How to Build a Snow Castle in Virtual Physical Education Class

If you’ve ready my previous post How to Build a Snowman in Virtual Physical Education Class, then you’re already a step ahead of everyone. Now it’s time to build a snow castle!

Today, my students made a home for their snowman they were asked to build yesterday!

The execution of the assignment was pretty much the same, but I left more opportunity for the students to stay on the Google Meet and interact with each other.

Making sure your students are enjoying physical activity should be a priority, and letting them be creative during class is a great way to ensure that happens.

Assigning Students to Build a Snow Castle

First you have to make sure your directions are clear. One of the things I took out of my slide that I displayed yesterday was the words “sign out of Google Meet once you’ve read this message”. The reason for this was because I did not want students leaving without hearing from me. I did not want kids and parents confused about what was expected of them.

Below is the new slide I presented for my kids:

Making sure the students know EXACTLY what they should be doing is key. After I explained this slide I made it even simpler and said,

“You have 3 options today:”

Leave G. Meet and play outside.
Leave G. Meet and play inside.
Stay on G. Meet and follow along to this workout.

Giving Students Options

Not everyone will be in the position to go outside and play. And you cannot force kids to do something parents might not approve of.

While virtual learning is in progress, some kids are home by themselves or taking care of brothers and sisters. For any teacher to force them to go outside would be irresponsible. This is why is CAN’T STRESS ENOUGH, that an alternative option has to be given so some students can stay in your presence.

Even just telling them to build a snow castle (fort) indoors, might be dangerous if the students leave the meet. You just don’t know where they’re going or what they are doing.

This is why a workout is always provided. Again today, I showed a Little Sports workout.

My second graders took advantage of this video, and I had 11 students stay back and workout.

In fourth grade, I had 1 student build indoors, jump back on the meet with 10 minutes left of class and finish his PE time by doing the workout.

Either way, these two assignments have been extremely successful for my students and I.

Email for Extra Credit

As you can see on my slide, I have my students email me pictures of their creations for extra credit. It kept them more accountable, because I received lots of pictures. Some were snowmen outside, some were building blocks they put together indoors, some were blanket forts and a couple were even pictures of their breakfast stacked up in tower form.