Help children achieve 60 minutes of activity a day

Help children achieve 60 minutes of activity a day

Written by Jack Clarke. Former teacher and Education Specialist for Davies Sports

Developing 60 minutes of movement for Key Stage 1 will always feel like a daunting task. When I taught Year 1, we’d spend most of our time setting up! However, with quick, easy repeatable activities, most classes will be able to settle into a routine. Using everyday playground essentials, I’ve curated a set of exercises to address the KS1 objectives from the English National Curriculum.

The timetable below can be used as a starter to your morning and afternoon, which guarantees 12 minutes of bite-sized movements to keep your pupils active, engaged and challenged.

Each activity is designed to be one minute long using different pieces of equipment, so you don’t need to worry about groups sharing. Set up your stations in a large open space, have a timer at the ready and off you go. To get the full 60 minutes, remember to repeat the exercises in the afternoon, or wherever you feel fits best! I always used these at the start of the day, then again in the middle of the afternoon to re-energise the children after lunch.

Bag, throw, clap!

Ask the children to count how many claps they can make whilst throwing a bean bag in the air. This will test their hand-eye coordination and decision-making skills. Be careful not to let the bag drop!

Hula skip!

You might expect to hula with a hula hoop, but this challenge requires positional thinking and balance. For hula skipping, the children need to hold the hoop in front of them, step through with both legs and lift it past their body. Then ask them to count how many ‘skips’ they can do in one minute.

Wriggle wrists

Ask the children to place a quoit on their wrist and like a hula hoop, spin it round continuously. Count a point for every 5 seconds they keep it spinning without falling. For an extra challenge try two quoits at a time, one on each wrist, for double points!

Speedsters

For this quick and easy agility test set up two cones 3m apart. How many shuttles can the children run between the cones, counting each time they touch one. Remind them that when turning, they should keep their body low and push off with their back foot to develop core strength. 

Off the floor!

This task requires children to keep their ball off the floor. Using a racquet, ask them to hit a ball in the air and catch it with their free hand. For an extra test play ‘keepy up’, by bouncing the ball repeatedly on the racquet and receiving a point for each bounce. Just make sure it doesn’t land on the floor or all the points will be lost! Make it harder by progressing to a tennis ball from a play ball.

Skipping

A playground classic: using a skipping rope ask the children to count the number of skips they complete in a minute. For the reluctant skippers, allow them to Hula Skip to build confidence first.

Cross the river

In this paired challenge the children create their own paths across a room or hallway with a plotter and a walker. Once at the end, ask them to swap roles back across the river. Count and score however many times they successfully cross.

Bullseye

Another paired challenge: using balls and skittles (tall cones as an alternative) ask the children to create their own target range. One child is the thrower and other is the cleaner. Targets can be positioned on the floor or raised on a bench. Points are scored for every target hit and ask the children to swap roles after each round.

Mystery dice

My favourite of all, using large sponge dice assign your own exercises to the numbers. I like to set some rules to test the children, like if you roll a multiple of two do a star jump, for odd numbers do a sit up. To simplify, you could use the dice to signal how many of a chosen exercise they should do, like roll 5 and do 5 press ups. This can be completed independently, in pairs or even as a group!

As you continue to complete your routines, you may want to create your own! Don’t forget to tag Davies Sports on your social media so we can see your wonderful ways to keep fit and active at school.

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