Submitted by: Sonia Sheehan, HPEC Vice President Communications
Do you ever find yourself teaching PE in a smaller than
ideal space? Sometimes our gymnasiums are booked for alternative activities,
the weather does not cooperate to allow outdoor PE and our physical education
lesson needs to be delivered in a classroom, hallway or multi-purpose room. The
activities below can be used if you find yourself in a small space and you
still want to teach a “Big Lesson” that is active and engaging.
Small Space Activities with No Equipment Necessary:
1.
Make a Line: Challenge the students in your
class to make a line in a specific order without any talking. This activity
will encourage your students to interact and problem solve using a wide range
of communication tools. Once one line is made, have the students scatter and
provide the class with new line up criteria. Some examples of line up criteria
include: alphabetical by last name, by height, by shoe size, by birthdate, by
number of family members in their household.
2.
Rock, Paper, Scissor (RPS) Olympics – designate
the bronze medal line (one side of the activity space), silver medal line
(middle of the activity space) and gold medal line (other end of the activity
space) the object of the game is to earn as many gold medals as possible in the
game – all students start at the bronze medal location, perform RPS against
another student at the bronze medal, if you win RPS at bronze then walk to the
silver medal location, if you do not win RPS at bronze stay at bronze and
challenge someone new to RPS, once you make it to the silver medal by winning
RPS at bronze, challenge another student at silver to RPS, if you win RPS at
silver, walk up to the gold, if you do not win at silver, walk back to bronze
and play RPS against someone at bronze, once you have made it to gold by
winning RPS at both bronze and silver, challenge someone to RPS at gold to win
your gold medal, if you do not win RPS at gold, walk back to silver and try RPS
again, if you do win RPS at gold, you have won a gold medal, walk one lap around the classroom for your
victory lap and return to bronze to try to earn another gold medal
3.
Rock, Paper, Scissor (RPS) Ultimate Olympic
Champion – a student challenges another student to RPS, the student who wins
RPS becomes the leader, the student who does not win RPS becomes the follower
and gently puts their hands on the winners shoulders and cheers on the winner
for the next round – the leaders will challenge other leaders to RPS and the
student who wins RPS continues as a leader, the student and all their followers
who did not win RPS line up behind the leader and gently put their hands on the
shoulders of the person in front of them (leaders will start to have a train of
followers behind them in the game, followers are encouraged to cheer on their
current leader) – the game will end with two leaders facing off with RPS with a
group of followers cheering on each leader – the student who wins the final RPS
challenge will become the Ultimate Olympic champion – this game can be repeated
multiple times with all students starting as individuals at the start of each
game
4.
Rock, Paper, Scissor (RPS) Around the World -
Designate 4-6 locations around your activity space (can be the 4 walls, can be
4-6 different desks) have all the students start at one of the locations in
your classroom – students try to get “around the world” by moving to all of the
designated locations in the classroom– if a student wins RPS against another
student at a designated location, they move to the next location and wait to
challenge a student at that location, if a student does not win RPS they stay
at their current location and challenge someone new – Challenge the students to
get all the way “around the world” at least once – some students may get around
the world more than once – designate the starting location and the direction
students will be moving
5.
Partner Rock, Paper, Scissor (RPS) Knee Tag –
set up students in partners in the activity space – the partners complete RPS
and the winner of RPS is it, the winner must tag try to tag their partners
knees (no locomotor movement required) the non-winner, tries to cover their
knees with their hands before the “it” can reach out and tag their knees – when
reaching for knees to tag, make sure to avoid any head to head contact -
emphasize the winner of RPS is always it – play multiple times with your
partner and then switch partners and play against a new partner
6.
Rock Paper Scissor (RPS) Success or Try Again–
designate one side of the activity space as the “Success Side” and the other
side of the activity space as the “Try Again Side” – have all students start at
the “try again side” – students challenge another student to RPS – if a student
wins they go to the “success side” and celebrate with a victory dance move – if
a students does not win they go to (or stay at) the “try again side” and
challenge someone on the “try again side” to RPS – when a student challenges
someone to RPS and they win they will move to the “success side”, if a student
challenges someone to RPS and they do not win they stay on the “try again side”
and keep trying – any students who make it to the “success side” will continue
to challenge students on the success side to RPS – if a student wins RPS on the
“success side” they stay on the “success side”, if a student does not win on
the “success side” they move to the “try again side” – encourage students to
keep trying to see if they can get to the “success side” and how long they can
stay on the “success side”
Small Space Activities with Jump Bands:
1.
What are Jump Bands? Jump Bands are elastic
stretchy bands that go around the ankles and connect to another student around
their ankle. Students create jumping patterns and utilize rhythmic movement to
coordinate a variety of patterns in a group formation. This activity can be
easily done in a small space. Jump Bands require cooperation, communication and
movement for success.
2.
Video Progression of students working together
with Jump Bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAajOs6f8r0
3.
Ladder and Star with Jump Bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rm9Aa418qxM
4.
Creative Patterns with Jump Bands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLOlsqUwIlc
5.
Additional Information about Jump Bands: https://blog.gophersport.com/energizing-rhythms-and-dance-with-jump-bands/
6.
Link to Jump Bands at Gopher Canadian Equipment
Supplier: https://gophersport.com/41-460?queryID=758bd12531ff62bdc463f63bbe1dd106&objectID=506251&indexName=gs_production_default_products
Small Space Activity with Happy Salmon Card Game:
1.
Happy Salmon is a card game that can be adapted
and played in physical education class to promote teamwork, cooperation,
communication, taking turns and following game rules in a fun and active way
2.
How to play Happy Salmon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcH1yX5ysCk
3.
Physical Education Adaptations to playing Happy
Salmon:
a.
Create teams/groups of 3-4 students to play
together as a team/group – each team/group will form a single file line and the
person at the front of the line holds the team/groups pile of cards (each team
will have a different colour set of cards) and completes the task on the first
card, discards the card played, gives the remaining cards to the next person in
line and goes to the back of the line to wait for their next turn
b.
Have a discard bucket for each team/group to
discard their cards once they have completed the action on the card
c.
No table required for a physical education
active game of Happy Salmon
d.
Have teams/groups stand in a circular formation
in the activity space available
e.
Multiple rounds of Happy Salmon can be played as
the game is short and can be reset quickly
4.
Happy Salmon card game is available on
Amazon.ca, Walmart.ca, or any location board games and card games are sold.
Wishing everyone success with the delivery of physical
education classes, even when only small spaces are available!
