PE Activities for American Heart Month

What better time to teach students the value of using physical education to build healthy hearts than American Heart Month? February is American Heart Month, a month-long period dedicated to encouraging Americans of all ages how to keep their hearts healthy all-year-round. PE Central has aggregated resources from our site that are perfect for helping you on your mission of promoting heart-healthy activities for students to participate in this month.

Bulletin Board Ideas

• Buddy the Blood Cell Get’s Circulating – This bulletin board is a great way to supplement activities held during American Heart Month, especially for the class’ visual learners. This board demonstrates in a simple way how blood carries oxygen through the circulatory system.

• Heart Health – This interactive bulletin board is a great way to both engage students and asses them on how well they understand what’s good for the heart and what’s not.

Click here to search for more bulletin board ideas on PE Central.

Assessments

• Interactive Heart Rate Worksheet – In this assessment, students are asked to learn the basics about the heart rate and heart facts. Using both computer skills and physical movement, students will find their target heart rate while understanding how aerobic exercise works.

• Cardio Respiratory Endurance {target heart rates] – In this assessment, students specifically in grades 6-8 will be assessed on how they understand the effects of aerobic exercise on their bodies. Overall, this assessment requires 6 PE classes for the educational goals to be fulfilled.

Grades K-2

• Healthy Heart Scooters – A perfect activity to be used around Valentine’s Day! In this activity, students learn what will and what will not keep their hearts healthy while exercising. As a bonus, at the end of the activity, students get to express their creative side by drawing something they’d learned is heart-healthy and something they’ve learned is not.

Grades K-4

• Heart Power – In this activity, students learn three ways to keep a healthy heart. The three ways focus on maintaining a healthy diet, moving around and living life tobacco-free. The activities are designed around the American Heart Association’s motto, which is great for students to know.

Grades 2-5

• Food For Heart Challenge – This activity focuses specifically on teaching students what foods are good for their hearts while being active at the same time.

Grades 3-5

• Heart Walkers – What’s the difference between your heart while resting versus your heart while running? Students will learn the difference while participating in a fun activity that challenges students to pick up their pace.

• Have a Heart – Students learn the function of the heart muscle and blood vessels while working with a team! Also a great activity for on or around Valentine’s Day.

• Clogged Arteries – Why is maintaining and watching cholesterol important for heart health? Students learn how to answer this question by playing this activity, which teaches being “heart smart”, meaning watching out for high cholesterol. Includes assessment questions to ensure students understand material.

• Energy Tag – Chasing, fleeing and dodging skills meet heart education in this energized version of tag! Students will learn how blood flows and carries oxygen from the lungs to the heart, then to the muscles to create the very energy that they will use during this game.

Grades 4-5

• Calculating Heart Rate Zone Properly – Students will use technology to assess if they are taking their heart rates accurately to build on the knowledge of the heart they already have. Includes a video to demonstrate how the activity works.

• Jump Rope Around the World (Target Heart Rate) – This warm-up activity is designed to last the whole month of February as they jump “around the world” to earn points. This warm-up activity is a great way to show students that they don’t necessarily have to go “super fast” to get their heart-rate “super going.”

Grades 6-8

• Heart Circulation Hot Potato – For older students, this activity goes in-depth on covering what happens inside the body during every heartbeat. Students will have fun role-playing as lungs, the heart’s right atrium or left atrium, the heart’s right or left ventricle or the overall body to understand the heart’s relationship to the entire body.

• Heart Rate Monitor 1K – Students will learn how to maintain an appropriate pace while running a 1K to keep a desirable heart rate. Winner is the student who stays in their target zone the longest!

• How Hard Does Your Heart Beat? – How does intensity of activity increase heart rate? Students will be able to answer this question after participating in this activity. Students will check their pulse throughout a progression of activities to obtain their understanding.

Grades 9-12

• Wacky Walks Heart Rate Monitoring – This is a great activity for students who love to walk, to show them that moderations on just walking can contribute to healthy hearts. Walking moderations include walking lunges, high kicks and more, and will demonstrate how the heart rate varies throughout.

• Partner Mile Run/Heart Rate Calculation – Get students ready for the mile run while showing them what it means to be heart healthy! This activity is a great way for students to determine how they and their peers are improving during the run.

Happy American Heart Month! PE Central wishes you luck using these activities to teach your students the importance of being heart healthy.