PE Activities to Consider for Spring

Physical Education class is a time for kids to receive some much needed exercise, while having fun at the same time. This combination can be difficult for PE teachers to formulate when your kids are not interested in exercise at all. This time of year is the best opportunity for PE teachers to get kids to exercise. The spring temperatures make for a great opportunity to enjoy outside activities and games. High school PE classes are especially difficult to keep kids engaged because they are more interested in television shows. ¹ "As students move toward graduation, declines in participation with recreation programs is very evident.” Here are a couple of outside activities that even high school students seem to really enjoy.

Kickball is not a new game in any way, but this is a game that never seems to get old to even high school students. Setting up a tournament bracket with different teams is also a great way to add to the ² “spirit of competition by incorporating self-determination.” The kickball unit works best around April 1^st because this is also opening day for baseball. It is just another way to get the kids excited and in the mood to play kickball, which thus far has worked very well.

Another PE idea for spring time is a scavenger hunt. You can be as creative as you want with scavenger hunts and have different clues all over the school. Just be sure to give your principal’s a heads up beforehand. The kids really seem to enjoy scavenger hunts as long as you give them an incentive to win. They end up getting great exercise without even realizing it because they are tuned in to trying to solve riddles while running all over the place.

These two activities are great to incorporate in every high school PE class. Try them out this spring! Next week I will discuss some activities to avoid in PE class.   

 

¹Heath, G. W., Pratt, M., Warren, C. W., & Kann, L. (1994). Physical activity patterns in American high school students: results from the 1990 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine, 148(11), 1131.

²Ntoumanis, N. (2005). A Prospective Study of Participation in Optional School Physical Education Using a Self-Determination Theory Framework. Journal of educational psychology, 97(3), 444.