Are you ready to turn exercise into an exciting adventure? In a world where screens dominate entertainment, it’s crucial to find innovative and engaging ways to keep kids moving and promoting a healthy lifestyle. By infusing physical activity with fun and competition, you can get your groups hearts pumping while fostering teamwork, coordination, and a love for staying active.
Whether you’re a physical education teacher looking to engage your students or a camp counselor aiming to infuse energy into outdoor activities, incorporating games can make health and fitness a fun experience for kids. We’ve shared 4 innovative game ideas that utilize popular PE equipment like hoops, jump ropes, cones, and more. These games not only promote physical activity but also enhance teamwork, coordination, and overall well-being.
Equipment Needed:
- Jump Ropes
- Bean Bags
- Hula Hoops
- Large Dice
- Ping Pong Balls or Ball Pit Balls
- Standard Cones
- Spot Markers
Action Jump Rope: One player calls out actions, such as cross your arms, switch to one foot, or rub your belly. The jumper has to perform those actions while jumping without messing up. Once a mistake is made, it’s the next jumper’s turn.
Fitness Tic Tac Toe: Set up a bean bag toss tic tac toe court using tape or 9 hoola hoops. Come up with a set of rules/challenges where players must do exercises of your choice. For example, if a player throws the beanbag outside of the target, they must do 5 jumping jacks. If the game is tied at the end, both teams must do 10 toe touches. If X’s win, the opposing team must do the exercise of their choice. Then they do a re-match. And same if O wins, they get to choose the exercise for the other team. You can switch up the exercises and get creative by challenging the teams to a time-crunch game, or play music and when it stops they each have to do as many squats as there are beanbags on the board at that time.
Roll the Dice: Each camper or group of campers should have a turn to roll 2 dice. One dice determines the exercise and the other is how many reps. The higher numbers equal more points. Do several rounds while keeping track of points on each roll to determine your winners.
Squirrels and Acorns: For this game you’ll need small balls to be the “acorns” and jump ropes. The jumper in this game is the squirrel, who must gather their acorns from the pile some distance away, and bring them back home. Starting at home base (you can mark this with tape, chalk, or a piece of paper), the jumper rolls a pair of dice, and can either add the numbers or multiply them to determine how many jumps should be taken. After jumping the correct amount of times without missing, the “squirrel” runs to get an acorn from the pile and brings it back home. A single player repeats this process until all of the acorns are safe and sound, or the next person takes their turn if there are multiple players. Whoever has the most acorns at the end of the race, or finishes first in a head-to-head showdown is the winner. Players can also set a timer and try to beat their last time on every new turn.
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About the Author:
Jason Schaitz, MBA, CPRE, is a Parks and Recreation Director with over 15 years’ experience coordinating youth programs, camps, sports, and recreation activities. He also created and manages The Summer Camp Source with the goal of providing free high quality resources for any type of camp, youth recreation or childcare program. Take your program to the next level by visiting our website for free resources and education!
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