Category: Outdoor

Act It Out

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Grade level: 3-8
Equipment: None (exercise mats if desired)
Game Description: Simple and fun creative movement activity that can be played throughout most grade levels. PE plus a bit of drama (not your typical grade 7 drama that gives teachers a headache, but the other kind of drama). So simple: make some groups, find some space, and give each group a theme or an idea that they will have to act out using the best of their physical movements capabilities! Keep it informal and have a blast, or make it more formal and specific, create rubrics and things to include, etc – groups present to the class once finished! That’s the basic idea, please watch the video for a few more details!

The Great Outdoor Treasure Hunt

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Grade level: K-8
Equipment: Nature
Game Description: What better way to use outdoor space than a scavenger hunt!? This hunt is a bit different from your typical hunt, because instead of a list that players need to just check off when they see the items, they must BRING THE ITEMS HOME to their collection area. You can and should create a secret treasure item that you’ve hidden somewhere outside beforehand (for example hide a Kleenex box somewhere good and players need to also retrieve a tissue from the box). Simply start by creating a home area where individuals or partners (depending how you want to do it) put their hula hoop on the ground, which is their collection area to bring the items into. Next, go over the rules with all students, and give them a list of the items (or leave a master poster at the home area so they have to use their memory). Note that they can only bring 1 item back at a time! Obviously choose items that students can find or access in your area/community. Stress the importance of respecting property and not taking things that they shouldn’t. At the end, players will return all the items that need to be returned!

Mini Basketball Relay

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Grade level: 5-8
Equipment: Basketballs, hoops
Game Description: A simple relay idea to practice basketball skills: dribbling, shooting, rebounding. Players are sure to have a fun time playing off against each other to try to be the first team to score 10 baskets (or most baskets made in a certain time)! Best to use small groups/teams of 2-3 players per team on half courts, but could also be done on full court. Each player has their own ball. Each team faces their own hoop. On the go signal, the first player from each line dribbles the ball towards their hoop and takes a shot where they feel comfortable. Players continue to shoot until one of them scores a basket. At that time, the team who scored must yell out their score (for example, “THREE”!) and then the players must retrieve their ball and return to their teams line. As soon as they return, the next player in line can go. Game continues on and on like this! One rule you can add is that the students waiting in line can practice their dribbling skills so that they’re not just standing there (although they shouldn’t be standing for too long anyways). Should be LOTS OF FUN! (Thanks Zane Gardner for inspiring this game idea).

The Spy

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Grade level: 3-8
Equipment: None
Game Description: The Spy is a classic game of mystery where one player is chosen as the spy who goes around and poisons the other players. They do this by sneakily winking at them (so if you get winked at, you’re poisoned)! A poisoned player must quietly drop to the ground and lay there, or in the case of PE class they can hold a plank instead to make it more challenging. It’s important in this game that players are all making eye-contact the entire time, no dodging glances. The spy will try to poison all players to win the round. BUT in order to do this, the spy must be very sneaky – because if a different player sees that a spy has winked at someone, that player can put up their hand and say “I found the spy!” – If that player is correct, the round is over. If they were mistaken, that player is OUT!

Distance Relays

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Grade level: K-8
Equipment: Cones
Game Description: This is a 2-person relay format to get players nice and sweaty. Lots of different variations can be performed (could be 100s if you’re creative enough)! So go find some room outside, or play in the gym! Partners will take turns going back and forth to the middle circle to perform whatever action or exercise you choose to get the job done – make it continuous for a certain amount of time, or race, race, RACE!

2v2 Mini Volleyball

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Grade level: 4-6
Equipment: Volleyballs, Skipping Ropes, Cones
Game Description: Another fun volleyball idea to get players hitting more reps and more contact with the ball in small sided games. It’s really so simple: make groups of 3 players, middle player holds skipping rope over head as net, use cones at the end for out of bounds. There are some simple rules like no spiking of course, as well switch the net holder every 3 points. That’s about it (thanks to Angelo Gasparro)!

Bottle Shuttle

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Grade level: 3-8
Equipment: Cones, Recycled Plastic Bottles
Game Description: This game is played using recycled plastic bottles (1 for every player in the game). First you will need to cut the bottles in half (the upper half is the shuttle and the lower half is the bottle). Then players will line up at the starting line, each holding the shuttle part in their hand while their bottle part is on the ground/floor directly in front of them. At the starting whistle, players drop the shuttle, trying to have it land in the bottle. If successful, that player would take a step forward to the next cone. And so on so forth. First to the finish line wins! Play individually against each other, or team challenges. (Thanks to Dr. Mehdi Dehghani in Iran)

Frisbee Noodle

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Grade level: 5-8
Equipment: Cones, Noodles (or hula hoops), Frisbees (or footballs)
Game Description: This is a throwing accuracy game to work on frisbee tosses. First, divide the class into groups of three. Each player must stand by one of the cones that should have already been distributed on the ground in a set of 3 (this activity is best played outside for space reasons but can be played inside if needed). The player on the far left of the field will have a disc while the middle player must have ONE noodle. Noodle person must bend their noodle to form a circle/oval/loop. Person on the far right has the job of retrieving the disc and running to the throwing cone.

How it works:
1) The thrower will throw the frisbee in a attempt to get it to travel through the noodle that the player in the middle has made. The Noodle person is allowed one step to their right or left to get the disc to travel through. If the disc travels through, they get 1 point for their team. The retriever will get the disc and run as fast as they can down to the throwing cone. At this point, every player shifts up one cone so that they are now playing a different position. Each teams counts their points out loud so that everyone knows how many point that they have.
2) The first team to get to 10 points wins (This can be changed at the discretion off the teacher).
3) The object is to work on accuracy with the throws to ensure that the disc remains level and flat while being thrown (a prerequisite would be to have worked on back hand throws first).
4) The teacher can incorporate different throws into it in order to increase difficulty with the activity.

(Thanks to Brian Burn)