Relay 1: Grades 3-5 Reading Vocabulary Relay
Duration: @ 15 minutes
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Practice: Introduce a list of grade
appropriate vocabulary words from a list (76 Kindergarten
Sight Words, 50 Grade 1 Sight Words,
Grade 2 Spelling List) on chart paper.
Ask all students to read the list aloud. Form teams of three or
four students. Set up as many stations as you have teams. Each station
should include a set of vocabulary cards from which students can choose.
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When the relay begins each runner will run to the station, choose a card from
the stack, and return it to his or her team. The team members must read
aloud the word together before the next runner can go.
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After every runner has run as many
laps as possible during the time designated, students total how many
pints their team has accumulated for runs. The group stands and reads
together the words from the word list. Add an additional point for each
word the team reads correctly.
Relay 2: Grades K-5 Math Relay
Duration: @ 15 minutes
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Practice: Introduce the relay and
reinforce the math skill students will be practicing (i.e. Grade K
-ordering numbers 1-20, Grade 1 - order numbers 1-100, Grade 2 - adding
coins to $1.00). Form teams of four or five students.
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Set up a station that students will run to and return to
home base. The station could include either the appropriate number cards
or fake coins. Each student can retrieve one card or coin from the
station and return to home base. Students at home base will either order
the number cards or combine the coins and cluster into $1.00 groupings.
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The final score for each tem can be a combination of
number of runs achieved during the specified time, plus bonus points if
the numbers or coins have been correctly ordered or grouped.
Relay 3: Grades K-5 Math Families Relay
Duration: @ 15 minutes
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Practice: Introduce the relay and
reinforce the math skill students will be practicing Math Fact Families:
3+4=7,
7-4=3, etc. Form teams of four or five students. Each team needs a
Fact Families Gameboard (Kindergarten Fact Families, Grade 1 Fact Families, Grade 2 Fact Families).
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Set up a station that students will run to and return to
home base. The station should include the appropriate number cards for
each grade level. Each student can retrieve one card from the station
and return to home base. Students at home base will work together to
place the number cards in appropriate boxes to make correct fact
families.
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The final score for each tem can be a combination of
number of runs achieved during the specified time, plus bonus points for
each correct fact family problem correctly ordered by the team.
Relay 4 Grades K-5: CROSSING THE COUNTRY
Equipment: Paper, pencils, calculator
Physical Education Objectives: Fitness, class management, Participates in
health enhancing physical activity at least three times a week.
Resource: Connect by Cindy Kuhrach
Activity: Purchase a large map of the United States or the World, and
post it on the wall of the gym or playing area. Each day, as students enter
the playing area, they should begin walking or running around the
boundaries, and keeping track of their laps. Have students record the
number of laps on a sheet of paper, and tally them up, (or have a small
group of students tally them.) Calculate the number of actual miles that
were covered by dividing the laps by the number of times around the playing
area that equals a mile (for instance, 20 times around equals one mile, so
divide laps by twenty. Ask the class a bonus question about the state or
country (for example, the capital or motto), and if they are correct, give
them an additional 10-25 miles to their total. Allow students to earn a
free day when they successfully cross their state or country. Using
pedometers and converting to miles also will work. Remember approximately
2500 steps for kids equals a mile.
Variations: This lesson can be brought into the classroom setting by
recording activities that students do during their recess.
Relay 5 Grades 3-5: State Geography
Equipment: Strips of paper where the states of the United States are
located in relation to each other. Example: South Carolina is below North
Carolina.
Physical Education Objectives: Locomotor skills
Social Studies Objectives: Knowledge of locations of the states
Resource: PE Central
Activity: Have the students start at the edge of the playing area.
Each one draws a slip of paper with the name of a state. When the teacher
says “Go” the students jump, skip, or crawl to the area where their state
should be. To figure out whom they should stand by, the students ask the
other students which states they represent until every state is in the
correct spot.
Variations: Classroom teachers should teach students to know where the
states of the United States are located in relation to each other. Instead
of telling the names of their states, the students can give hints such as:
The state bird is… The state capital is… This event or this landmark is
here…
Relay 6 Grades K-5: Hellison's Model at Work
Equipment: Tagboard
Physical Education Objectives: Personal responsibility, class management
Social Studies Objectives:
Resource: Connect by Cindy Kuhrach
Activity:
Use a large tag board for each class with library pockets on
it. Each pocket has the student’s name. At the end of class the students
choose a color coded strip of paper and place it in their pocket to
represent the level that they were working at that day. You could have
someone record these for you daily or leave the strips in and you can
visually see how a student is doing from day to day. It is a great visual
display to talk about the entire class behavior.
Variations:
This lesson is easily transferred into the classroom setting.
Relay 7 Grades 3-5: Geography Pinball
Equipment: One gatorskin foam ball, and funoodles cut into thirds
(approximately two-foot sections). Funoodles are long 4” round styrofoam
floats kids use in the pool in the summertime. At least four colors of
noodles are needed. US Map painted on the ground.
Physical Education Objectives: Striking with implements
Social Studies Objectives: Social Studies, To review the states, capitals,
and their characteristics.
Resource: PE Central
Activity:
Divide the class into four even groups. Each group stands on
one side of a US Map that is painted on the court. If you have no map, use
any other lines to form a square or rectangle. This activity starts with one
player from each team in the center. The four players “face off” by touching
the ball with the noodle, and on the signal “play” attempt to strike the
ball with the noodle across any team’s line except his/her own. Players on
the sidelines are also holding noodles and strike the ball back to their
team’s center player. If the ball crosses a team’s line, a point is scored
against that team. The point is erased if the team can verbally direct its
center player to stand on the state called by the teacher. Each group of
players gets 2-3 minutes of running time to be center players. Fifteen to
twenty seconds are allowed to find the states. Sideline players need to be
reminded to stay in their positions (by not moving in front of teammates)
and to keep one foot off the map. At the end of the allotted time,
the points that are accumulated by each team are kept if the team can
verbally direct different players on their team to stand on the state called
by the teacher (if they made 5 points, then 5 different players must stand
on the 5 states the teacher calls out). No matter how many or how few
points a team has at the end of time, the score, when students ask, is
always FUN TO FUN!
Relay 8 Grades 1-5: Heart Line Tag
Equipment: 3-4 yellow Frisbees and 2-3 Red Frisbees
Physical Education Objectives: Tagging, Dodging, Fleeing,
Spatial Awareness
Science Objectives: Circulatory System – Arteries, Veins, Fat, and
Cholesterol; How the body works
Activity: Three or four people are it and they will have the yellow
Frisbees that represent fat and cholesterol. The rest of the students are
blood running through the arteries and veins (the lines on the gym floor) If
you are tagged then you turn into a clot and sit down on the line, blocking
the path for anyone trying to get through. Anyone that comes up to you must
turn around and find another way. Eventually everyone gets caught and you
can talk about how eating poorly, not exercising, etc. can quickly clog up
your arteries and veins which makes it difficult for your blood to move
around your body and can lead to a heart attack. Then play the game again
only have two or three people have red Frisbees. These people will
represent exercise and medicine that can help your body. Their job is to go
up to the clog and unfreeze them. After playing for a few minutes, talk
about how taking care of your body helps to keep it working properly.
Switch taggers and play again.
Variations: Make the gym into a heart. Make the students perform
different locomotor movements while moving on the lines.
Relay 9
Grades 3-5: Healthy Heart
Equipment: 24 paper cut out hearts – 6 of each with the
following sayings written on them; Lean Body Weight, Exercise Daily, Don’t
Use Drugs, Don’t smoke
Physical Education Objectives: fitness, spatial awareness, and healthy
heart knowledge
Literacy Objectives: word recognition and understanding of
terms.
Activity: Make sure that you have already
discussed how each topic relates to a healthy heart prior to playing this
activity. Divide your class into 4 groups – and have them spread out along
the sidelines of your gym. The teacher needs to pull out one heart from each
topic area. Give each group a jump rope and one heart face down. On “go”
the first person in each line turns over the heart the teacher has provided
and then jumps rope toward the hearts in the middle of the gym and turns
over 1 heart – if it is the same topic as theirs that the teacher provided
than they bring the heart back to the group – if not they return it to the
pile face down and jump rope back to their group. The next player gets the
rope and hustles to the center and turns over a card in hopes of finding
another match. Once the team has collected all 6 hearts of the same topic
the game is over. Usually takes about 10-12 minutes and works well as an
instant activity.
Variations: Use other topics such as terms from the sport you have been
working on, biomechanical terms, review for upcoming test….
Grades K – 2: Spell Your Locomotor Movement
Equipment: Large cards with a locomotor movement on it, small
cards with the letters to spell those locomotor movements. CD player and
music.
Physical Education Objectives: fitness, locomotor
movement practice and assessment. Literacy Objectives: reading words, spelling words, working
with “ing” words.
Activity:
Place large cards equally spaced out around the gym. Place
students in relay lines of 2-3 behind each of the large cards. The group
behind each card is a team. Place all the small letter cards face down in
the middle of the gym- equal distance to the large cards if you can.
Explain to student the goal is to find the letters to spell out their
locomotor movement. Each team’s method of moving to find their letters is
the locomotor movement that is on their large card. Example: if your large
card spells skipping then they will skip, if it says run they will run, etc.
Try to put large card out that have an equal number of letters (or close to
equal). If a card has 2 locomotor movements on it the students in that
group can choose or switch off on the locomotor movement they use to move.
|
skipping |
running |
hopping |
jumping |
leaping |
|
skip hop |
run jump |
leap run |
slide run |
walk run |
|
gallop |
walking |
|
|
|
Play music and begin the game. Students continue to
play until a team(s) finds all the letters to spell their locomotor
movement. At that time they raise their hand and the teacher will check
their word. If they are correct start a new game by having one person on
the team bring the big word cards to the teacher and the rest of the team
spreads the letter cards out in the middle of the gym. All students return
to their line, new person in front. The teacher then walks to each group
and has the first student in line pick a new card from the teacher’s hand.
If it is a card they had before ask them to pick another card.
Relay 10 Grades 2-5: Wheel of Fortune
Equipment: Chalkboard or
dry erase board, any equipment you want to use for relays
Physical Education Objectives: Locomotor movements, Teamwork
Literacy Objectives: Spelling, Problem Solving
Activity: Split the students up into groups of four or five. Have each
team perform different locomotor relays or any other variety of relay races
such as jump rope or scooter races. Have a word or phrase picked out and
the number of letters put on a board or piece of paper so the students can
see the number of letters in each word (like Hangman). After each race the
team that wins gets to pick a letter. After you have put the letter up (if
there is one in the word or phrase) that team may try and guess what the
puzzle is. If they get it right then you pick a new word and begin again.
If they do not get the puzzle right, select another relay race and the team
that wins gets to pick another letter and see if they can figure out the
puzzle.
Variations: Use words that fit a theme or book that they are reading in
class. Have the students make up words and phrases and see if they can
stump each other or another class.
Relay 11 Grades 1-5: Spelling Tag
Equipment: Tag belts or an item to designate taggees; spelling word cards
for each grade level
Physical Education Objectives: chasing, fleeing, dodging, locomotor
movements, spatial awareness
Literacy Objectives: spelling
Activity: Designate 3-5 students as the taggers
and have them wear the tag belts. Designate 3-5 students to be the teacher
helpers. Give each helper a spelling word card. When a student is tagged
they are frozen in place until the teacher helper comes over. The helper
will show the student a word to spell. If the spell it correctly they are
back in the game. If they misspell the word they must remain frozen until
different helper comes over and shows them a new word. Switch taggers and
helpers until all students have had a chance to be each one time.
Variations: Use site words appropriate for each level.
Relay 12 Grade K-5: Scrabble Relays
Equipment: Jump ropes, letter cards, word cards
Physical Education Objectives: rope jumping skills, cardiovascular
endurance
Literacy Objectives: spelling
Activity: Split students into groups of
3-4. Each set of students should have one jump rope. Lay the letter cards
face down at the other end of the gym. One at a time, students jump rope
down and pick up a letter and bring it back to their group. They may keep up
to 7 cards. They need to make a word out of their letters. If they have
letters they do not want to use, they may return them to the other end of
the gym and choose other cards. Once they have made a word, they show it to
the teacher. They return all their cards and begin a new game.
Variations: With the younger students, you can have a word card for
each group. They need to find the letters that go with that word. Use the
site words appropriate for each grade level. Use various locomotor movements
rather than the jump rope. For older students change the game to “SENTENCE
RELAYS” and have students make sentences instead of words. You would need to
change the letter cards to word cards and punctuation cards.
Relay 13 Grades K-3: Rhyming Words
Equipment: 1 cone and 1
scooter for every 2 students, 50 paper plates
Physical Education Objectives: muscular strength
Literacy Objectives: rhyming words
Activity: Students are placed in groups of
two. Cones and paper plates are scattered around the general space. The
students each have a partner and one scooter. Each group starts at a
different cone for their base. At their base is a plate with a word written
on the bottom. Scattered on the other half of the gym are the rest of the
paper plates with words written on the bottoms of them. These plates are
turned upside down so the words are not showing. Students decide who is
first and they take turns riding the scooter out to try to find a work that
rhymes with their word. If they turn over a plate that rhymes, they bring it
back to their base. If they turn over a plate that does not rhyme, they turn
it back over and leave it there. Each team is searching for a different
rhyming word. Have students start with a new rhyming word and start again.
Variations: Have various sized groups or use different locomotor
movements instead of scooters.
For Kindergarten use letters of the alphabet as the base card. The students
must then go find a paper plate that has a picture of an item that begins
with that letter. ( Example: base card letter “A” – picture of an apple)
For Kindergarten spell out various colors on the base card. The students
must then go find a paper plate that has that color on the bottom. You
could also do something with shapes. ( Example: base card letter “green” – paper plate with green
bottom)
Relay 14 Grades 3-5: Math Totaling Our Steps
Write in the number of miles each person in your line
has completed.
Totaling Our Steps: Please write in the number of miles
each person in your line has completed.
Totaling Our Steps: Please write in the number of miles
each person in your line has completed.
Totaling Our Steps: Please write in the number of miles
each person in your line has completed.
Totaling Our Steps: Please write in the number of miles
each person in your line has completed.
STEP CONVERSION CHART
500
- 900 = = ¼ MILE OR .25
1000-1499 = ½ MILE OR .50
1500-1999 = ¾ MILE OR .75
2000-2500 = 1 MILE OR 1.00
2501-3000= 1 ¼ MILE OR 1.25
3001-3500 = 1 ½ MILE OR 1.50
Relay 15 Grades 1-5: Scooter Math
Equipment: 1 cone and 1 scooter for every 2 students, 50 paper plates
Physical Education Objectives: muscular strength
Math Objectives: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division (use math
equations appropriate for each level)
Activity: Students are placed in groups of two. Cones and paper plates
are scattered around the general space. The students each have a partner
and one scooter. Each group starts at a different cone for their base. At
their base are 2-3 plates, each with a math equation on the bottom.
Scattered on the other half of the gym are the rest of the paper plates with
the answers written on the bottom. These plates are turned upside down so
the answers are not showing. Students decide who is first and they take
turns riding the scooter out to try to find the answer to their math
equation. If they turn over a plate that has the correct answer, they bring
it back to their base. If they turn over a plate that does not have the
correct answer, they turn it back over and leave it there. When a group has
found all their answers they call the teacher over to check their math. Have
students start with new equations and start again.
Variations: Have various sized groups, use different locomotor movements
instead of scooters, use fractions rather than a math equation,
(Example: Pie chart on a plate showing two-fourths colored in…find matching
card that shows the fraction number 2/4 or ½)
Relay 16 Grades 1-5: Number Relays
Equipment: 6 sets of 3 x 5 number cards , 6 cones or poly spots
Physical Education Objectives: Locomotor skills
Math Objectives: sequencing numbers
Activity: Scatter all of the numbercards, face
down, out in the middle of the gym. Arrange students into 6 small groups.
Each group lines up behind a different cone or poly spot, this is their
starting point. One at a time, students run out and grab one card from the
pile and run back to their group. If it is a card they do not have, they
keep it. If it is a card they already have the next person in line takes it
back with them and lays it face down and grabs a new card. Individuals
continue to take turns until they have all the numbers in the correct
order. Back at their cone/spot, the rest of the group should be arranging
the cards so they are in the correct order.
Variations: Have the group count by 2, 3, 4, etc…..up to certain
number. (Example: count by 2’s up to 20, count by 5’s up to 100) Do even
number, odd numbers, prime numbers, etc.
Order
numbers 1 – 20.