I have the luxury of teaching summer school physical education during the COVID-19 pandemic before anyone goes back to school in the fall and today was our first day!

Teaching summer school physical education is always my favorite, because it’s a whole different experience than teaching through the cold winter. (Michigan resident here).

The goal of these daily blog posts is to update all of my readers on what works and what doesn’t work when it comes to social distancing and keeping everyone safe. Currently, I am teaching grades 9-12. There are two 3 hour blocks with 15-16 students in each. Block 1 is in the morning from 7:45-10:45, and block 2 is in the afternoon from 11:15-2:15.

If you haven’t already, check out my two posts below. Each article are a compilation of ideas for social distancing activities, along with no equipment games and activities we could try in our new physical education classes.

• Social Distancing Activities for Physical Education Class
• No Equipment Games and Activities for Physical Education Class

Keep reading to see how day 1 of teaching summer school physical education went!

Welcome to Ms. D’s PE Class

We started out just like any other day 1. Attendance, floor spots, and intro of what to expect. I told the students a little about me, and they were able to ask any questions they had.

The number 1 question was “do we have to wear our masks the whole time”.

Unfortunately the answer was yes, unless we were outside. Luckily, I am teaching a great group of kids so there was no complaining. Maybe it was the first day jitters, or maybe they just want to follow the rules.

Either way, both classes started out easy enough!

Now for the remainder of the article, I am going to post all of the activities we did, how to do them and if it worked or not with the CDC guidelines. Both classes did the same activities, so everything listed below will be in a 3 hour time span.

Activity #1: Fitness Components

For the first 45 minutes of class, students are to create workouts and perform them on their own, or with a friend. Each day they will grab their notebooks, and either copy a workout from the internet or be creative and make up their own.

I teach on a huge campus. There is a field house, performance gym, weight room, indoor/outdoor track, football/soccer field, bleachers and an additional wide open field next to the track. Where ever I decide to take the kids, we always have enough room to be at least six feet apart.

Some days I will tell the students they need to work on their cardiovascular endurance, while other days I might tell them to create a body weight muscle endurance workout.

Since today was our first day, I just got them familiar with the outdoor area. They were able to workout however and wherever they wanted as long as they did not leave the field/track/bleacher area.

See why your students should know about the fitness components at any age here!

What Worked:

The students enjoyed time to themselves to listen to their music while getting physical activity. Other students grouped up and made a new friend or two.

My favorite was watching kids run races around the track and on the field.

What Didn’t Work:

By the afternoon class it was about 90 degrees outside. The student’s seemed to slow down energy wise so working indoors might be better for them. The only downfall of that is that they would need to keep their masks on at all times.

Another PE teacher in a different area than me had a parent complaint stating “the teacher told the students to take their masks off when they ran on the indoor upstairs track”. Even though it wasn’t my class, it was still a reality check that we all need to be wearing them indoors. No one is exempt.

Activity #2: Get To Know You Fun

This is the standard in any new class where no one knows each other. I told the student’s this was more for my benefit to help learn their names and personalities faster.

The activities we played were:

• Name Circle:

Everyone sit in a socially distanced circle and say their name one at a time. We went around twice then backwards once.

• Name Game for Speed:

I would start by saying, “my name is Ms. D, and that is_________”.

As I said this sentence, I knelt down and pointed at and said the name of the student I picked. That student would then say, “My name is ______, and that is ______”.

Once we got two practice rounds in we played for time. I used my stopwatch to see how long it would take to get everyone kneeling. By the second real round they beat their time.

After they thought they knew what the next round would look like, I made everyone go backwards. Now we had to say the name of the person who picked us.

• Category Line Up:

I give a category such as “age” and they have to line up from youngest to oldest.

We played multiple rounds of this game. Some categories included: favorites sport in alphabetical order without talking, birthday, first name in alphabetical order, last name in alphabetical order without talking and tallest to shortest.

• Fun Facts Presentation

I grouped each class into groups of 3-4 and told everyone to learn two fun facts about each member. Instead of having them present to the class, I just went around to each group so I could personally learn about the kids in a smaller setting.

What Worked:

Not only did my students learn about their classmates, I got to learn names. I also found out some amazing things about them, and was able to pull more information out once they started opening up about who they were.

Out of all the get to know you activities, both classes loved Category Line Up. In my first class, I found who the leader of the group was, and got to watch him help everyone succeed by helping them get to the correct spot in line.

This game also had them running wild, which built their excitement up. We were able to turn a simple activity into a mini workout.

What Didn’t Work:

During the name circle, it was really hard to hear some of the quieter kids over their masks. Our circle was pretty big to ensure we were all appropriately spaced, and even though I can get my voice loud, some kids can’t or won’t.

When we played the Category Line Up game, the students’ tried their best to space out in line, but sometimes the excitement got the best of them. I noticed they started inching closer and closer. Reminding them to spread out helped, but eventually their line got squished back together when the next category was called.

The Fun Facts Presentation activity did not go over well with a handful of boys in my second block. They looked bored to tears. Even when I was talking to them, they looked like it was just the worst thing they had ever done in their lives. But on the upside this was the game that I got to learn some really cool things about the kids. So for some of them it wasn’t fun, but for me it was definitely beneficial.

Activity #3: H-O-R-S-E (Basketball)

Thankfully, I had just enough basketballs for every student to have their own to play a game of horse. I also had 6 nets down so students could play in groups of 2 or 3.

To play, one person in the group picks a spot on the court and shoots their basketball. If they make it, the person after them has to make it from the same spot. If that second person misses, they gain the letter H. Once you collect all 5 letters H-O-R-S-E, you lose. Accuracy is key!

I love watching the kids get creative with layups, or trick shots. As long as they play by the basic rules, I let them intensify their game to make it more fun for them.

What Worked:

Each student had their own ball, so cross contamination was eliminated. Playing with less kids on each net helped keep them appropriately distanced through out the performance gym.

Another benefit was that the less kids in each group, the more shots they got to take. This kept them highly engaged.

What Didn’t Work:

Surprisingly, the majority of my kids kept their mask on all the way during the whole class. I told them if at anytime their physical activity got to be too much and they were having trouble breathing, to step out of the activity area, pull their mask down and get their breathing back on track. This didn’t happen once!

There were a few kids that needed to be reminded to cover their nose with the mask. But honestly for a low intensity game like H-O-R-S-E, limited issues came up.

Activity #4: Lightning

As you can see, we did only basketball games today. Also, ALL of my students know how to play lightning so less instruction time means more play time for them.

How to play:

Each student has their own ball. The first person in line will shoot. If he makes it, he goes to the end of the line with his own ball. If he misses, he will go to get his rebound while the second person in line shoots.

The object of the game is to get the person in front of you out, by making a basket before them. Once you are out, I have my kids either take a breather, practice their dribbling, or they can go shoot on an empty net near by.

Only two people should be shooting at the same time.

What Worked:

Again, the fact that everyone had their own ball worked out great. It also eliminated boredom or kids just standing around when they got out. They were still able to get movement or practice in with the basketballs.

I was happy to see that we could still have fun playing basketball with the social distancing guidelines. Of course these are modified games, but the kids still love it.

What Didn’t Work:

I had to remind students a few times to space out further in line. It was day 1 and I know they are excited, so I’m hoping these types of issues work themselves out as we progress.

Once you get to the end of the game it’s very fast paced. Kids were drenched in sweat, and I was worried about them bumping into each other mixing their sweat on each other.

Luckily I didn’t see this happen, but if you choose to play Lightning with your kids, be very clear on how and why they need to avoid any form of physical contact.

Activity #5: Bump, 3 Pointer, Shoot

I modified this game today, from the original game Bump, Pass, Shoot.

The objective of both ways to play is to be the first team to make a basket to score a point for their team. Once this happens a new round starts with the next two players in line.

In both ways to play this game, each team stands on the baseline (appropriately spaced) facing the court. One team will stand on the left and the other team on the right.

The first player in line from each team plays a round together while their teammates watch. The round starts by the two kids closest to the net “bump” their basketballs together. This lets everyone know they are both ready to start the round.

In the game Bump, Pass, Shoot: after the “bump” the student with the ball will dribble out onto the court and chest/bounce/overhead pass to each one of his teammates. Once they all complete a pass, the original player who started the round will “shoot” trying to make a basket. I eliminated this step completely, because I didn’t want anyone touching someone else’s basketball.

Now for the way I modified it: after “bump”, the player will dribble out to the 3 point line and shoot. If they make it, they score a point for their team and the round is over. The next to players standing in line will “bump” then dribble to the “3 point” line, then “shoot”.

If they don’t make it, they get their own rebounds and shoot anywhere on the court until they score.

What Worked:

The kids LOVED this game. This was probably the most excitement they had throughout the three hour block.

It was competitive enough to keep them engaged, but the end result fell on the team as a whole so it wasn’t continuous pressure. Good sportsmanship was present in both classes.

In the afternoon class, we changed the rules after a few rounds. The new rules were if you scored from the 3 point line on your first shot you get 2 points, and if you needed to get any rebounds you can still only earn 1 point.

Kick it up a notch and score points like a real basketball game, where if you score on the 3 point line you get 3 points, and anywhere else you’ll earn 2.

What Didn’t Work:

Honestly, again it was only the distancing in line.

The kids are so excited to be having fun, that they forget all the things us teachers are worried about like COVID-19 and safe space.

Most of my “didn’t work” sections, are things I need to get stronger with. Enforcing that appropriate distance, and making sure their masks were on 100% of the time indoors.

Overall…

Today was a great day!

I’m looking forward to updating you who aren’t teaching until the fall how this whole social distancing in physical education can work.

There will be things we fail miserably with, but also things we are going to excel in. Good or bad, I would love to hear from you all.

Leave a comment on what you are currently doing if you teach, or what your plan looks like in the fall.

Happy teaching!

Update: check out Day 2 HERE!