Three Fun, COVID-safe Physical Literacy Activities for Your Students

The pandemic has posed a challenge to educators in how best to keep their students motivated, engaged and active throughout the day. To ensure the safety and health of all those in the school environment, typical physical and health education activities have had to change. There are lots of fun games out there to keep students moving — but how many are COVID-safe?

PLAYBuilder, a digital platform and tool that offers 700+ games and 100+ lesson plans for K-7 educators, hosts a variety of COVID-safe and entertaining activities for students — and it’s free to use for all B.C. educators! All you need to do is register for an account.

Here are a few PLAYBuilder COVID-safe activities to try with your students:

5,4,3,2,1 – Brain Break (Grades K – 3)

What You’ll Need

No equipment necessary!

Setup

No setup necessary!

Activity

• Have participants do 5 different movements in descending order. For example:
• 5 jumping jacks
• 4 squats
• 3 hops on one foot
• 2 laps around the classroom
• 1 clap above the head

Movement Words

What You’ll Need

No equipment necessary!

Setup

• The educator places the alphabet on the whiteboard.
• Across from each letter is a number and movement (e.g. A = 5 squats, B = 10 second balance on one foot, C = 10 high knees (be creative!))

Activity

• The educator tells class a word to spell (e.g., laugh).
• Students must write down the word and then perform the actions for each letter.
•  The educator asks a student to volunteer spelling it and then writes the word on the board so all students will know how to spell the word and perform correct movements.

Variations

• Use some silly words and movements.
• Ask students for words to use.
• Ask students to provide examples of movements to use.

Rock, Paper, Scissors vs. Leader  (Grades 4 -7)

What You’ll Need

No equipment necessary!

Setup

No setup necessary!

Activity

• At the same time, everyone plays rock, paper, scissors against the leader.
• If you beat the leader you take one step forward. If you tie, you do not move. If you lose you take one step backwards.
• Whoever reaches the leader first is the winner and they may take the leader’s place for a new round.
  

*For all activities, ensure that your students are maintaining proper social distance and are adhering to the current COVID-19 safety guidelines in your region and school. 

These activities, like all of those available through PLAYBuilder, can help build on your students physical activity and physical literacy — while also giving you, the educator, an opportunity to expand on your physical literacy knowledge and activity base.

Ready to explore more activities like these, for your students? Register for PLAYBuilder today:

REGISTER TODAY