No equipment games and activities in physical education needs to be considered moving forward. We can’t take the chance of contaminating multiple pieces of equipment that hundreds of kids will share throughout the day.
Cleaning will start slacking, and equipment will carry around our germs to be passed from student to student.
Even as the teachers, we have to worry about our own health.
With that in mind, I have compiled a list of no equipment activity/games your students can do in physical education class.
No Equipment Games In Physical Education:
1. Relay Races
Simple enough. Your students can social distance in line, while their teamamtes complete their part in whatever type of relay you create.
Instead of tagging hands for their teammates to take their turns, just cross a specific marking on the floor like the baseline.
2. Fitness Exercises
Throughout K-12 physical education, our students should be learning about the five health related fitness components.
This can easily be incorporated into fitness activities while you are trying to teach your students while having them social distance from one another.
Your students can get a great body weight workout with no machines or equipment if you teach them how and why it’s good for them.
3. Yoga
As stated in a previous post called, Social Distancing Activities in Physical Education Class I talk about different resources you can find to teach your class yoga.
With all the known benefits of yoga, it would be a disservice to your students if they didn’t learn it.
4: Get to Know You Activities
These are usually done at the beginning of the school year, but who says you can’t use certain activities throughout class.
One of my favorite ways to keep little kids engaged if I’m losing them is to tell them to get in a line in order by tallest to shortest, or vise versa.
With any grade you can create different scenarios. For instance, get in order by age, alphabetical order, birthday month, alphabetical order by favorite number etc.
You could go a step further and put poly spots on the floor to ensure your students are standing 6 feet apart.
I encourage you all to look up the adventure education curriculum. There are 7 stages, but stages 1-3 will be the easiest to social distance.
See what games and Get to Know You Fun I played with my students while staying socially distanced here!
5: Track and Field Games
If you are lucky enough to teach near a track, you could incorporate a track and field unit. Even if you don’t have a track, get creative. Have kids run around your building or field.
Normally when I write, I try to make the article readable and beneficial for all grade level teachers. But in this section I will show how a track and field unit will be helpful for high school students using 9-12 Grade Level Outcomes with students showing level 2 proficiency.
The great thing about seeing high school standards even though you teach elementary, is knowing what you should be prepping your young students for long term.
Below are just a few of the many grade level outcomes you can use to guide your students towards success while social distancing at the same time;
- Applies rates of perceived exertion and pacing. (S3.H3.L2).
- Creates a plan, trains for and participates in a community event with a focus on physical activity (e.g., 5K, triathlon, tournament, dance performance, cycling event). (S3.H6.L2).
- Adjusts pacing to keep heart rate in the target zone, using available technology (e.g., heart rate monitor), to self monitor aerobic intensity. (S3.H10.L2).
6: Hand-Eye Coordination Drills
Yes…this does have equipment. But the great thing about this is that it’s individualized practice meaning everyone works in their own space with their own equipment.
Jason Calhoun creator of Kid Fitness Challenge on YouTube, created this awesome video showing how to keep your hand-eye coordination sharp for any sport.
You could make this as easy or challenging as you need based on the age/grade of your students.
Check out more of Jason’s YouTube video with the link above, or his Instagram account: @calhounskidfitchallenge.
7: Numbers Creativity Game
Another amazing idea I stumbled upon was created by Dan Betty in his YouTube video, Physical Education Games with NO Equipment. Check out his channel for more visual ideas.
One of my favorite activities from his video was the numbers game where he will call out a number, and students will have to have that many body parts touching the ground.
This can be used for the older kids as well. Maybe a quick instant activity to get them bring them back to focus if they are getting off task.
And for the little ones, you could create a whole lesson out of it!
Check out the full video below, where Dan introduces 5 no equipment games to play in PE.
8: Mental and Emotional Health Unit
I love how close PE and health relate to one another. You can’t have one without the other.
Of course PE should include movement, but physical literacy isn’t the only thing we need to teach our students about. Their mental well-being is important too.
In a previous article, I talk about emotional health and how to strengthen it, as well as improving your mental health.
Sit your kids down and talk about the importance of healthy bodies and healthy minds.
9: Parkour
Anyone watch the office?
If you haven’t check out the clip above about how “not” to do parkour. But as Jim says in the video, the point is to get from point A to point B as creative as possible.
Parkour is also known as free running where you can jump, climb, roll, vault, swing etc. to avoid obstacles in your way.
I don’t know about you, but as a PE teacher my grade level outcomes radar just went off the charts hearing all of the skills parkour includes.
Be as creative as you want with this one!
10. Outdoor Pursuits/Geocaching
Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.
How fun would it be for students to go on a real life treasure hunt!? The only problem is that most geocaches are located off school property, so it would be near impossible to pull this off without getting permission to take your students on a field trip.
But…you could teach your students about Geocaching and have them download the app as a family.
Families will get to spend more quality time together while getting physical activity…and they learned about this in PE class! See PE is important.
After you have introduced your students to this outdoor pursuit activity, you could have them create their own geocaches to hide around the school with a detailed map. Then each student would select a different treasure hunt map created by a classmate and go find their item!
Rules and boundaries must be created before heading out, but once that is squared away…happy outdoor pursuits!
Virtual Teaching
For detailed information on how to set up your virtual classrooms, and what to do with your kids during your live Zoom or Google Meets, check out my two latest posts: