Track & Field Lessons

The lesson focuses on partner/team cooperation and partner/team/individual challenges. It incorporates previously learned skills through use in games, team relay races, and skill challenges. A review of locomotor skills and balance is incorporated into the lesson.

Time to Use Your Skills Tag (Locomotor Skill Review)

This activity directs students to recall and use many types of locomotor skills. It allows them a chance to use fitness skills and interact with each other as they use safe moving skills. Students are asked to use personal responsibility to follow the rules of the game.

Introduction:

• Say to students, Let’s get moving together to warm-up and use some of the locomotor skills we learned/practiced earlier this year! Our warm-up is called, Time to Use Your Skills Tag.
• Share with them the following:
  • Our warm-up is called, Time to Use Your Skills Tag.
  • They will move all throughout the designated activity area when the music starts.
  • They should use their awareness and moving skills to try to stay away from the two players designated as the taggers.
  • If they get tagged, they should exit the playing area and go to the skill practice area sectioned off by the cones.
  • In the skill practice area, they will choose one of their locomotors to move them safely down the length of the practice area and choose a different locomotor to move them back to their starting position.
  • After completing the locomotor, they may return to gameplay.

Procedure:

1. Ask students to recall the various locomotors they can remember learning throughout the year. (Call on students to share/demonstrate).
2. Choose two students to be the taggers in the first round of the game and give them safe tagging tools.
3. Direct the other students to spread out in activity area in personal space.
4. Begin music to begin movement.
5. Circulate and encourage best-effort play and best-effort practice.
6. Stop the music after 3 minutes of play and direct students to freeze in position.
7. Choose new taggers for a new round of the game and repeat gameplay.
8. Direct students to move safely to team positions and sit down.

Fitness Skill Focus: Standing V Stretch with Forearm Reach

Introduction:

• Say: I saw lots of great running in that warm-up game, and we are going to run again in our next activity, so let’s try a stretch together that will give our leg muscles a chance to relax and stretch.
• This is a standing stretch, and it is called the V Stretch. We tried this stretch together last year and we are going to challenge ourselves a bit more by adding more upper-body stretching to it.

Procedure:

1. Teach/Model proper form with students-stand tall and strong; step your legs/feet out a bit wider than shoulder width so that they make a shape like the letter V.
2. Make sure your feet are flat and stable so that they don’t slide apart, and try to keep your legs straight while you lean forward.
3. Place each hand on the opposite elbow and try to stretch farther toward your feet so that the forearms come closer to the floor.
4. Hold this position for 30 counts.

Skill Development/Review: Team Baton Relay

This activity focuses on readiness, focus, cooperation, and best effort. It activity encourages students to work together as a team to cooperatively complete a task. It allows them to use previously learned locomotors and object control while they cooperate to complete the task. It gives them the opportunity to challenge themselves to use their best effort to complete the task well. The activity reinforces the idea of constructive competition and how competition can motivate us to do our best.

Prepare:

• Ask students to think about the PE activities they have enjoyed the most throughout the school year.
• Call on students to share aloud and as they do, point out some of the fundamental skills that were used in each activity.
• Remind students that learning these fundamental skills well can help them to join into many fun games/activities to increase their skill level, confidence and have fun on their own and with others!
• Share that they are going to use some of the skills they have learned this year, together as a team, to cooperate while moving in our activities today.

Explain/Demonstrate- Ready Position

• Ask the students to move safely to their team color cone and line up in team order behind it.
• Ask students to face forward, stay in personal space within their team line, and show a standing listen/learn position.
• Share with students that their team will be working together to complete a team race/challenge that is called a relay race.
• Ask them if they remember what a race is called that each teammate takes a turn. (Relay Run)
• Remind them that they have used their skills to complete relay runs in the past.
• Remind them that for their team to complete the relay challenge with their best effort, they will need to use some of their previously learned skills.
• Share/Show ready position
  • Body facing forward
  • Eyes focused on the teammate in front of you
  • Favorite foot slightly in front
• Share that this readiness position shows focus with the body and brain and makes it easier for the team to do their best because the teammates are not distracting each other.
• Ask students to try the ready position.

Explain/Demonstrate- Baton Hand Off

• Remind students that in a relay, the teammates take turns completing a task.
• Explain that in this relay, the racers will show that it is the next teammate’s turn by handing them a short baton/dowel/paper towel roll.
• Share/show the team how they will use cooperation by handing off/exchanging the relay baton.
  • Waiting teammate extends right arm with the palm facing upward
  • Returning runner does a right-side return and places the baton flat into the teammate’s extended hand
• Demonstrate how best effort can be shown when completing the task by:
  • Using previously learned best body form running skills to run while holding the baton to the designated spot
  • Turn safely using body control
  • Run back to starting position while staying in the team’s running lane
  • Do a cooperative baton hand-off to the next teammate.

Practice: Slow Motion Relay

• Share with students that to help each teammate understand how to complete the relay, their first practice will be done at a slower speed.
• Explain that in this practice, they will speed walk when it is their turn and demonstrate that they understand what they need to do when it is their turn in the relay.
• Remind them that it is okay to make mistakes and encourage them to use teamwork with each other by helping each teammate to remember what they need to do when it is their turn.
• Ask all teammates to show readiness with the ready position.
• Give a track baton to the number one person in each team.
• Cue practice aloud with the starting signal, Team’s ready, set, go!
• Use cue word coaching to help students to remember various elements of the relay run.
• Once each student has completed their turn, ask teams to show readiness, and review aloud elements that need improvement.

Practice: Full Speed Track Baton Relay

• Share with students that now they will try the relay using their fastest speed and best effort.
• Ask them to recall what they need to do to show best effort
  • Readiness
  • Best body form running
  • Agility
  • Stay in team lane
  • Right side return
  • Cooperative baton handoff
  • Back of team line when turn is completed, etc.
• Review with students that in this type of team challenge, they will be competing with the other teams to determine the winning team.
• Review the concept of constructive competition. (Competition with others that helps to motivate us to perform using our best effort and provides motivation for improvement of skills)
• Remind students that to help the competition to be constructive/positive each person will need to use their self-control skills and respect for others.
• Ask all teammates to show their starting ready position.
• Once all look ready, cue practice aloud with the starting signal, Team’s ready, set go!
• Repeat practice relay 3 times to encourage confidence/competence in each team’s ability and allow students the opportunity to improve their performance.

Review:

• Ask teams to share what they thought their team did well at in the relay.
• Ask teams to share something that their team should try to improve upon.
• Ask students to recall skills that were used to complete the team task.
• Ask students to think about how competition can be motivating.

Can You Cooperate? (Partner Body/Balance/Cooperation Challenges)

This activity uses previously learned fundamental skills in a variety of cooperative challenges. Students work together in pairs to communicate and complete a small task that uses skills they have learned and practiced earlier in the year.

Procedure:

1. Share with students that they will continue to use skills to try to challenge themselves.
2. Explain that they will use their locomotors and other previously learned skills to try to complete a challenge by cooperating with a partner.
3. Review with students that cooperation takes best effort by each partner and the use of talking/listening skills (communication).
4. Explain that you will give them a cooperation challenge to try together, and they will have 2 minutes to cooperate and practice the challenge.
5. Use a best practice method to pair students.
6. Share/show partner challenges and allow two minutes for practice/completion of each challenge.
7. Possible Challenge Ideas to Explore:
   • Hand Hold and Skip (Can you and your partner grip hands and skip all around the activity area without bumping/banging into anyone/anything and without letting go of hands?)
   • Elbow Hook and Jog (Can you and your partner intertwine your arms by the elbows and jog all around the activity area without bumping/banging into anyone/anything and without unhooking arms?)
   • Tunnel Tower (Can you and your partner make a muscle tunnel tower by having a base tunnel and another tunnel supported on that with feet or hands resting on the bottom/base tunnel?)
   • Back-to-Back Sit to Stand (Can you and your partner sit down on the ground with your backs flat against each other, and use your muscular strength to stand up, without using your hands/arms, while keeping your backs together?)
   • Back-to-Back Slide (Can you and your partner stand with your backs flat to each other, hook your arms on each side and slide all around the activity area without letting your arms come apart?)
   • Double Airplane Balance (Can you and your partner face each other, grip both hands to each other’s hands and both lift one leg off the ground and balance strong and steady for 10 counts?)
   • 3-Legged Run (Can you and your partner stand side by side and connect the legs that are touching each other in the center by stepping each one into a bag/sack or putting an exercise band/Velcro strap band around them and move as fast as you can back and forth across our activity area without failing?)
   • Big Ball Transport (Can you and your partner hold a big ball together, high over your head and move all around the activity area, keeping all 4 hands on the ball and keeping it higher than your head without dropping it?)
   • Back-to-Back Big Ball Transport (Can you and your partner stand backward to each other with both of you placing your back flat on a big ball? Can you move through the activity area, keeping the ball between your backs and not letting it fall?)
   • Wheelbarrow Walk (Can you and your partner create a wheelbarrow hold where one partner supports themselves on their palms with their feet held in their partner’s hands, then cooperatively try to walk forward with one person walking on their hands without failing!)

Nature Walk and Stretch Series

Procedure:

1. Ask students to begin walking and thinking of one of the favorite things they like to do outside/in nature.
2. Ask them to stop and show a motion from that favorite thing (possibly casting a fishing pole, swimming, holding the leash of a dog etc.)
3. Then ask them to stop and complete a nature stretch series with you.
   • Mountain pose for 10 counts
   • To tree pose for 10 counts
   • To waterfall pose for 10 counts
   • To river pose for 10 counts

When students are lined up, quiet, and showing body control…

Check for Understanding:

• Call on 3-5 students to answer/demonstrate:
  • What was a skill they used well in the relay race today?
  • What was one thing their team needed to improve on to do better in the race?
  • Which partner challenge was the most challenging for them and why?

Celebratory Closure:

• Share that you are excited to move more with them next time and excited to see them use a variety of skills to cooperate and challenge themselves!
• Call out in a celebratory voice and students repeat after each line.
• Say (repeating terms slowly): Repeat after me.
  • B-E-S-T
  • I want to be the best I can be!

Homework:

• Ask students to try some of the partner challenges with a family member or friend at home. Encourage students to continue practicing the relay race with friends at recess time.