Students are typically holed up in classrooms for most of the school day, with little tolerance for movement and physical activity. As a physical education teacher, help them release their pent up energy by taking them outdoors when the weather permits. There are a variety of outdoor games you can have your students play, regardless of their grade level.
Badminton Golf
Badminton golf teaches your students how to swing a badminton racquet to hit a birdie accurately. It also requires a lot of walking, which helps improve their cardiovascular fitness. To prepare for the game, make nine "holes" in a large outdoor area with numbered cones indicating the start of each hole and hula-hoops the end. Divide your students into nine groups and have one group start at each hole. The players have to hit a birdie from the cone to inside the hoop in as few strokes as possible to play the game. They must hit the first shot on each hole from behind the cone and each subsequent shot from behind where the birdie landed. For the final shot on each hole, the birdie must stay inside the hoop. As with traditional golf, the lowest score wins.
Magician Tag
Young elementary school students, from kindergarten through second grade, will love magician tag. It teaches them basic locomotor skills, advises the PE Central website, such as galloping, jumping, shuffling and skipping, and gets them to burn a lot of energy. Prepare for the game by marking off a large outdoor playing area with cones. Choose three or four taggers, give each of them a foam noodle, and assign each of them a different locomotor skill. They must perform their assigned skill throughout the game while they chase the other students and attempt to touch them gently with the noodle. The rest of the students start by walking around the designated area. When they are tagged, however, they have to perform the same locomotor skill as the tagger. They have to switch skills each time they are touched by a different tagger. Have them play for three to five minutes, and then switch taggers.
Ultimate Frisbee
Ultimate Frisbee is very popular in the United States, with official leagues and tournaments available throughout the country. It is appropriate for middle school and high school students who are proficient at throwing and catching a Frisbee and won't injure easily due to inadvertent contact with another player. The official playing field is 70 yards long by 40 yards wide, with end zones 25 yards deep, according to USA Ultimate, the sport's national governing body, but you can adjust these dimensions based on how much space you have outdoors at your school. Divide your students into two teams and have them line up on opposite sides of the field, on the front lines of the end zones. Have a player on one team throw the Frisbee to the other team to initiate play. Whoever catches the Frisbee tries to advance it toward the opposing team's end zone by throwing it to one of her teammates. If the Frisbee is caught out of bounds, hits the ground or is intercepted, the other team takes over, trying to advance the Frisbee in the other direction. The players must always throw the Frisbee from where they caught it; they may not run with the Frisbee in hand. The other players, however, can run freely throughout the field. One point is awarded each time a player on either team catches the Frisbee while standing in the opposing team's end zone. After each score, the teams line up on the front lines of their respective end zones again, and the scoring team initiates the resumption of play. The team with the most points at the end of class wins the game.
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