A Fun and Active Game to Teach Health-Related Fitness Concepts

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!

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