Other at home PE activities

Footgolf

Footgolf combines the skill and accuracy of golf with the fun of football.

This is a great social distancing game for pupils. Children use their feet to kick a ball into a target such as a hula hoop.

You could set a course of ‘holes’ around the playground, field or garden and keep a tally of how many kicks it takes each child to get around the course.

Challenge older children to use a tennis ball, while keeping younger children interested with a football or large sponge ball

Tennis skills

Today's activities are all designed to help develop racket skills and hand-eye coordination.

Racket/bat: Ideally a tennis racket but you could use badminton racket, table tennis bat or similar. If you don't have any of those then for most practices you could use a kitchen pan/pot, a book or even just your hand.

Ball: Ideally a tennis ball but any ball will do. If you don't have a ball then for some exercises you could use rolled up socks, a balloon or some scrunched up paper.

Tap ups on the move

Keep the ball up on your racket by tapping it up continuously. Tip: Start using small swings of the racket to keep it under control.

Walk around a space keeping the ball up.

Now try jogging around a space keeping the ball up.

Now try sidestepping around keeping the ball up.

Easier: balance ball on racket and move around instead of tap ups, throw ball up and catch using racket and hand

Harder: use alternate side of racket, alternate between low tap ups and high tap ups, alternate between using strings of racket and frame/side of rackets (this is really tough!)

Body ball tap ups

This time after every tap up try and bounce it on another part of your body before tapping it up again. How many tap ups can you make before dropping the ball? How many different body parts can you hit the ball with?

Line tennis (pairs activity)

Mark a line using tape, chalk, skipping rope or similar.

Tap the ball over a line to your partner. Each player must stay on their own side and the ball is allowed to bounce once on each side. How many hits can you and your partner make before the ball bounces twice or you lose control?

May is National Walking Month and with the sunny weather forecast it might be the perfect opportunity to get out for a stroll if you can.

Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt always makes a walk a bit more interesting and exciting. Use the attached Living Streets scavenger hunt when you go out for a walk. How many can you spot in your local area?

Make a Connection

This week 18-24 May is also Mental Health Awareness Week. Why not use your daily walk to connect with a family member or friend who might be missing you?

Write a letter and/or create a picture to cheer them up and use your daily walk to post or deliver it

Take a picture of a place on your walk where are you are looking forward to meeting up/playing with your friend next time you see them. Send them your picture with a message to cheer them up.

Living Streets, is a UK charity aimed at promoting everyday walking. Their website has lots of other walking based resources and activity ideas for primary schools.

Here is the link to access other walking based resources:

https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/walk-to-school/primary-schools

***NEW*** Individual activity - Hit the target

Equipment:

Something that you can throw safely such as a soft ball or rolled up socks

5 items that you can use as targets (these could be different sizes)

How to play:

Place a marker down for where the fielder will start and then place the 5 targets in different areas of the space you are using

See how many attempts it takes you to hit all the targets. Try to beat your score

Each time you miss you must get your ball and return to the starting position before your next attempt

Experiment with under and over arm throwing techniques

You could also time yourself to see how quickly you can hit all 5 targets. This will get your heart rate up as you will need to quickly run and get the ball back between attempts.

To increase/decrease challenge change the distance of the targets from your starting position or use smaller targets.

Pairs activity - Battleships

How to play:

Each player places 3 items as targets or "battleships" in front of them

They each have a ball or pair of rolled up socks

On the signal "Go" try to hit your partners targets. If you hit the target item then run and pick up your ball and the target you hit and take it to your side.

If you miss, run and pick up your ball and take it back to your side to have another turn.

You are not allowed to protect your "battleships".

The winner is the one who manages to sink all of their opponent's "battleships"

To increase challenge you could move the targets further away or specify over arm throw only or even non dominant hand only

To decrease the challenge move the targets closer or allow the ball to be rolled.

Progression: Add more battleships for a longer game or allow players to add any of the battleships they hit to their own.

Developing ball handling skills

Ideally use a large ball like a basketball, football, netball or rugby ball for these. Failing that you could use a cushion or soft toy.

Finger taps - Hold the ball out in front of you and tap it from hand to hand using only your finger tips if possible.

Waist circles - pass the ball around your waist as quickly as you can. Try in both a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

Lunge circles - Step one foot forward and bend your knee whilst stretching the other leg back behind you in a lunge position. Circle the ball around your leg as fast as you can. Change legs and repeat.

Figure 8 - Stand with your feet in a wide stance pass the ball in a figure of 8 between your legs. Try in both a clockwise and anti-clockwise direction.

Clap and catch - Throw the ball up and in front of you and then quickly clap your hands behind before catching. To make it easier for younger pupils they could clap in front of them rather than behind.

Back drop - Hold ball in two hands behind your head. Drop in and try and catch behind your back.

Fast hands - Hold the ball between your legs with one hand in front and the other behind your legs. Try to switch hands without the ball touching the floor. To make it easier you could allow one bounce.

Practice all of the above and then record your best score for 1 minute. Try and beat your score or challenge a family member.

Target cricket

This game can either be played individually or with another family member. You will need a bat or racket of some sort (or anything else that you can hold to hit a ball - frying pan, book even your hand) and a ball (or an alternative such as some scrunched up paper with tape around it or some rolled up socks)

Create some targets - these could be sheets or paper stuck on a wall or marked with chalk or masking tape. You could also use any other items that you have at home or in the garden. Just make sure it is nothing that could get broken!

Assign a points total to each target. If using sheets of paper or chalk then you can write the number of points on the target so it is easy to remember.

If you are playing on your own then drop the ball infront of you and let it bounce at least once before hitting. If you have a partner they can drop it for you.

The batter has ten attempts to see how many points they can score.

Progression/variations:

Change the size of targets. Award higher number of points for smaller targets and lower number of points for larger targets.

Write "Out" on some targets meaning if the batter hits them it is the end of their turn or these lose minus 5 points.

If you are playing with a partner in a large enough space then introduce under arm bowling instead of a drop feed.

Introduce some stumps for the batter to protect and if they miss and the bowler hits them they are out. You could use a box or bin as a replacement for stumps.

Another Monday Striking and Fielding game today:

Rapid Fire Cricket

For both these games you will need a bat of some sort and three or four balls. If you don't have a bat it could be another piece of sports equipment like a hockey stick, tennis racket, a frying pan a book or even your hand.

If you don't have three or four balls then rolled up socks or even scrunched up paper could be used instead.

You will also need two items to use as markers for where the batter stands and where the bowler bowls from. The distance between will depend on the space you have available to play and also the age of the child.

Place down two items as markers, batter stands with the bat at one and the bowler stands facing them with

The bowler bowls the balls underarm one after the other and the batter tries to hit them into space. For younger pupils the balls could be stationary in front of the batter and hit from the ground.

Once all balls have been bowled the batter must try to run to the bowler's marker and back to his stumps as many times as possible. They score a run/point every time they do this.

The bowler/fielders need to return all balls to the bowler marker and then shout "stop" so the batter knows they have to stop running.

Bat for a set number of turns (e.g. 10) and see how many runs you can score.

Tip: by trying to hit the ball into different spaces it will be harder for the bowler/fielder to return all the balls quickly and give you more chance to score runs.

Progression/variations:

Add stumps that the batter has to protect and the bowler can hit to get the batter out. If you don't have stumps you could use a cardboard box, a bin or use sticky tape, newspaper, or chalk to mark some on a wall.

Make the distance between the bowler and batter longer and allow overarm bowling.

Place other items such as garden chairs, wheelie bins as extra "fielders" that batter can be caught out by if they hit them with the ball.