Social distancing and physical education would never be caught in the same sentence before 2020.
But now, it’s mandatory.
PE teachers around the world are trying to figure out how they will teach while keeping students 6ft apart. Can we do it? Is it even possible?
We’re about to find out.
For virtual or hybrid teachers, check out my K-8 classroom set up and curriculum outline hitting SHAPE standards 1, 2 & 3:
K-8 Curriculum Outline and Sub Plans HERE!
Also see How to Set Up Your Physical Education Classes by day when some of us return to In Person Teaching.
Advocating for Physical Education
Before we go any further, I want everyone to stop and read the article, Advocating for Physical Education.
It lays out why your content is important, and how to advocate for not only your PE jobs, but for your students.
I’m sure many of you share the same teaching philosophy as me, which is to promote lifelong health to our students.
And if they are not getting enough or any physical education, we are going to have a lot more health crisis’s on our hands in the future due to unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activity.
Even if you are not a PE teacher, I want you to read the post. I want everyone to understand why physical education is so important to our youth.
Social Distancing Activities for Physical Education
Now onto the good stuff.
Keep reading to see a list of games, activities or content you can try out for your upcoming classes.
Some of these ideas will work for you, and some wont. It’s up to you to tailor them to fit your class size, students age, and gym size.
1. Adventure Education
There is so much you can do with the seven stages of adventure. Below is a list of the 7 stages of adventure, followed by a few games I like to play with my students.
- Acquaintance Activities
- Ice Breakers/Dehumanizes
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Trust Activities
- Low Elements
- High Elements
Some of the easiest activities you’ll be able to do falls into stages 1 and 2. You’re capable of doing more, so I urge you to look into the adventure curriculum.
Most of these are instant activities, and team building games. I always start every school year off with a few of these to set the tone of the class. Sportsmanship can be learned through the adventure curriculum.
See how I played some of these Adventure Stage games in person HERE!
2. Human Foosball
This is becoming a big thing in the inflatables business, but you don’t need all of that.
You can turn your gym into a foosball area and save hundreds of dollars on equipment or rentals.
Simply position your students in rows, and put colored poly spots down so they know where to stand and what teams they are on.
Since you will have a bigger foosball arena (gym), you can have more students playing at the same time.
To prevent boredom from the kids who are not getting any ball action add 2 or 3 more balls into the arena. That way the students will have to focus on form kicking, as well as awareness from soccer balls coming from all different direction.
The best thing about this game is that you don’t need goalies, so there (should) be no hand contact with the ball to prevent the spread of germs.
You as the teacher might be the designated ball handler wearing gloves, or if your school provides your with gloves, you can designate a few students to be the runner when the ball get stuck behind bleaches who also wear gloves. Rotate them into the game as needed.
See how I played Human Foosball in person with my students HERE!
3. Fitness Activities
This is a no brainer, and the sky is your limit on how you want to set it up.
Something that worked really well for me was introducing my students to HIIT workouts.
If you click on the HIIT workout link above you can see a detailed post on why it works and how I teach it.
If HIITs aren’t for you, set your students up at least 6 feet apart from each other and create a body weight fitness routine.
Something I will be looking into trying this summer with my high school summer school position is having kids create their own body weight fitness plans, and keep track of their sets and repetitions.
Since no one except my students will be entering my gym during their semester, I will have binders and paper for them to keep track of their work. It will be left to the side in a designated spot where they will be responsible to grab their own and take it to their workout spot. No one should touch anyone else binder, and pens and pencils will not be shared.
Once they get the hang of creating goals and working out independently, they will be instructing their class to follow along with them to their favorite workout they created.
For high schoolers, this second idea of fitness training follows SHAPE National Standard S3.H11.L2 stating the student:
Develops and maintains a fitness portfolio (e.g., assessment scores, goals for improvement, plan of activities for improvement, log of activities being done to reach goals, timeline for improvement).
Of course you can tie so many other standards into this section for all grade levels. You just have to adjust it to who you’re teaching.
4. Modified Basketball
I don’t recommend playing a 5 on 5 game of basketball anytime soon. With the close physical contact and kids dripping sweat, it would completely defeat the purpose of social distancing in physical education.
We have to change what we know about PE if we want to still teach specific skills related to sports.
If you are lucky enough to have a class set of basketballs, individual skills practice should be perfectly fine. No one is allowed to touch anyone elses balls if they get away from them.
Teachers who teach in arenas with 6-12 basketball nets can have a group of 2-3 students per net playing a game of horse. Each student would again have their own ball and share. When students are moving around, their groupmates are standing to the side social distancing.
If you have an overflow of students, you can split your class in half. Group 1 plays horse while group 2 works on a specific skill in a different area of the gym with their own basketballs.
Again these are all ideas, and you can make of them what you want. Basketball is doable, but it’s up to you to figure out how for your kids while still implementing the CDC recommendations.
5. Round Robin Badminton
This is such a fun game that the students LOVE.
When it comes to equipment, no one will be sharing.
How to play:
- Teams of 5-10. Adjust this number to fit your class size and gym space.
- Each side will social distance behind their side of the net.
- A designated student wearing gloves will be the rounds all time shuttlecock thrower. This prevents anyone from touching the shuttlecock with un-gloved hands increasing the risk of germs spreading.
- Each team has 1 hit to get the shuttlecock over the net. Once they hit they will run to the back of the social distanced line their team has created.
- If a student misses or does not make it over, they are out. They will stand to the side and watch the rest of the game until 1 person is left.
- When a shuttlecock is missed, the gloved student will come pick it up and toss it in the air for a new round to start.
- The last person to make it over the net wins for their whole team.
- Start over with and change the gloved student so he/she gets a turn to rotate into the game!
Round Robin Badminton Example Video
This video was created before the Coronavirus Pandemic. I would suggest students leave more room between each other in line.
6. Yoga or Mindful Stretching
Yoga is a wonderful way to strengthen the body while getting in-tune with your thoughts.
It’s meant to be done in a peaceful setting and the best part about it is that there is no equipment needed.
There are so many resources online for you to play for your students. This means that even if you don’t know anything about yoga you can still introduce it to your kids!
For the younger students check out Cosmic Kids Yoga. The instructor takes the little ones on an adventure every episode making it fun so they don’t lose interest.
One of my favorite instructors I subscribe to on YouTube is Yoga with Adrienne. She is great for the students who are more mature, and genuinely want to get a good stretch in.
7. TikTok Dance
I know a lot of teachers don’t like teaching dance, and sadly a lot of students don’t care to learn.
So make sure you are picking dances that are relevant to your students. Grow with the times as long as it is appropriate, and watch you gain more support from them and willingness to try.
One way to make dance fun for your kids while social distancing in physical education is to create TikTok dances. Yep. That’s right. TIKTOK!
One of the biggest trends with gen z right now is learning TikTok dances. You can incorprotate this into your classes and I think your students would really enjoy it.
Now I’m not telling you to have them download the app and introduce them to all the innapropriate music that’s on TikTok, but you can have them pick music that you approved, and create a 15-60 second dance that eventually they will share with the class. Possibly even become the instructor and have the class learn it.
You can have students pair or group up while making sure they are still social distancing. One student would be responsible for the music player/phone in order to repeat steps, while the others are just responsible for themselves.
So instead of introducing the Electric Slide Dance Unit to a group of high school kids who’d rather be dancing to Megan Thee Stallion and Beyonce’s Savage Remix, introduce a TikTok inspired unit where they get to be as creative as they want!
8. Choreographed Workouts
On the same topic as the TikTok dance unit, you can incorporate muscular strength, muscular endurance and cardiovascular endurance into a TikTok workout!
For more information on how this is done, check out my 15 Second Workout Series, and see how I have incorporated TikTok into a full on fat burning, calorie shredding exercise session.
Lower Body Plyometric Workout
Repeat: 8x
Equipment: none
Target Area: lower body
Level of Difficulty: hard
The video above is how I set up my workouts onto my page. During distance learning, I would upload these to google classroom for the kids to try.
In person you can create your own routines and have them mimic you, or they can get creative and choreograph their own. Remember, I highly suggest approving their music, and do not have them record themselves.
Just have them practice, learn it then demonstrate it to the class.
9. Three Cone Kickball
This game would need to be done with gloves on due to the passing of the ball.
The game is just like kickball, except instead of running the bases, you run around cones. Each cone represents a different amount of points you can score for your team. The object of the game is to have the most points per team when the time is up.
The pictures below show kids playing before the Coronavirus Pandemic. Once I start summer school teaching I can update the pictures to show how this can work while social distancing in physical education class.
2nd picture shows 3 cones kicker will attempt to run around (click on pic to expand)
How To Play
- Create 2 to 4 teams depending on the space you have.
- Set up 3 cones (see picture above).
- 1st cone = 1 point, 2nd cone = 2 points, 3rd cone = 3 points.
- Outfield team: social distance. Teach playing their positions to eliminate multiple students going after the ball.
- Kicking team: kicker lines up next to home plate (see pic above) while the rest of the team is social distancing in line waiting their turn.
- Kicker will kick the ball into the outfield and then choose what cone he/she wants to run around before making it back to home base.
- If he/she runs around cone 2 and makes it back to home plate in time he/she will score their team 2 points.
- While kicker is running, outfield team will be gloved up trying to get the ball.
- Instead of throwing it at the runner, there will be a designated ball catcher standing off to the side that will be thrown the ball.
- If the ball catcher catches the ball before the runner makes it back to home plate, the kicking team scores no points.
- But if the kicker makes it to home plate before the ball is caught by the ball catcher the kicking team will score the number of points related to the cone they ran around.
- Ball caught in the air is an automatic out.
- Three outs switch sides.
This game can be extremely fun since the kicker is in control of how many points he/she can score for their team. Obviously it is harder to score 3 points since that cone is furthest from home plate, but sometimes the risk is worth it and can make or break a game.
Click here to see 3 Cone Kickball and Soccer Kickball played while socially distanced HERE!
Click here to see Kickball and Matball played while socially distanced HERE!
10. RipStiks
It would be impossible for me to go one post without mentioning my favorite unit.
RipStiks have increased student engagement for me and eliminated so many behavior issues that arise in competitive units.
These would make a great activity for social distancing in physical education, because the focus is individual achievement.
My suggestion to you, would be to purchase as many as possible if your budget allows for it. If this isn’t possible, get creative with your fundraisers.
I threw a glow in the dark dance party for my students last year and was able to get almost a class set and enough helmets for everyone to not have to share.
If doable, each student gets their own. There will be no sharing allowed.
Instead of using a partner to help them balance and accelerate like I normally do, they can use the wall. I had a student this past year use the wall every day because he did not feel comfortable using a partner, and he finally succeeded! It works!
Take them outside if your gym is smaller to give the students more room for social distancing in physical education class.
After every class, have each student clean their own RipStik so they will be ready for the next class to use. The great thing about these is that hand contact is limited. Most people use their feet to position them.
11. Soccer Bubble Balls
It kind of started off as a joke, but seriously how cool would this be!?
I think this is such a creative way to get kids moving, but keeping them in a “safe bubble” for distancing.
Unfortunately these bubble balls are wildly expensive. Finding a set or even just a few in an affordable range for a PE teacher is pretty unrealistic, but it’s not impossible.
I found a couple sets of 10-12 on Facebook Marketplace ranging from $400-$600. I was in the process of throwing a second glow in the dark dance party for my students when the schools shut down, so I was never able to purchase any creative new equipment for them.
But these were high on my list!!
Looking at different uses for these bubble balls was so interesting to me. There is the obvious soccer, tag games, relay races and so much more.
Cleaning them after every use would have to be a top priority and you wouldn’t be able to cut any corners. I do think that a deep clean is a small price to pay for the unlimited fun your students could have.
12. Walking/Running Hour
Simple.
Depending on how many days and minutes you see your students, you could introduce a walking/running hour to them. Set it up so they aren’t doing this every time they see you, but if you are lucky enough to see your kids every day, possibly do this 2-4 times a month.
You are going to have to explain that PE will look different moving forward. But movement is still the main goal.
This is one of the safest ways to get physical activity while social distancing in physical education class.
Build on this idea by having the students reflect on their feelings during their walk/run, or how walking and running tie this into lifelong health benefits.
13. Virtual Games
I’ve been working overtime trying to create content that relates to the SHAPE standards and follow the curriculum I have built. And so far I have created over 100 virtual games, brain breaks, warm ups, cross curricular trivia games and more for mine and your students to enjoy movement while learning.
Check out my YouTube channel Detroit PE, and see if my videos are something you and your students would enjoy!
Below is one of my biggest hits right now with my upper elementary students…Fractions & Fitness!
Good luck
Whatever you end up doing and however you decide to set your class up, I wish you and your students all the health and happiness.
Remember, the point of “gym class” isn’t to play sports every day. It’s to learn how to live a healthy and active life for years down the road.
DETROIT PHYSICAL EDUCATION YOUTUBE AND FACEBOOK
For more content by Detroit PE, check out my YouTube channel aimed towards keeping kids healthy and active through virtual games.
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