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33 Energizing Physical Education Activities For Elementary Learners

Physical education is the best part of the day for many children! They love moving around and getting a break from sitting in the classroom. Physical education classes should be fun and allow some creative options for students that offer alternatives to sedentary behavior. Physical education teachers can really add some variety to their fitness lessons by incorporating everyday items. Check out these 33 energizing ideas to enhance the activity time in your elementary physical education classes!

1. Noodle Hockey

Give each student a different color pool noodle and allow them to play a safe game of noodle hockey. Choose a grassy area and provide a small ball for them to try to get and get into goalposts.

Learn More: My Baba

2. Ninja Warrior Course

Creating a ninja warrior course in your gym may be the highlight of the day for your physical education classes. This is a smart addition to your physical activity program because it includes many different skills and can help improve agility, flexibility, and friendly competition.

Learn More: SSWW

3. Balloon Tennis

If you need a quick and easy idea to use with your physical education classes, try this one! You can create this game with paper plates, balloons, and a plastic spoon. Simply hit the balloons up with the makeshift paddle and keep them in the air.

Learn More: Pinterest

4. Fitness Dice

This activity is ideal for younger students like kindergarten-2nd grade. As they are improving the development of motor skills, they can make it into a fun game to practice these activities. When they roll the dice, they will do the corresponding exercise.

Learn More: Homeschool Here

5. Survivor Tag

Always a fun game for students, this is a twist on the classic game of tag because if a student gets tagged, they will sit down in that spot. They must watch the person who tagged them and if that person is tagged, then they can stand up and run again. This will become a favorite recess game as well!

Learn More: Pinterest

6. Rock, Paper, Scissors Tag

Rock, Paper, Scissors Tag game. A fun, fast-moving game for kids 7 to 15

This is an enjoyable game for a physical education class. You play rock, paper, scissors. The loser remains frozen while the winner runs to the next person. Once you play and win, you are unfrozen and you get to run to find someone else to play with again.

Learn More: Grade Onederful

7. Race to the Galaxy Game

If you include this game in your lesson plans, students will have the opportunity to play a fun, racing game. They will have to run and find their matching bean bags and beat the other teams to get all the items. The trick is that they must avoid stepping in “lava” and getting caught in hula hoops along the way.

Learn More: SSWW

8. Plant the Trees Agility Game

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This is a fun game for improving agility. Classroom teachers may even have students play this at recess. When the whistle blows, students will run to the opposite side and pick up bean bags; bringing them back to their side. Students cannot throw them and are only allowed to pick them up one at a time.

Learn More: Prime Coaching Sport

9. Fruit Salad Dodge Ball

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This is a survival game of dodgeball where some students are placed in the center and must try to avoid being hit with the ball. If they are hit, they must move outside the circle. This is a great game to play with class sizes of at least ten students.

Learn More: Prime Coaching Sport

10. Heads or Tails

Give pairs of students a coin and have them toss the coin to determine which activities to do during class time. This is a perfect idea for an elementary PE teacher to use on a day when you don’t have time to prep for other fitness lessons. This is also a good way to get students warmed up at the start of activity time.

Learn More: Pinterest

11. Scooter Obstacle Course

11 Scooter Board Activities | Looking for fun occupational therapy ideas to do at home or in the classroom to develop a child’s gross motor skills, improve focus for greater learning, reduce stress and anxiety, and help with self-regulation? From awesome ideas children can do independently, to obstacle course inspiration for teachers and therapists who have access to a gym, these heavy work activities for kids are so much fun! #scooterboard #grossmotor #grossmotoractivities

Kids love scooters! This is a physical activity that students will love! Design an obstacle course that students can participate in while riding their scooters. The location for this activity must be in the gym so that the scooters are able to slide across the floor.

Learn More: Meraki Lane

12. Hungry Human Hippos

If your class goal is to have fun, you must include this activity! Give students a scooter, have them lie on their bellies, and use a laundry basket to collect balls in the center of the gym floor!

Learn More: The Chaos and the Clutter

13. Cone Race

This activity is geared toward kids in 1st grade and younger. They will work on motor skills as they try to place cut-up pool noodles over tall plastic pipes or broom handles placed into cones to hold them steady. This will also help with color recognition as students place the coordinating colors together.

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14. Musical Hoops

This musical movement activity is a variation of musical chairs, but when the music stops, students must rush to stand inside a hula hoop. The teacher continues to take them away as the students progress through the rounds. Add a new level of difficulty by having students do a specific locomotor movement or stand inside the hula hoops in a specific pose.

Learn More: The Physical Educator

15. The Caterpillar Scooter Game

The Inspired Treehouse - These fun scooter activities for kids are great for upper body strengthening, core strengthening, coordination, endurance, and more!

A great game for improving teamwork and listening skills; this caterpillar game is fun for all! Have students use their coordination skills to join together and form a long line while staying on their scooters. Then, they must figure out how to keep moving the line toward a goal point.

Learn More: The Inspired Treehouse

16. Spider Web Scooter Crawl

This activity will require some setup ahead of time. Create a spider web out of yarn and have students use coordination skills to work their way through the maze. They must lift the yarn and duck underneath it to make their way through the maze and stay on their scooters.

Learn More: The Inspired Treehouse

17. Jump Rope

Jumping rope is a favorite for kids of all ages! Even your 3rd-grade and 4th-grade students will enjoy this. You can even make this a music movement activity by adding some songs to this center for students to chant as they jump. Allow students to wear a pedometer to keep an accurate step count of their activity!

Learn More: Pinterest

18. Parachute Fun

Little ones love playing with parachutes! You can encourage students to work together and hold the handles of the parachute to move it up and down to go under and back out or move together to keep a monster ball in the air!

Learn More: Mom Junction

19. Scooter Board Relay

Divide your class into teams for this relay activity! Have students use the scooters under their feet and get to a checkpoint where they will pass off the scooter to the next student in line. The team who makes it to the finish line first will win!

Learn More: Keeping Kids in Motion

20. Mario Kart Battle Boards

If you want a fun and crazy ball game for students to enjoy and request again, introduce this game of Mario Kart Battle Boards. Students creep around mats that are standing upright. The “villains” try to hit the good guys’ battle boards and knock off a tennis ball sitting atop a cone on top of a scooter.

Learn More: PE Universe

21. Scooter Board Jumping

Using a scooter board is a fun way to practice the skill of jumping! A great jumping practice idea!

This is a good activity for preschool through 1st grade. Students will use the scooter to move around and push their feet against a wall to help them jump from a sitting position. This is a good way to strengthen leg muscles and practice using scooters.

Learn More: Pink Oatmeal

22. Wall Ball

Wall ball is a favorite activity of 4th and 5th-grade kiddos! Simply throwing the ball onto the wall and catching it to throw it back again is appealing to them. They can also enjoy this activity by kicking the ball instead of throwing it.

Learn More: Pink Oatmeal

23. Topple Tube

This game involves two teams each trying to flip cups to their color. This can also be done using wooden blocks with different colors on each end. The teams run around, flipping the color of their team so that it’s on top of the other team’s color. This is a difficult task, as the other team is also doing this. The team with the most of their color flipped up by the end of the game is the winning team!

Learn More: Gopher

24. Soccer

Try a game of soccer. This will help with running and coordination as they are learning to control the ball while moving down the field. Two teams will play against each other, each team heading for the other’s goal, using only their feet to kick the ball toward the goal.

Learn More: ABCDee Learning

25. Portable Balance Games

This is perfect for all physical activity levels! It will incorporate balance and gross motor skills as students walk along the upside-down buckets. Be sure to line them up in a way that is more difficult than just a straight line.

Learn More: Sleeping Should be Easy

26. Table Top Tennis

This activity will be great for older students in elementary school or middle school. This will require more advanced motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Physical education lessons like this are a break from the typical activities they may be used to. They can simply play ping pong with straws and cups.

Learn More: What Do We Do All Day

27. Cornhole

Cornhole is a great physical activity for elementary students. This helps students learn how to use hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills. Students will toss the beanbags onto the game board; aiming for the cutout. This is good for physical education lessons that will progress to throwing and catching.

Learn More: SSWW

28. Cops and Robbers Tag

Elementary school physical education wouldn’t be complete without the game of tag! This is a good game to play at the start of the year to help teach physical activity behaviors. Use this cops and robbers version of the tag to teach students how to do a soft touch and not hurt others when playing. Cops simply chase the robbers!

Learn More: Kid Activities

29. Dizzy Kickball

This is a fun and funny game to play! With a twist on the traditional game of kickball, students will close their eyes and spin around a few times before they have their turn to kick a ball. Then, they must run to their base just like in traditional kickball.

Learn More: Scholastic

30. Air Pong

Physical education lessons that can combine many skills are the best! This game of air pong is a fun way to use coordination skills and motor skills. Students must hit the ball onto their opponent’s mat. They must be careful to not hit it out of bounds.

Learn More: Be Well Played

31. Rabbit Hole

This game is ideal for any physical activity level. Students will enter into the space of a hula hoop; being mindful to avoid knocking down the hula hoop balanced on top of cones. Then, students will sneak out; pretending to be rabbits and making sure they aren’t captured by the fox.

Learn More: The Inspired Treehouse

32. Jellyfish Scooter Tag

Scooter tag is a fun game for all ages! Students can be separated into teams and sit on different colored scooters as they zip around the court, tagging the opposite teams. Tagged team members must then retire to the side of the court. The team with the most members at the end of the game wins!

Learn More: Gopher

33. Throw and Catch Tic-Tac-Toe

This is a fun game of catch and tic, tac, toe. Students must work in pairs as one stands in a hula hoop and waits to catch the ball from their teammate. If they catch it, they add their color to the tic-tac-toe board. If they drop it, the other teams go. The first team to get three in a row wins!

Learn More: The PE Shed

26 Indoor Physical Education Activities To Get You Moving

Whether the rain has you stuck indoors or you just need fresh ideas for making indoor physical education a little more interesting, this list is your new go-to! You can take outdoor games and make them adaptable to indoors, use traditional games with a new twist, and use physical exercises to bring movement indoors. Most of these simple games and activities don’t require much, but some do call for a few supplies such as yoga mats or hula hoops. Have fun with these 26 activities!

1. Rock, Paper, Scissors Bean Bag Balance

This provides a fun PE class idea that’s sure to be a big hit with your students! Kids love to play rock, paper, scissors. As they choose to show the rock, paper, or scissors, the winner collects a bean bag from their opponent’s head. They then add them to the bean bags atop their own head. Competitive students will really love this one!

Learn More: We Are Teachers

2. Yoga

Great for any age, yoga is a fantastic pick for indoor physical education. Whether basic or more complex, these stretches pose, and moves are a great way to incorporate movement into the classroom. Yoga is a fantastic choice for exercise and learners are sure to have lots of fun as they begin their yoga journey.

Learn More: Early Impact Learning

3. Simon Says

Especially good for young learners, the classic game of Simon Says is great for an active gym class. Not only does it provide students with plenty of physical movement, but this game also helps them enhance their listening skills and improve their ability to follow directions.

Learn More: Early Impact Learning

4. Human Connect Four

This is the perfect game for teams. You will need a few hula hoops and two groups of students. Colored vests are helpful in being able to distinguish teams as they engage in the human version of Connect Four. The twist is that a member of each team is shooting a basketball until they ring it and their team then adds a new person to the board. It’s the perfect game to encourage teamwork and sportsmanship!

Learn More: Sean Hutchinson

5. Indoor Rainbow Golf

For kids who enjoy golf, this activity provides a fun spin on the game. Set up colored targets to help students practice their strokes. This is great for all skill levels but will be a great way for students to work on basic putting skills. This engaging game will have students excited to take their turn.

Learn More: S&S Blog

6. Scooter Swimming

Put a twist on using scooters in the traditional way and have students lie on their stomachs as they use their arms and legs to push themselves around; much like they would do when swimming through water. Bring out a competitive spirit by making it a race.

Learn More: S&S Blog

7. Hula Hut Relay

Students love building hula hoop huts, but take that a step further and have them do something with it. This activity will enhance the little spatial awareness and brain activity as they will have to consider what to do in order to get through the hut without knocking it down.

Learn More: Elementary PE Teacher

8. Walking Club

A walking club is a fun idea for all students. While this can be done indoors or outdoors, you can keep the concept the same. As students make laps, they get their cards punched so you can keep track of how much they walk. This fitness activity is easy to carry out and provides lots of cardio for these active little bodies.

Learn More: The Colorful Apple

9. Indoor Foosball

Now, here is a fun game for kids to play as either an indoor or outdoor activity. Provide each person with a pool noodle and toss a beach ball into the middle. Use some pop-up goal-posts and teach learners the concept of a foosball table. This will quickly become a favorite for students and even teachers, as it is easy to prep and clean up.

Learn More: Mr. Mark Classroom

10. Cross the River Game

Another great game for building teams is cross the river. This is an excellent game for practicing communication skills, as students must work with their teams to figure out a plan to cross over the imaginary river. This is a game that will require students to bond together and work with others to come out successful.

Learn More: The PE Specialist

11. Fitness Bingo

Give each student a bingo card and as you call each physical activity from the board students will have to mark it on their card and act out the movement. This is good to use at the beginning of the year and to introduce each activity to students in a fun game-like way.

Learn More: The Trip Clip

12. Indoor Obstacle Course

Perfect for indoors, this obstacle course leads to heaps of fun and can be reused many times. You can change it up or let the kids design their own obstacle courses. This is a good activity to use to develop control over simultaneous whole-body movements. This could even be a great cardio workout if you have students race through it.

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13. Spell Your Name Workout

This is perfect for completion on an individual basis or could even be used to facilitate a fun, full-body workout for the entire class to enjoy together. As each student completes different aerobic activities, they will use the letters from their names to spell out what their exercises should be.

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14. Bucket Bean Bag Tag

Kids enjoy the traditional game of tag, but this game has a twist! Students will wear a belt and bucket around their waist and their peers will try to fill their buckets with bean bags. The faster they can escape their classmates, the better!

Learn More: Pinterest

15. Hopscotch

Hopscotch game drawn with chalk on the asphalt

Good for indoor or outdoor physical activity, hopscotch is always a winner! This is a great way for younger students to also squeeze in some practice of numbers, letters, or even sight words. This activity can be enjoyed inside if you add some tape to the gym or classroom floor.

Learn More: Half Crazy Mama

16. Wall Ball

Most middle school students know the game of wall ball, but this is a good activity for younger students too. Great for hand-eye coordination and gross motor skills, this simple game requires only a ball and a space on a wall. Students can throw and catch, use a paddle or racquet, or rotate with a partner.

Learn More: PE with Mr. G

17. Fitness Jenga

If you haven’t tried fitness stations, they may be a great addition to your indoor physical education routine. Using tools like these fitness Jenga blocks provide great opportunities to give students quick and easy fitness challenges. They can perform the activities in turns; moving on to something new once they’ve completed the task required at one station.

Learn More: Delia Creates

18. Red Light, Green Light

Sometimes classics are the best! Playing red light, and green light is a fun way to get kids moving. You’re sure to hear giggles and laughs galore as the students play together and yell out red light, and green light as they sprint across the gym; stopping dead in their tracks along the way.

Learn More: Mental Up

19. Musical Chairs

Always a fun time, playing musical chairs can be a great way to encourage students to get up and out of their chairs before racing right back to them. This is a quick and fun activity for students to complete while getting in some physical activity.

Learn More: Mental Up

20. Bowling

Best Active Indoor Activities For Kids | Fun Gross Motor Games and Creative Ideas For Winter (snow days!), Spring (rainy days!) or for when Cabin Fever strikes | Awesome Boredom Busters and Brain Breaks for Toddlers, Preschool and beyond to get their energy out!

Fun bowling games like this one are easy and can provide hours of entertainment and activity. You can use a variety of different materials to play indoor bowling games. Cups and a small ball are really all you need but you can also buy some nice indoor bowling sets.

Learn More: What Moms Love

21. Ping Pong Ball Catch

A simple game of catch with a twist, this ping pong ball cup catch is a great activity for kids to do alone or with a partner. All you need is a small ball and a cup. Students can toss their ball into the air and catch it as it falls, or toss the ball to a partner who will catch it in their cup before throwing it back.

Learn More: What Moms Love

22. Snowball Throwing Game

Treats, crafts, games and books to help you host a holiday classroom snowman party!

Similar to bowling, this game of snowball toss is a great way to practice aiming and throwing. It’s easy to reassemble using cups and puffy balls and helps students build their strength.

Learn More: Differentiated Teaching

23. XO Hop Game

This fun activity is a great way of exploring different types of movement. Maybe you can have students hop or tip-toe, but whatever you choose, they will be moving around in different ways. Add X’s and O’s onto the floor and have students move from target to target.

Learn More: Best Toys 4 Toddlers

24. Dinosaur Tag

Tag is generally fun, but themed versions are even more fun! The majority of young students love dinosaurs, so pretending to be dinosaurs while playing tag is a two-way win!

Learn More: Pinterest

25. Dancing

Energetic 3 year old Afro-Caribbean girl doing aerobic dancing with her mid 20s mother in living room of family home.

Just dance and freestyle dancing are great ways to get moving! Students can really let loose and get moving with the music. Play some age-appropriate tunes and let students dance or bust out their best moves with their friends.

Learn More: US News

26. Movement Dice

A piece of paper has exercises listed next to each side of a dice (elementary PE games)

Perfect for a variety of movement activities, this activity is fun and different for everyone; and is a great choice for all confidence and fitness levels. This can be an entire circuit or could be in a fitness center or station. This only requires a number cube and a paper key to the activities.

Learn More: We Are Teachers