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Each class that arrives to physical education must enter the gym, get into personal space, and await the teacher’s instructions. A student “caught being ready” (sitting still, listening, etc.) is chosen every class to go to the stage to be the Stretch Captain. Variation/Option: since most students want to be chosen, I’ve added a new stipulation in order to be selected as the Stretch Captain. In this variation I ask “who knows their multiples of 4 or 6 or 8, etc. This limits the number of students who raise their hands and challenges those students who do not know their multiples to learn them so that they may be chosen for a future class. The Stretch Captain will read and lead each stretch from the list of stretches, while counting to 10 or whatever multiple is chosen times 10. Upon completion, the Stretch Captain will roll the fitness die to determine what fitness activity all students must perform. Note: the teacher can supplement any fitness activity if a fitness die is not available. This is a great incentive for entering the gym correctly because EVERYONE wants to be the Stretch Captain! -
Helpers of the Month Here is a fun incentive I use with my 5th graders who excel and demonstrate great attitudes in physical education. Helpers of the Month assist me in promoting behavior expectations to other students. This incentive utilizes 5th graders as physical education helpers in daily setup, cleanup, errands, and other classroom management needs. 5th Grade Student Teachers Here is a fun incentive I use with fifth graders who excel and demonstrate great attitudes in physical education. This program utilizes fifth graders as student teachers at various physical education stations for kindergarteners. -
For decades, there has been a search for PE activities that blend academic and physical elements. With time being a huge factor, a balance must be achieved; physical intensity must not be diminished by time spent on verbal instruction. Could the answer to this balance be easy? Easy as PIE? INNOVATIVE WAY YOUR P.E. PROGRAM CAN: •Promote reading and math •Reinforce classroom content •Challenge students physically and mentally PHYSICAL: Students use lots of high energy locomotor skills, running, skipping, leaping etc, to find assigned letters and in the span of a few seconds use fine motor skills to place the ball on the word building tray. Correct throwing form and proper basketball shooting technique may be practiced as students must throw balls into the unique mixer goal. ACADEMIC: Beginning readers get extra practice in letter recognition, spelling high frequency sight words and word building. Established readers use subject specific task cards to reinforce classroom concepts in areas of English, science, nutrition, health, etc. The math concept of fractions is utilized as “just keeping score in a game.” COLLABORATIVE: Students work in teams and every team member has a role to play. Each team has a captain, a point guard and several letter “ninjas”. Teams compete for points by spelling words quickly and must work together. The elements of cooperation and competition are extremely effective in keeping students motivated and on task. The inventor of the game, Carol Cranford is a retired physical education specialist from Alabama. "Thank you for checking out this game. It is now a staple item in my physical education curriculum because my students love it". JD Hughes -
These are a few hands-on tools I use to engage students in the learning process. I simply tie them into a lesson/game that fits well with the tool I'm using. Although there is a small investment involved to add these products to your equipment, it's interesting to see how captivated students are when they can actually see and feel the effects of an occluded artery, or how much sugar and fat are in the foods they eat. Students also are amazed at the fat chunk and that although it weighs the same as muscle, it takes up twice the space, plus it is gross to feel. The Pack of Toxic Tar Display contains two removable cigarettes filled with gooey "tar." The tar in these two cigarettes represents the amount of toxic tar that a smoker receives from smoking one pack of cigarettes. -
Nonverbal cues are a great time management tool I often times implement in physical education to avoid disrupting the flow of learning when instruction is being given. Implementing the nonverbal cues allows me to quickly address and alleviate many problems instead of stopping the class, addressing the problem, and re-starting the class. For example, I’m demonstrating a skill and I notice a student who is talking to a friend; instead of calling them out and disrupting class, I simply make eye contact with that student and do the “cut it out” cue without hindering my demonstration. -
Virtual Field Day
The Virtual Field Day is an online, alternative Pre-K through 8th grade field day that contains 12 Minute to Win it Challenges. These movement-based activities will provide your students with a fun, yet challenging opportunity to participate in a new type of field day experience. This resource offers a Virtual Field Day document, 12 challenge activities, student rules and video submission information, along with equipment needs, teacher notes and scoring suggestions for each challenge. You can simply show my videos and use my scores or recreate your own videos and scoring. You can download it in a Word document so that you can modify, cut and paste, and basically do what you need to fit your program's needs. Minute to Win it Challenges: A video will be posted to provide you with the rules, equipment needed and a demonstration of how to perform each challenge- Tennis Racket Challenge
- Rope Jump Challenge
- Frisbee Throw Challenge
- Rundown Challenge
- Basketball Shooting Challenge
- Marshmallow Move Challenge
- Penny Tower Challenge
- Bottle Flip Challenge
- Hoop in and out Challenge
- Wall Ball Challenge
- Grocery Bag Juggle Challenge
- Cartwheel Challenge
- Bonus: badges for every event that can be emailed
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As I approach the end of my career, I look back at my teaching evolution from being a scared, young educator, with no idea how to really teach children, to a veteran author-teacher-mentor who truly loves the physical education profession. None of which would be possible if it had not been for the passionate teachers who came before me and shared with me their joy and expertise. If you have ever tried any of my games or participated in any of my staff development/workshops, I pray that you saw my heart for physical education and children and that my passion came across through what I shared and presented. So, it is with great joy to share with you my final publication, PE2theMax's Greatest Hits: Games Created to Maximize Skills, Participation, Teamwork, and Fun! Although it was extremely hard, I went back through all six of my books and selected my all-time favorite, most popular creations to share with you in one edition. As a bonus, I have also included six of my latest game creations that I think you will enjoy. A book full of my all-time favorite games and activities designed with play and fun with a PURPOSE. A wonderful guide to help enhance any physical education program by providing activities to be implemented as stand-alone lessons or as follow up activities to reinforce a particular learning target(s). PE2theMax's Greatest Hits includes 145 pages to help guide you toward greater success in your physical education program and most importantly, students having lots of fun in the gym. This is the 7th and final book in my 7 book series. This resource provides invigorating and challenging activities for classes of all sizes, resulting in minimal discipline problems and maximum participation. All games and activities are classroom-tested and have been used successfully with children ages 4 to 13. They maximize participation and ensure that every child is provided with numerous opportunities for success while learning basic fitness-, sport-, and academic-related skills. Now let’s play! -
OBJECTIVE: It’s sometimes “Risky Business” trying to make money in today’s society, but with some hard work and some potential low or high risk investments, you can really make it big! The game of Risky Business is a cooperative challenge that provides a great way to introduce money recognition and counting money, while integrating running and fitness in the attempt to enhance persistence, teamwork, and camaraderie.