Physical activity is important. But, how does a busy family incorporate physical activities into their homeschool? Here are 5 ideas that can help!
Whether you are in a face-to-face setting, learning virtually, or homeschooled it’s crucial for our kids to get up and get moving! Incorporating physical activities throughout the day is important for all ages. Even with physical education classes, kids still need to be active during the school day. Here are 5 ways to incorporate physical activity into your classroom setting.
Interactive Slideshow
Slideshows and PowerPoints are in every teacher’s toolbox when it comes to delivering instruction and lessons. They can also be used to incorporate physical activities! Embed an activity slide within your slideshows. The activity slide can be one that encourages students to take a break and get active for 5-10 minutes depending on how long your class is. If you have a particularly long slideshow, incorporate an activity slide every couple of slides to keep your students active. The activities can range from a simple, stand up and stretch, to a workout circuit, to a stroll around the house. The goal is to encourage the students to step away from the computer for a few minutes to get their heart rate up a little bit.
Activity Choice Boards
Create a “Get up and Get Moving” choice board activity. The choice board of activities provides a choice for your students and lets them decide what activity they want to do. You could even make it a competition by creating a bingo board. The first student to get 5 across, 5 down, or 5 diagonal wins! Or the first student to complete all the activities wins. Another option aside from Bingo is to encourage your students to complete at least three or more of the activities on the choice board. See the following example: Get up and Get Moving Choice Board
Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt can include physical activities as well as an academic activity. Have students find specific objects around their house. Once they’ve found all the objects you can assign a writing activity for them to describe their objects or it can be more content-specific. For example, if you teach science, have the students look for certain rocks in the yard and ask them to try and identify the type of rocks they found, or have them look for leaves to discuss photosynthesis. A math activity could include measuring the circumference of their bedroom and trying to figure out how much carpet they might need to cover the floor. The academic options are limitless!
GoNoodle
Get moving with GoNoodle! Not only is GoNoodle an interactive website, it also provides students with a brain break! GoNoodle has activities that incorporate dance, fitness, and other activities. In addition, GoNoodle has social and emotional learning which helps your students break a mental sweat as well. Students learn academics while burning energy. It also has a competition component with your very own class mascot that “levels up” each time you complete an activity challenge.
Musical No Chairs Dance Party
Take out the chairs but keep the music! Have the students pick a song as long as it is appropriate and every time the music starts playing, it triggers them to get up and start moving and shaking! Think musical chairs but without the chairs. All you want them to do is start moving when they hear the music. When the music stops it’s time to get back to work.
Kids need to move. We hope these ideas for physical activity in your homeschool can help you and your kiddos get moving!
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