Welcome back to the 20 days of summer school physical education series to see what works and what doesn’t! If you are just joining this series, stop right now and check out Summer School Physical Education: Day 1. What Works and What Doesn’t.

The post above details what I will be talking about day to day, and how it can help you improve your social distancing physical education classes in the fall. It also lays out my class size, class time frames and space I am able to use.

If you are currently teaching summer school physical education, please leave comments on what works for you! I love collaborating, so let me know what you’re up to.

Alright, here we go. Day 2 of social distancing in PE…

The Start of Class:

I started getting more creative with where the kids were allowed to sit. Yesterday they bunched together and on their breaks, even though they were wearing their masks…they were still sitting really close together.

Yesterday, I went out and bought 16 pool noodles (4 red, 4 green, 4 blue, 4 purple) and made little boxes for them to sit in so they could break from a distance. Little did they know the cubby they sat in will determine what team they are on later in the class block.

This worked so well. I even told the kids, pick a spot you like and this will be your little area for the rest of the summer. Eventually, I will stop putting the pool noodles out, and I want them to remember their general space.

Activity #1: Fitness Logs

This is the first day my students tracked their daily workouts on their own.

Since it was their first day, I set up what their workouts should look like. Every students workout template should look like this:

• Warm up:____________________
• 1. 4×20:______________________
• 2. 4×20:______________________
• All the way to 10.
• Cool down:__________________

Each student was responsible for making up their own warm up (could be a lap around the track, or a bleacher run), cool down (walking a lap), and 10 exercises of their (4 sets of 20 repetitions).

Every Friday I will check to make sure they are on track.

I went around and showed them different exercises they can add to their workout of the day and answered any questions they had about the fitness components.

What Worked:

The students really enjoyed getting the freedom to enjoy the outdoors with their friends. I know they appreciated the autonomy of creating their own workouts, without their teacher telling them exactly what exercises should be done.

Since this is going to be a constant in their physical education class, I am happy to see it works well with everyone.

In my first class, my leader from the previous day set up a work out circle and would lead 8 of his friends/classmates on what exercises they should be doing.

They got really creative!

In my second class, they decided as a whole to still go outside, even though it was 91 degrees. We found a shaded area, where about 8 of them worked. The breeze helped them perform a little better.

What Didn’t Work:

Every so often they would inch closer and closer to each other. Saying take three steps backwards helped, but only for about 5 minutes. Once kids get comfortable with creating their own workouts though, I feel that they will start working a little more independently. This means they have much more room to social distance.

Like yesterday, I am the enforcer of the rules. Mask are on indoors at all times, and everyone is appropriately spaced. Even though I talked more in depth with the students today about this, it still was one of our biggest struggles.

Tomorrow I am going to add consequences if they have to be reminded more than 2 times in the same activity. It could be as simple as walking a lap to get them away from their friends for a while, or writing down in their fitness notebooks why these rules are put in place.

Activity #2: Pool Noodle Tag

I introduced Swim Fishy Swim (what my K-8 students call it) today. Other names are Sharks and Minnows, Spiders and Flies, etc.

Instead of letting the kids touch each other with their hands, I provided each kid with their own pool noodle. When they were “it”.

How to play:

Two “sharks” standing in the center of the gym with their own pool noodle tells the rest of the class when to run. The class then tries to make it to the other side without being tagged by the pool noodle. Usually if a kid is tagged in the real game, they are to sit down and become a sitting tagger, but I eliminated this part completely.

Since it’s basically back and forth sprints with a mask on for however long we played, I told the kids if they get tagged they are just out of the game. They will go to the side and catch their breath with their masks.

This also left more wide open room for the students to run.

We played three different rounds with all different taggers. When new taggers were up to play, I had them grab one of the pool noodles they originally sat by. And the taggers who were done with their noodles for the time being put them back in their original spots.

What Worked:

I am lucky enough to have a very wide gym, so even though the game can lead to students running into each other to flee the taggers, this didn’t happen at all. Once there is a few people left running, sometimes we make the boundary lines smaller, but in this case we left them as is. Wide open for more room to stay away from other runners.

Also, giving the kids a pool noodle to tag with made it so no one made physical contact. The taggers thought they had an advantage because technically they had a longer extension of their arms, but because the noodles were somewhat flimsy, they had to put more effort into trying to tag someone.

What Didn’t Work:

The only issue I had was one girl fell backwards and hit her head. She was okay and an ice pack was provided.

But when it comes to the new way of physical education class, I can honestly say this game worked really well.

Activity #3: Pool Noodle Color Tag

This was by far the favorite activity of the day. To the point where in my first hour block after a few rounds we took it outside to play on the field. My pool noodle tag games were indented to be mini activities before soccer, but it was such a hit I let the kids keep playing in a new location, and scratched soccer from my lesson plan for the morning class.

How to play:

Each student grabbed a pool noodle without knowing what the colors meant. Once I had them in their floor spots, I had the red pool noodle kids go to one corner and become a team, blue to the next and so on until everyone was in a corner.

When I said “on your mark, get set, GO!” the students tried to tag players with their noodles who did not share the same color as them. Once you were tagged, you were to sit on the floor. You don’t become a sitting tagger, you just watch until the game is over.

The last person standing wins for their team.

You could also play where the kids do become a sitting tagger with their noodles to get more people out.

Play as many rounds as needed.

What Worked:

Since it was such a hit and the object was to get away from people, there was no distancing issues. We even took the game out to the football field in the morning so the kids didn’t have to wear their masks. Then we combined the red and purple team, and the green and blue team to make two giant teams.

After the first round indoors I asked the kids what worked best for them? Double teaming one student seemed to do the trick. While a purple noodle player was focused on a blue noodle player, another blue player would come up from behind and tag them out.

In the second class of my day the kids are more passive, but definitely enjoyed this game. We stayed indoors the whole time due to the heat, but we kept modifying the game.

For instance, we played same color teams, we combined two teams, boys vs. girls and their favorite…every man for themselves.

What Didn’t Work:

For the kids it was great. I didn’t have any complaints. But I did play both pool noodle games, and between the two this was the most intense. I had a really hard time with my mask after the first round. But I was playing no mercy with the kids, and ended up winning for my team. So of course I was struggling after a bit, because I played so hard.

Next time it’s played I want to step back and take a look at the kids who don’t speak up to make sure their breathing is okay. I let them know if they needed to step out of the game at any time they were allowed to.

Activity #4: Human Foosball Soccer

Only the afternoon class played this game. Since all of these games are pretty new to the students and myself, we are still figuring out if we want to play longer than scheduled, or cut the game completely. Even though my morning class didn’t play due to them loving the pool noodle games, I was really happy to try it out with the second block.

I talked about the idea of playing this game in my post Social Distancing Activities for Physical Education, but when I wrote it I had no experience playing. Today I can say it was a success!

We started the game out with 6 rows of 2 players, and a goalie on each side, but eventually changed it to 4 rows of 3 and a goalie on each side still. Students were not allowed to move forward or backwards, but could move side to side.

How to play:

Students kicked a giant bouncy ball towards their goal without playing close man to man defense. If the ball hit any part of the green part of the bleachers between the stairs they would score.

What Worked:

It was amazing to see how well this works in physical education when it comes to staying socially distanced. And at first I thought there would be a lot of standing around, but kids were constantly in motion.

They were running side to side, and the ball is heavier than a regular soccer ball, so they had to use more force.

Every 5 minutes I would have them pick new positions. They took turns getting to play goalie, and genuinely seemed to enjoy the creativity of it.

What Didn’t Work:

I originally told them they can use their hands or arms to stop the ball. By round two took that rule out. I didn’t feel comfortable with kids touching a giant ball that has been passed around with their feet. Maybe a lighter ball would be more beneficial to prevent the use of their hands.

Once the game was over, I asked what they didn’t like about the game. Only one person raised their hand stating she wanted to try a regular soccer ball. My advice to you is to have a variety of different balls on hand and figure out what works best for your class.

Reminding them that we are still going to have fun with unique activities is going to have to be the new normal. I want kids who love soccer and basketball (like we played the last two days) to be able to play their favorite sports…it just won’t be what they are used to.

Also, as we were leaving the school, I was walking behind two female students and overheard one say she liked the game, but wishes she could have ran up and down the court. If I would have let them run around, distancing guidelines would not have been met. It’s too risky in my eyes to have the kids making body contact while sweating all over each other.

Overall

So far so good!

I have really been enjoying my time teaching summer school physical education and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. We are washing down everything we use, and I am building in hand washing/sanitizer time.

I started staggering the kids in the hallways as well.

For instance, I let the purple pool noodle team leave the gym first to wash their hands, then leave the building to go home. One minute later I let the green team go and so on. This made it so that no more than 4 people were leaving at the same time.

Previous: Day 1

Next: Day 3

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