Teaching face-to-face during a pandemic is tough and much harder than I think many of us were anticipating.
I added this meme to my Curriculum Night video to parents this year. I think sometimes if we weren’t laughing we’d be crying…my heart also goes out to all of my colleagues who are teaching virtually right now! Sending strength, safety, and good vibes to all educators who are struggling right now.
We’re better together so let us continue to count on one another during these difficult times. I hope this post can help some of you get outside or get active and have some fun with your students.
After the reality of losing our libraries and my role as teacher-librarian a few days before school started, I had to pivot back to teaching physical education. I thought going back to something I already had experience in would make my life a little easier –think again! Teaching outdoors and with very minimal equipment was a big adjustment. I immediately reached into my old bag of tricks only to realize that a lot of those cooperative games I usually began the year with required too much contact. Reaching out on Twitter was my second line of action. I was able to find some wonderful ideas from colleagues across the globe. Thanks to Steph Cini (@misscini1) for sharing some great pandemic-friendly activities with me! Social distance games & activities aren’t always easy to find so I thought I’d put together a blog post outlining some of my favourites and resources for anyone else looking for good games and activities that allow 2 meter distancing to play indoors or outside during the pandemic.
Social Distance Games & Activities:
Below are a collection of social distance-appropriate games, ideas, and activities that I’ve collected over the past few of months that you could try with your students in physical education classes or for movement breaks.
Rock Paper Scissors Fitness:
Switch:
A beautiful day for some shadow tag! #tdsbhpe #tdsb #llps #llpsHPE pic.twitter.com/slI39aVpCq
— Larissa Aradj, OCT (@MrsGeekChic) September 22, 2020
A fun game of Pac-Man today using the lines on the floor. 3 “ghosts” with pool noodles try to tag the others. Get tagged and you sit and block the pathway. Luckily, there is a player who can give you an elbow bump to put you back into the game. @SelwynTdsb @HPE_TDSB pic.twitter.com/YowrvRN2bd
— Stephanie (@misscini1) October 8, 2020
This week in PE students created and played chalk games. Hop scotch, Dance Dance Revolution, Floor is Lava and more! ? #llpshpe #TDSB #outdoorEd pic.twitter.com/sFXtPDFrAi
— Larissa Aradj, OCT (@MrsGeekChic) October 2, 2020
Nothing like a little bit of “Banana, banana, meatball” and “Gummy bear” on a cold afternoon in the gym! ♫ #llpstdsb #llpshpe #tdsb pic.twitter.com/y6EMYHg2MS
— Larissa Aradj, OCT (@MrsGeekChic) November 18, 2020
Below I’ve included some other social distance game and activity resources that I found helpful to support my program this year.
Asphalt Green
Asphalt Green has a wonderful collection of social distancing games for kids. You can find their blog with a large list of games and activities for all ages here.
They also have a fun Active Mad Libs for Kids activity which could easily be done while maintaining social distance.
CIRA Ontario
CIRA Ontario has a wonderful publication by Peter Stratford called Fair & Square – Games for COVID-19 Social Distancing Parameters. *All TDSB Elementary Schools should have a copy of this resource which was sent by the HPE department in September. *Note: I have zero affiliation with CIRA I simply really enjoy the resource and got a lot out of it so I wanted to share.
Ophea – Cooperative Games
Ophea offers amazing PE resources for free. Check out this link to Cooperative Games for 2020.
Do you have any great social distance PE games to share? Please leave a comment below!
Stay healthy and active everyone!
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