Do you have to provide some sort of physical education program? Is all your equipment locked up? Remember when teaching physical education was so much easier?
Well, don’t worry.
We’ve been collecting ideas for your equipment-free classes. We’ve even found a few ideas for online classes. Let’s get started.
Gym Activities That Require No Equipment
If you’re looking for fun activities that you can use in the classroom, check out our post, Quiet Classroom Games You’ll Love.
Mirror Mirror
How to Set Up This Game: Take your students outside for this game if possible. There is not a lot of agility needed to play this game, so being bundled up in a snowsuit will not prevent you from playing this game.
Divide your class into two groups. Line up the groups so they are spaced two metres apart in two rows that face each other. Each person should point to the person they are standing across from. That person is their mirror.
How to Play: Starting with the first player of one of the lines, the students will strike a pose. Their mirror will have to copy that pose. The next student in the line poses and their mirror poses. The game continues down the line.
Once you’ve done this, aim for a smooth transition where the lines go from one pose to the second pose as fast as students can go.
Add Some Movement: Once a student and the mirror have started posing, have them count to five. At the end of the counting, they can run down on the outside of the lines to stand at the end of the line. Essentially your two lines will start crawling across the field (or gym if you’re inside).
Challenge your class to see how far they can move their line of mirrors without it falling apart.
Balancing Statues
We usually play this game in pairs. One student would pose their partner and then explain what they had created. This game is a modified version of this.
How to Set Up This Game: Find a large area where students can spread out. If you have music that can play like a countdown, it adds to the fun, but it is not necessary.
How to Play: Give students 10-30 seconds to strike a pose. After the time runs out, ask each student what they are posing as. The challenge is that every student has to hold their pose until all the students have said their piece.
Arms Out
We’ve always played a game called Arms Out. Basically, it’s follow the leader (but if a student loses, they sit out-we usually have something else for them to do). This is a great transition game or something to fill a few minutes at the end of the day.
How to Set Up the Game: Students will stand spread apart where they won’t touch other people or objects if they move.
You’ll be the leader. There are four actions: arms out: place your arms out beside you like you’re a T, shoulders (touch your shoulders), knees (touch your knees) and toes (touch your toes). You have to go in order of body parts and cannot jump. So you can go arms out, shoulders, knees and then back to shoulders, but you cannot go shoulders to toes.
Once the students learn the actions, explain that you’re going to try to make them do it wrong. If they do it wrong, you’ll point at them to sit down (or go do the thing they need to do). Explain that you are the only referee and if you miss catching someone, that’s just lucky for the person that messed up. They do not have to say the words. They just do the actions.
How to Play: We always start slow and then we try to catch them by going faster or by doing the wrong action with the word.
If they get good, you can also pick the last one to get into the new position. Another trick to catch a few is to say the same position twice in a row (works really well when their arms are already out).
Warning: make sure they step back from their desk or chair when playing. We had a kid hit their head on their desk reaching for their toes.
Gym Activities That Require Internet or Simple Equipment
Dance Education
Sometimes it’s difficult to get students in upper elementary to dance. Several years ago we had the pleasure of having the DancEd Movement Project come to our school and teach our students to dance. It was a blast.
When the pandemic hit, they were no longer able to go to schools regularly, but they created a series of videos you can use in your classroom to teach some basic dances. There are even a few games and activities designed for Kindergarten through Grade 9.
How to Set Up: You will need a projector and speaker. Students will need a space to move.
Yoga Education Videos
Yoga Ed. has many different videos. Some of them are for calming or regulation while others are more strenuous and require more movement. Since there is such a wide array of choices, you can alternate yoga with other movement activities or use it at different times of the day.
How to Set Up: You will need a projector and speaker if you are teaching face-to-face. Students will need a space to move.
To do yoga, your students may need yoga mats, but many of these activities can be done on the floor without a mat. Remember to wash your hands afterward.
Zumba
Anyone who says Zumba is not a workout clearly hasn’t really tried it. It combines dance and aerobics. If you lack hand-eye coordination, it is also hilarious to watch and do.
We like to go to YouTube and find videos with our students. This bumps up the engagement when they pick the song (but we always reserve the right to veto for school appropriateness). Try searching Zumba videos for kids and adding a middle school to your search terms for less cutesy videos.
Line Dancing
Line dancing is the original socially distanced dance. One of the best sites we’ve ever come across is called the Rockin Horse Dance Barn. It’s not cutesy, making it great for upper elementary or even middle school.
When you scroll down, you can pick a dance. It comes with a PDF that breaks down the different steps (and names them). This way you can actually teach each of the steps. Each dance also comes with an instructional video. The videos go quite quickly, but when paired with the PDF, they are easy to pick up.
One of the best ways to teach a line dance is to teach one little part each day and then build up the dance. Within a week or two, you’ll have several steps. Just add music and speed up the steps and you’ve got a dance.
Since this site is designed as a dance site and not necessarily designed for students, you may want to be selective about the song choice. Each PDF comes with the name of the song and performer so you can preview the lyrics before sharing the song with students.
How to Set Up: You will need a projector and speaker. Students will need a space to move.
Fitness Skills
Some good old fitness skills will never go to waste. Take your kids outside for a walk, some stretching or some running.
Teach your students to do some sit-ups, push-ups or sprints.
Fitness skills are a pretty simple way to keep kids moving without any additional equipment. Take it outside as often as you can.
Our friend from Love Learning STEM created a weekly digital tracking activity that she has been using with her students who are at home. Students can use activities like stretches, push-ups, jumping jacks, or sit-ups. They can also record their time spent walking, running, dancing or any other sports activity they participate in weekly.
Lid Golf (It’s Just Like Frisbee Golf)
To Set Up This Game: Students will need frisbees. If you don’t have any, flat lids from ice cream pails will work. You will need several pylons (but the kids will not be touching them).
Spread out the pylons in a large area like a field. This game can be played in the snow (but maybe don’t use your white lids). Each pylon represents a target. The farther the pylons are, the more interesting the game gets.
How to Play: Students will throw their lids trying to hit the pylon. Depending on how far students stand from the pylon, this might take a few shots.
When a student is close to a pylon, the rest of the students should not be throwing toward it.
We divided students up so that only two or three students we aiming at one pylon at a time. If your students make it all of the way around the course, they can try again until you run out of time.
Gym Activities Can Include Outside Play
It is important to train your students on how you will get their attention outside. We use a hand signal. When we raise our hand up into the air, it means students should stop playing and bring all the equipment from the area they’re in with them (when there is equipment).
Some teachers use a whistle where one blast means to freeze and two means return. If your school has a bullhorn that you can use, it also helps save your voice.
Students in upper elementary and middle school love the occasional play on a playground. If this is a possibility, do it. Remind everyone how to be safe and stay distanced while they play.
If you’re looking for more activities to do outside with your class, read our post How to Grow a Healthy Classroom. You may also like our post, Why You Should Revive Old Playground Games.
If you’re looking for a fun and easy-to-prep idea, try our Nature Scavenger Hunt which can be found in our Resource Library. Our library is open to members of our ninja mailing list. We can send you a copy directly to your inbox when you sign up.
What other gym activities are you doing with your students? Leave us your ideas in the comments below. We’ll add your suggestions to our list so other teachers can benefit from them.
