Welcome back to the 20 days of summer school physical education series! 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 6 of social distancing in PE…

Activity #1: Fitness Notebooks

I switched it up today. Instead of them creating their own workouts, I supplied them with one already created. I made three workouts that helped them understand the fitness components a little better.

Students were either given a muscle endurance workout, flexibility video to perform, or a cardiovascular endurance workout.

PDF fitness component worksheets

I had their names pre-written on each worksheet to prevent students from switching worksheets with someone. Once it was time to get to work students had to find their group mates on their own by asking each other what fitness components they were to be working on.

What Worked:

Letting students work in groups made it more enjoyable for them. Also getting them to work with students they normally wouldn’t group up with is always fun to watch. My students usually enjoy with I make teams or groups.

This is also a huge benefit for the students that normally work alone. There is a few shy kids in every class, so group gatherings where they are told where to go takes the pressure off of them to reach out to others on their own.

I was extremely impressed with my 2 mile group. I only put 4 kids in this group in each class, but both classes worked SO HARD. They actually ran for time, and tried their hardest to come in under 16 minutes, which wasn’t something I intended. Even watching them sprint their last straight away made me really proud.

My girls in the second class ran with smiles, and the muscle endurance group would cheer them on every tie they passed by. They’d let them know how many laps they were on. And even though they had the most challenging workout, they all finished before anyone else so they had the longest time to rest and regroup.

Improvements or Modifications:

My yoga kids who got to watch a video and copy the moves could have used a larger screen. I wanted students to work together on this while social distancing outside, and it was somewhat hard to follow along on a small cell phone screen.

One student actually started watching the video, and then demonstrating for her group. This worked really well. The only downfall was that if she did not have proper form, her group mates also would not have proper form unless they could hear the video and knew what the pose was.

Activity #2: Track & Field

Since I am trying to do more outdoor activities, I figured I’d have my students do a mini track and field meet.

Races supposed to be included were:

• 100 m sprint
• 200 m sprint
• 400 m sprint
• 4×100 m relay
• 4×200 m relay
• 4×400 m relay

While executing this, we decided to only do the relays. Everyone except the last runner ran with their pool noodles, and tagged their teammate with it when it was their turn to run. This ensured we kept a safe distance.

I hopped into the 4×200 relay for a team in the morning, because they were down a runner. I used to be a sprinter in high school so this was my race. One of my male students caught my lead and beat me. It was so fun though, and I know they get really excited when I play with them.

What Worked:

The competition aspect of track was fun to watch as the kids cheered for their teams from all over the track. I also loved that in the relays, the pressure didn’t fall on any particular student. If they won, they won as a team. And if they lost, they lost as a team.

Pool noodles as a baton also worked pretty well. It was funny to watch kids run full speed with a giant colorful flying pool noodle in their hands. A level of excitement and fun was created here.

Order a pack of 60 multi color pool noodles for your class, by clicking the image above. 

Improvements or Modifications:

We definitely could have done without the pool noodles to eliminate any equipment use. The only problem is, you would have to let your students know when they are allowed to start running in the relays once their teammates got to them.

You might see problems such as, certain kids take off too soon making the playing field uneven for the students who are playing fairly.

Activity #3: Capture the Flag

This was a spur of the moment decision made by the morning class. Since it was only about 78 degrees in the morning here in Michigan we took full advantage of outdoors. Instead of going in to work on activity #4 listed below, we decided as a class to play capture the flag.

All of our pool noodles were already out, so we stayed playing with them. Students held their own and were able to tag the opposite team when they crossed over the center line of the football field.

We only played on 50 yards of field, so half field would have been the 25 yard line. we had plenty of room to keep a safe distance.

What Worked:

Playing outside was the best thing we could have done. I played two rounds with them as hard as I could and really enjoyed not having to wear my mask. I tell everyone I play no mercy on the other team, which always gets both teams to work harder. But still having fun.

The noodles were a great asset to the game. Today was originally supposed to be a day with zero equipment, but since no one is sharing noodles it worked out well. We also clean them with the disinfectant wipes the school provided.

Once we went in, I made everyone wash their hands, their noodles and anything else they wanted to sterilize.

Improvements or Modifications:

If you were playing in the gym with masks on, I’d make sure you have a big enough space to keep the kids a safe distance away from teammates or opponents.

I’d also take longer breaks in between activities just so students can get their breathing back on track if it was too much for them with their masks on.

Activity #4: TikTok Workouts/Dances

If you have read my previous post about how I used TikTok to keep my students moving during the Coronavirus lock down, then you will know how fun this actually is.

I was confident I’d have students who didn’t want to create a dance, so I told them they can create a workout instead like the link above talks about.

Students were able to group up with their friends to work together. If they wanted to work independent I was happy to let them do so.

Each group/individual chose a song and created a 30 second dance/workout. I went around to each group to approve the song before they got started. If they wanted videotape themselves with the music they could, but it wasn’t mandatory. I also did not let them record themselves on TikTok. That is for their parents to decide if they should be posting videos to the app or not. I don’t feel like that is my place.

We spent an hour creating and practicing our routines. Once every group felt confident, they performed in front of the class. Tomorrow each group will teach the class their routines and we’ll do them as a whole.

What Worked:

This one got them so excited once they got over the “I’m too cool to dance” personality. I watched a group of girls in my morning class pick a song and get right to work. They incorporated their favorite exercises and were hitting the beat showing they were keeping up with the rhythm.

Even my one group of guys started to get really into it. Although the morning class had a lot less time as the afternoon since we added in some outdoor activities just to enjoy the cool air and no face masks. They will continue theirs tomorrow.

Improvements or Modifications:

One student asked me if they had to record it, and the answer is no. I don’t want anyone recording themselves in class, and especially not uploading videos of themselves and their friends to TikTok.

Make sure you’re clear with what you expect. Clean song, approve it, and let them get creative. No recording, and no scrolling through TikTok at school. I showed them two of my workout videos for a visual, but it is not my place to get kids on TikTok who have no business or parental permission.

You could have angry parents calling you up. I remember during our remote teaching, I would look at PE Central to get ideas, and some teachers were having their kids send them videos to show they were doing the workouts. Unfortunately, there were angry parents and a lot of complaints. So in my opinion it is not worth losing your parents trust in you for a fun hip new activity. Base it off social media, but don’t present it as “WE’RE MAKING TIKTOKS TODAY!”

Also, my second class blew through this activity. It wasn’t too big of a deal though, because they actually came up with really creative workouts/dances. A couple girl groups mixed exercises with dance moves. My two separate all boy groups did strictly exercises, but I still think they did wonderful.

Get your fitness trackers here. 

Overall

Tomorrow we start Ripstiks, which are my favorite way to increase student engagement in class.

Students are all to bring their own helmets, since I wont be supplying them this summer like I normally do with my K-8 regular school year kids. Hopefully everyone remembers, but if not I’ll have an alternate just as fun activity planned for the kids who did not bring one.

I already asked my students if they had one, or could borrow a family members before this unit and everyone said they had one.

Hopefully everyone had a great weekend!

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Next: Day 7