thanks to Jesse Fagan while at Ridgley Primary School

1. In a court or marked space have all students stand behind the base line. This position is 'Out'.
2. When the teacher says 'In' then students jump over the line, when the teacher says 'bridge' they have to turn their bodies and have one foot on one side of the line and one foot on the other side of the line.
3. Varying the speed and order of what you shout out, allows you to challenge students of any age.

Mix it Up:

Add some other commands – 'Stork'= stand on one leg with the other leg bent, 'Sit In' = sit over the baseline, 'Sit Out' = sit behind the baseline, 'Hands In' = students must also have their hands touching the ground over the baseline, 'Hands Out' = students must also have their hands touching the ground over the baseline. etc

Equipment:

None

Space needed:

Indoor friendly – small or large space

thanks to Alana Binns while at Evandale Primary School

1. Designate a playing space with two distinct ends.
2. Students line up along one end of the space.
3. One or two students are selected to be Octopi and identified with bibs.
4. When 'Octopus' is called students try to run to the other end without being tagged by the Octipi.
5. When tagged students must stand still where they were caught and they become a stationary 'octopus'. One leg is 'super-glued to the ground', they can move the other foot to pivot and use their arms to try and tag other runners as they come past.
6. On each lap, the Octipi may nominate a condition under which students get a free pass – eg wearing a certain colour, having a brother, having the letter P in their name etc

Mix it Up:

Vary the mode of travel – skipping, side-stepping etc

Equipment:

None

Space needed:

Indoor/ Outdoor –large space

1. Designate a playing space and place cones randomly in this space, some up and some down.
2. Divide the students into two teams and identify with bibs if needed. Boys and Girls teams work well.
3. On go, one team attempts to right as many upturned cones as possible 'cleaning up the room',  whilst at the same time the opposing team is trying to 'mess up the room' by upturning the cones.
4. On the whistle, all students return to a designated line or spot as fast as possible without touching a further cone. Numbers are compared and a winning team announced. Game resets and begins again.

Important note – children will need reminding to keep their heads and eyes up to avoid running into each other.

Mix it Up:

Vary the mode of travel – skipping, hopping etc

Equipment:

20-30 x cones, 15 x bibs

Space needed:

Indoor / Outdoor–large space

1. Designate a line for students to stand along.
2. On 'Go', all students run forward 10 – 20 metres to perform a teacher or student led activity before returning to the start line.
3. This is then repeated many times using a variation of activities, speeds and modes of travel.

Activity examples – star jumps, sit ups, push ups, windmills, hops, body parts to touch the ground, hoping, sprinting, running backwards etc

Equipment:

None

Space needed:

Indoor/Outdoor – large space

thanks to Carolynn Dilger while at Rosetta Primary School

1. In a space all students are asked to sit facing a partner in a long line. Students must stretch their legs out with toes touching and sit about 1metre between each pair.
2. Students must sit with their hands in their laps and keep legs flat on the floor for safety.
3. Each pair is given a number.  When their number is called they must race each other by jumping over the legs to the end of the line and then back to their place.
4. The first student to return wins.  Scores can be kept for each team and as the students become confident more than one number can be called at once.

Equipment:

None

Space needed:

Indoor –small or large space

1. Students spread out on the marked lines of a court.
2. Two students are selected to be PacMen and are identified with bibs.
3. Using ONLY the line markings of the court, players run and try to avoid being caught by the PacMen.
4. When caught, the students must sit on the line to create a 'road block'. Students may not pass a road block.
5. When all students have been caught by the PacMen, the game resets.

Mix it up:

Variation – road blocks can be undone if students perform a mirrored task like 10 x sit ups or 10 x star jumps

Equipment:

2 x bibs

Space needed:

Indoor –large space

thanks to Alana Binns while at Evandale Primary School

1. Designate a playing space with three distinct areas -  'ship' is one end, 'shore' the other and 'shark' is in the middle. A Netball court is ideal.
2. Teacher calls either ship, shark or shore and students have to run to the correct spot.
3. The last one to the correct spot is out. If, for example, students are at 'ship' and teacher calls out 'ship', any student who makes a move is out. Game continues until all are out.

Equipment:

None

Space needed:

Indoor –large space

thanks to Kelly Dixon while at Holy Rosary Catholic School

1. Print and laminate 4 planets (picture of and name) x2 copies- stick planets in corners of the room.
2. Divide the students into 4 even teams taking into account two students as taggers. Each team is named as a planet, and has a corner home base.
3. The teacher calls out two planets or holds up the other copy of two planets. Those planets must swap places. While the taggers are aiming to catch them and send then to jail (bench seat on the sides, or use a skipping rope they must sit on).
4. Grouped planets keep swapping continuously at the teachers pace. As the team members move they can free their teammates by high fiving them in jail on the way past.
5. Every now and then the teacher will use a lasso action to indicate groups to return to their original home bases. All four groups are moving at once. The aim of the game is to have all of one planet all out, the other three are winners!

Mix it up:

Frequently swap taggers.

Equipment:

Laminated planet pictures x 4

Space needed:

Indoor friendly – large space

1. Students in groups of 4 (2 x 2 pairs) rotate around 6 throwing and catching stations.
   2 mins at each station.
2. Juggling – in pairs, students take turns to see how many consecutive one handed two ball juggles they can perform.
3. Bean Bag Toss and Catch for distance. In pairs, take one step back after each successful catch.
4. Cone Catching  - tennis ball underarm throw to partner who tries to catch in an upturned cone.
5. 4 Square Down Ball.
6. Wall catching – In pairs students throw and catch to each other using a rebound off a wall.
7. Alternate Hand Wall Toss – In pairs, students one at a time try to see how many consecutive catches they can make throwing with the right and catching with the left off a wall (standing approx. 1 metre away) , then throwing with the left and catching with the right.

Equipment:

20 tennis balls

Space needed:

Indoor /Outdoor–large space and rebound wall needed.

Issue each student with a skipping rope

Challenge students to try the following – either for a designated number of skips or a designated time

1. fwd skipping two feet
2. fwd skipping alternate feet
3. fwd skipping with a rebound
4. straddle skipping (feet out feet in)
5. skier skipping (jump to left then jump to right)
6. bell skipping (jump forward then jump backwards)
7. scissor skipping (alternate one foot back and one foot fwd)
8. criss cross (cross your arms at the front as you turn the rope)
9. side swinging (skip once then swing the rope to the left of your body and then the right before you jump again)
10. double under (can you turn the rope twice with each jump)
11. circle skipping (turn in a circle as you skip)
12. running skipping
13. pairs skipping (one rope two skippers)
14. long rope skipping - in and out
    1. in skip once and out
    2. in skip twice and out
    3. in skip with a partner and out
    4. in skip and stay to be joined by a second person then a third etc
    5. as above with a one by one exit,
15. continuous skipping – can you skip for 1 minute without stopping, 2 minutes? backward skipping
16. skipping relays
17. team skipping – can you perform a routine?

Equipment:

Short skipping ropes x class size, long rope x 1or 2

Space needed:

Indoor /Outdoor –large space

Cone Relay –

1. Two teams (or more) lined up behind the start line, cones (approx. 3 times team number) placed at various points in a straight line for about 40 metres (same for both teams).
2. On 'go' students run one at a time to collect a cone of their choice, bring it back to the team and tag the next runner. This is a good one as the able runners often chose the far cones and those not so able can collect the closer ones. Reset using a relay and play again.

Tunnel Ball – an oldie but a goody.

1. Teams line up one behind the other with their legs spread in a v fashion to allow a ball to roll through. On 'go', the first person in the team line rolls the ball between the teams legs to be collected by the end person who then runs to the front and rolls the ball again through the teams legs.
2. This is repeated until each team member has had a turn at the front.
3. There are many variations of this, over the head and through the legs, passing to the person behind via your right side, then the left side etc. Ask the students - they will come up with plenty of variations to try.

Shuttle Relay

1. Teams line up facing half their team approx 10-20m apart.
2. On go, the first person in each team runs down to tag (or pass a baton to) their team mate and then goes to the end of that line.
3. The new runner runs back to the initial starting point and tags or passes off the baton to the next runner, etc etc.
4. The first team finished (each team member has run twice and thus back to where they started) gets a reward cone and the relay can start again – but this time using a different mode of movement – skipping, hopping, side stepping, crab walk …. Limited only by your imagination!

Challenge Relay

1. Even teams line up behind a start line.
2. On go, the first person runs out to a designated line (approx. 15 m away) performs the teacher directed challenge and returns to tag the next person in line.
3. When all team members have performed the challenge, the team sits down and the winning team receives a cone reward.
4. These can also be given for random acts of sportsmanship and team play. Challenges might include 5 skips, two tuck jumps, 4 sit ups, a line touch with a body part or 5 bounces of a ball, but these again are limited only by your imagination.

Continuous Relay

1. Any relay performed to a time limit, with the winning team being the one that has completed the activity the most times when the time is up.

Equipment:

Cones, balls, batons

Space needed:

Indoor –large space

thanks to Nicole White while at St Aloysius Catholic College

Try these hoop challenges:

• walking, running, skipping, side stepping around a hoop placed on the ground
• jumping two feet together into and out of a hoop
• jumping two feet together over a hoop
• hopping into and out of a hoop using the left and right foot
• hula a hoop around your tummy
• skipping using a hoop
• back spinning a hoop

What else can you do??

Equipment:

Hoops

Space needed:

Indoor –large space