Outdoor Play: Physical Education Lessons and Playground Games

By Kelly Robbins-Cripe

Daily exercise improves both a child's physical and mental health, and playing games is an effective way to get kids moving and interacting with their peers. Learning some basic vocabulary for physical education instructors as well as some easy playground games can be a great start toward encouraging kids to get active and get fit.

Common Physical Education Terms

Aerobic Activity: A type of exercise that strengthens your heart and lungs, such as jumping rope or running
Agility: The ability to move in a quick and controlled way
Balance: The ability to remain upright whether you're moving or standing still
Cardiovascular Fitness: When your heart and lungs are working together to deliver adequate oxygen to your muscles while you exercise
Coordination: When your body parts move together in a smooth way. Playing basketball requires excellent coordination.
Dodging: The act of moving out of the way of an object or person. Freeze tag involves dodging the person who is "it" to stay in the game.
Endurance: When you are able to keep moving for a long period of time during exercise or play
Flexibility: The ability to easily stretch and loosen your muscles
Free Weight: A weight you can pick up that isn't connected to another structure, such as a 2-pound hand weight
Intensity: The amount of effort put into an exercise or activity
Muscle: The tissue inside your arms, legs, and other parts of your body that helps you to move around
Outdoor Fitness: Activities and exercises that take place outside of a school, house, or other place
Pulse: The heartbeat that can be felt in your wrist or neck. You may check its rate during exercise.
Resistance: This is any force that pushes back against a particular movement. A hand weight provides resistance as you lift it.
Set: A group of repeated exercises, such as a group of ten jumping jacks
Sportsmanship: The act of obeying the rules of a game and treating your opponent with respect
Stretching: Extending the muscles in your arms, legs, back, and other areas to warm them up
Warm-Up: The period of stretching and gradually raising your heart rate before diving into exercising or playing a game
Workout: An exercise routine, such as lifting weights, jogging, jumping rope, or other activities that raise your heart rate

15 Fun Games and How to Play Them

Animal Walks: Kids in a PE class pretend to move and act like various types of wild animals. The teacher calls out a new type of animal every 30 seconds.
Animal Walks and 14 Other Fun Activities
Bird's Nest: Kids are divided into four teams. Each player takes a turn running across the gym to remove a bean bag from the pile in a central hoop and throwing it into their own team's hoop. The winner is the first team to throw six bean bags into their hoop.
Rules of the Bird's Nest Game
British Bulldogs: One child stands in the middle of the gym while the other kids line up on both ends of the room. The child in the middle tries to tag as many players as possible while they all run to the opposite side.
What I s British Bulldog?
Bucket Bouncer: Kids are divided into teams of three. Each person tries to bounce a ball into one of six buckets. The winning team is able to bounce the most balls into buckets in one minute.
Bucket Bouncer Activity
Broom Hockey: Students are in teams of three and work together to zigzag through cones while sweeping and passing a tennis ball toward a garbage can. The winning team is the one that gets all of their tennis balls into the garbage can before everyone else.
Playing Broom Hockey
Chain Tag: The player who is "it" runs around tagging others, who form a chain when caught. The game is over when everyone has been tagged.
Explanation of Chain Tag
Freeze Dance: One person controls the volume on the radio, starting and stopping the music whenever they like. The other kids freestyle dance when the music goes on and freeze in place whenever it stops. Anyone who is still dancing when the music stops is out of the game.
Try a Fun Freeze Dance
Freeze Tag: One person is "it" and goes around tagging others, who have to freeze in place. A kids who hasn't been tagged can unfreeze other players.
Freeze Tag Basics
Hot Potato: Kids sit in a large circle and swiftly pass around a ball or other object. One child is the caller, who calls out "Hot Potato!" When they do, whoever is holding the object is out.
How Hot Potato Works
Mirror, Mirror: Kids are paired up and mirror one another's actions while jumping rope. One of the kids is the leader and the other is the follower, and then they switch roles.
Mirror, Mirror Activity
Noodle Hockey: This is a version of hockey in which kids use pool noodles instead of hockey sticks and a ball instead of a puck.
Noodle Hockey and Other Outdoor Games
Parachute Game: A large, colorful parachute is spread into a circle on the floor. The kids all grab a section of it, lifting it up to waist height. Then, six or seven beach balls are thrown on top of it as the kids shake the parachute while trying to keep the balls from bouncing onto the floor.
Playing and Creating Parachute PE Games
Shark Zone: Blue mats are put onto the floor of the gym, and an object is put on each one, such as a hoop or a small balance beam. Kids must move from mat to mat, standing on the item without falling into the "shark-infested water" that's the mat's surface!
Distanced PE Games: Shark Zone, Pickleball, and More
Soccer Tag: Students kick soccer balls around a marked-off space, trying to keep their ball away from those of other players. If one ball collides with another, the players stop, each holding their ball until they're tagged and set free by another player.
Guidelines of Soccer Tag
Tic-Tac-Throw: Use nine hoops to set up a huge tic-tac-toe board. Kids are divided into two teams, and each person gets a chance to throw a bean bag into the hoops. The team that creates a tic-tac-toe first wins!
How to Play Tic-Tac-Throw

More Playground Game Suggestions for All Ages

Learn About the Author

Kelly Robbins-Cripe

Kelly has been a CPSI-certified playground inspector for several years. Her passion for play and attention to detail bring immense value to every playground she brings to life, and with her years of experience, every playground she visits is made better for her having been there. In her leisure time, Kelly enjoys spending time with her family.