Looking for ideas to make fitness fun and
engaging for your students? Here’s a game a colleague and I came up with that
our students absolutely loved. They didn’t want to stop playing at the end of
class and asked to play it again the next day.
Let’s
Make a Deal – Fitness Edition
This takes the popular television game show
into the physical education classroom.
Preparation:
Decide on a series of exercises you want
your students to perform. You will need 2 choices for each round: Option A and
Option B. We chose to make a slideshow to project onto our gym wall. Alternately,
you could write the exercises on cue cards or make posters. We made about 15
sets of Option A and Option B which lasted a 30-minute physical education
class.
How
to Play:
Choose a student to be the first player.
Present them with Option A. They then choose to perform Option A or Option B
which is unknown to them. Say, “You can choose Option A: 20 Jumping Jacks, or
Option B which is unknown”. Whichever activity they choose, the whole class
performs. Students love that they get to “choose” which fitness activities they
are going to perform that day. The element of chance and surprise often gets
the best of them and they can’t help but choose Option B just to see what it
is!
Tips:
·
Alternate the more challenging
activity between option A and option B.
·
Alternate activities so that
students are working different muscle groups each round.
·
Choose a mix of cardio,
strength, balance and flexibility exercises.
·
Add a picture for younger
students and/or demonstrate the activity for them.
·
Look for students demonstrating
excellent effort, or modelling great form, and let them choose the exercise for
the next round.
·
Add in an option for a minute
of rest in the middle of the game.
·
Add in an option for a minute
of free dance or another activity the students really enjoy.
