared if one player is left standing. Try it out for something new in your P.E. class. (Thanks to Eric Grohs for this game idea)

Fruit Salad

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Grade Level: K-5
Equipment: Pinnies (different colors)
Game Description: Fruit salad is a tag game for kindergarten to grade 5. Give out different color pinnies to the taggers and ask the students to name fruits that are the same colors of the pinnies. If students get tagged by a certain color then they freeze into the shape of the particular fruit that matches the color. As a class you can decide upon different ideas of how to freeze into a particular fruit. The class also determines how to unfreeze the different pieces of fruit so there are lots of different kinds of actions and they can make up a new version almost every time.

Examples: Apple – Cut, Banana – Peel, Blueberry – Wash, Watermelon – Roll, etc.

Try it out with the VEGETABLE theme as well! Move and learn at the same time with the Fruit Salad physical education game.

(Thanks to Curtis Glasgow for this game idea)

Hit & Run

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Grade Level: 1-8
Equipment: Foam Balls
Game Description: Hit & Run is a physical education warm-up or dodgeball lead-up game. The idea is very easy, and it really gets the heart rate up: First thing, students partner up. One person starts with the ball. The other person has no ball, and gets a 5 second head start, then runs away. After the 5 second head start the thrower can go chase. They throw as many times as needed until they make a hit. When a hit is made they switch roles. Important to emphasize safety and where on the body it is okay to throw and not to throw the ball. Other than that have fun with another awesome PE game idea! (Thanks to Tate Braeckel for this game idea)

Sideline Soccer

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Grade Level: 2-8
Equipment: Foam Balls
Game Description: In sideline soccer, teams become goalies along their respective sidelines, using their best goaltending skills. Imagine the set-up as big lines of goalies stretching across the entire length of the sidelines – for each team. Meanwhile the first 5 players from each team enter the playing area from the front of their line to play some soccer (choose 2-3 balls to use all at the same time). Whenever a goal is scored on a team, just put the ball back into play and keep going – no need to stop the play for anything! After 2 minutes blow the whistle and the 5 players from each team that were on the playing area will go to the back of their teams line of goalies and 5 new players who were at the front of the line enter in as players. Great game to play to work on all the soccer (football) skills. Also a great game for large groups.

Prison Ball

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Grade Level: 4-8
Equipment: Foam Balls
Game Description: Prison ball is a dodgeball-type game where 2 teams face-off against each other. Along the ends of the gym, behind each team is a prison area. Whenever a player gets hit, he or she must head to prison behind the opposite team on that end. They are stuck there until they can throw a ball and successfully hit someone while they’re in prison — and then they can return home to their team, while the player they hit must then go to prison! Very interesting type of dodgeball game where players must be aware of their complete surroundings, front, back, sides. Balls flying from all over the place makes it challenging and lots of fun!