Promoting heart health is something physical educators can be doing year round, but February is dedicated to highlighting and promoting the importance of heart health. Check out these 4 ideas for PE activities to get student hearts pumping and active!
4 Fun PE Activities for Heart Health Month
4-Corner Hoopla
All you need is some space, 4 hoops, and a beanbag for each student. Create 4 student groups and have each group stand with a hoop in each corner of the space with all the group’s bean bags inside the hoop. Teams will take turns walking to another team’s hoop and taking a bean bag. The team with the most beanbags scores a point!
Interval Running Deck
For this heart healthy activity, you’ll need a deck of cards and a cone for every 10 players. Using the cones to create a starting line, scatter the playing cards face down approximately 30 paces from the starting line. Pair up students and on the signal, students take turns running to grab a card and returning to the starting line. While their partner grabs the next card, the waiting player does jumping jacks (or other selected exercise). The goal is to collect 5 cards, and the pair with the highest total wins the round.
Heart and Soul
This simple activity helps students to learn about measuring their heart rate and how to remain within the Aerobic Zone, for an extended period of time. Give each student a heart rate monitor and set up a place to record heart rate readings. Turn on some music and have students begin to move around the room in an effort to increase their heart rate to Zone 3. Every 5 minutes, pause the music to record each person’s heart rate.
Heart Tracker
To get this activity moving, you’ll need 4-8 cones to create a track, 1 deck of playing cards per 10 students, and a heart rate monitor for each student. Create an oval track with the cones and have students in groups of 3-5 spread out around the track. Stand on one side and ask students to begin moving around the track. As each student passes, give them a card, continuing for 2-3 minutes. The goal is to collect as many cards as possible in the time limit and maintain an aerobic heart rate. Different cards earn different points, and the student with the most points wins!
More PE Activities and Inspiration Online
If you’re looking for more ideas for heart healthy activities check out the Schoolyard’s Physical Education category. For supplies to put these activities together, School Specialty has PE and sports products available at our online store.
