Teaching health-related fitness concepts can seem overwhelming, especially given that many of us only see our students once or twice a week. My time with my students is so valuable I try to make every second count. To do this I try to layer moderate to vigorous physical activity, motor skill practice and knowledge content. Instead of lecturing on knowledge content, I sneak learning into fun games. One of my student’s favorite games, does just this, it is the game Health-Related Fitness Tag. This activity is perfect for introducing the health-related fitness concept and/or formatively assessing your students’ ability to demonstrate each of the components. Here is how I introduce the game.
How to Play Health-Related Fitness Tag:
Each health-related fitness concept is posted on a colored sheet of paper around the gym.
Equipment:
Five to seven beanbags in the same color as the healthy-related fitness concept. For example, if you are introducing Cardiorespiratory Endurance, use yellow beanbags.
Rules:
The students with a yellow beanbag are “it”. When they tag someone, they drop the beanbag at their feet and are no longer “it”. The newly tagged person does the following:
- Picks up the beanbag and takes it over to the yellow Cardiorespiratory Endurance sheet.
- Reads the Health-Related Fitness Component definition.
- Chooses and performs one of the listed activities.
- Enters back in the game as an “it”.
Variations:
- Vary locomotor skills (i.e. skipping, side slide, galloping, etc.)
- Add additional concepts
- Limit players who can be tagged; once a player has tagged a person they can’t tag that same person again
- Print the cards with just the components listed, can your students identify the needed activity?
- Adjust the number of beanbags to class size.
My 3rd, 4th and 5th graders love this fast-paced warm-up game. By the end of 5th grade, most of my students can identify the five health-related fitness concepts and an activity to improve each of them. How do you teach fitness concepts? Do you have a fun activity your students love that sneaks in lots of learning? Please share your ideas in the comment section below!