Promoting Physical Fitness for Grades 6-8
Classroom Resources that Reinforce the Benefits of Physical Fitness
Get active, stay fit and have fun doing it with sports, games, and activities described in the following lesson plans and resources.
Lesson Plans
Survivor Island Field Day
Students in grades K-6 use teamwork and leadership skills to complete nine cooperative challenges.
Zombie Tag
This game is played in an area with distinct boundaries.
Orienteering Scavenger Hunt
Students in grades 6-12 use a compass to reach multiple checkpoints.
Discovery Pacing
Students (6-12) work with partners to discover strategies for pacing themselves when running longer distances
Ultimate Sponge Ball
Students in grades 7-12 play in teams of 4-8 to move a sponge ball to the opposing side’s goal.
Lesson Plan Collections
PE Central: Lesson Plans for Physical Education Teachers
A collection of more than 2000 K-12 health and physical education lessons and assessment ideas.
Games Kids Play
This site gives instructions for hundreds of outdoor activities. Included are traditional games and jump rope rhymes.
Cooperative Games: The Ultimate Camp Resource
72 games that encourage teamwork and active participation from everyone.
Background Resources
Modern Sports History including Culture the Beginnings and Major Events
Sports History
Field and Court Dimensions, History, Rules and How To Information for a variety of sports.
Streetplay.com: Stickball, handball, spaldeens, and more!
Documents city games. Includes galleries of photographs.
Tools
Today in Sport
Events, birthdays and deaths in sport for every day in history from a wide variety of sports.
Sports Coaching Skills
Videos and animations demonstrate 1,000s of coaching drills. Free membership and registration for individual sports.
- Sports Rules
- Sport Definitions
- A Guide to Eating for Sports
- Sports Nutrition Guidelines for the Vegetarian
Books
Find these materials online:
Cross-Curricular Connections with Sports
Books connecting sports to other disciplines for students in grades 2-12.
Find these reading materials at your school or local library:
- Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, Catching, Seeking, Hunting, Racing, Dueling, Exerting, Daring, Guessing, Acting, and Pretending
By Iona and Peter Opie
Floris Books (January 2009) - Children's Games with Things: Marbles, Fivestones, Throwing and Catching, Gambling, Hopscotch, Chucking and Pitching, Ball-Bouncing, Skipping, Tops and Tipcat
By Iona and Peter Opie
Oxford University Press, USA (April 23, 1998) - The Lore of the Playground: One Hundred Years of Children's Games, Rhymes and Traditions
By Steve Roud
Random House UK (November 1, 2010) - The New Games
By New Games Foundation
Main Street Books (September 8, 1976) - More New Games
By New games Foundation
Main Street Books (September 9, 1981) - Best New Games
By Dale Lefevre
Human Kinetics; 1 edition (November 5, 2001) - Kick the Can, and over 800 Other Active Games and Sports for All Ages
By Darwin Hindman
Pearson Prentice Hall (March 1978)
Multimedia
- Children’s Games: Complete Painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (circa 1560)
- Children's Games: Details from Pieter Brueghel's Painting (circa 1560)
- Opie Collection of Children's Games and Songs
Audio recordings of familiar and unfamiliar children's games and songs.
Last Updated: March 13, 2020
