I often get asked about the various apps and resources appropriate for younger Physical Education students. This stems from the fact that when you get down into the younger levels, there’s a noticeable difference in needs, differences in what is expected and most importantly what the students themselves are actually capable. I certainly learnt this during my time teaching 5 & 6-year-olds earlier this year.
So here are some of the resources I used to help motivate and engage my young PE Students.
Podcast Resources
Let’s Move – This is a weekly audio-based podcast produced by the BBC. The podcast centres around getting younger students moving through active cross-curricular style topics. Not only are they highly produced, but the engaging story telling actually leads to a room full of active and focused students. I also loved the opportunity to join in with the actions and model the movements to my students. It’s worth pointing out that this is entirely free, super high-quality resource that you simply must check out.
Time to Move – Another podcast from the BBC in the same vein as the Let’s Move Podcast above, however with more of a focus on dance and movement. Another great edition to the junior PE Classroom that my students simply adored.
Video Resources
Adventure to Fitness – A superb series of online videos geared towards younger students with an emphasis on inspiring students to healthy living through imagination, storytelling and movement. Have your entire class follow along with the action on the big screen. They will love it.
GoNoodle – GoNoodle is fantastic video based resource designed exclusively for younger students in classroom settings. It includes a collection of videos of incredibly high quality that centre on getting kids active during traditional classroom sessions. Highly recommended.
Cosmic Kids – If you’re looking to do yoga, then you absolutely cannot go past ‘Cosmic Kids Yoga’. A high-quality YouTube channel focused on helping younger students get started with Yoga. Brilliant.
Exercise-Style Geared Apps
Workout in a Bag -Workout in a Bag for Kids is a a fun and challenging workout game specifically designed for kids! The app revolves around the concept of making exercise fun and rewarding. The app also employs gamification which works to motivate students like now other. Receive Gold Coins when you complete a bag, unlock Special Badges and also unlock new Workout Buddies along the way. The app comes highly recommended
Active Kids Colour – Keep active and healthy while coloring 26 beautiful pages with Active Kids Coloring. Each page consists of an Active Animal that encourages younger students to get moving in a variety of fun and interesting ways. The app has been carefully constructed by me in 2013 to promote movement and fun. The app also helps teach fundamental literacy skills and mixes these with art and drawing for hours of fun young students will love.
Bit Breaker – This is one of my favourites and it’s actually part of the PE Geek Workshops. Now, I don’t necessarily think that this is designed for younger students, but it absolutely applies. As you move left to right, the paddle moves left to right. As you jump, you can impose some power on the ball that comes towards it. The objective is you are going to hit all the tiles by moving left and right and deflecting them back up and so forth, just like in the game.
I discovered this app while looking for advanced Yoga Apps for my senior students. The app centres around combining the use of storytelling and physical activity into a fun adventure that younger students will love. As you launch the app you need to select a story, which then leads you down a path where children can imitate, feel and experiment with different poses in an interactive, fun and imaginative way.
I think this space is definitely only going to grow as more and more devices become even more accessible. But as we’ve touched on, most of these are free, yet powerful additions to the PE classroom.
If you have any apps or resources that you use with younger kids, let me know. Send me a voice mail at thepegeek.com/voicemail or leave a comment below.
