For thousands of years, children have been jumping rope as a form of movement-based fun. This module reinforces basic rope jumping skills and then progresses from that point to include a variety of tricks, challenges, long rope jumping, and cooperative routines.

Jump rope participation provides valuable physical activity experiences for students that provide a relevant context for a variety of fitness-related lessons.

Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing sports in the United States. Interestingly, it’s also one of the oldest, with evidence of its origins dating back to 1100 AD. The current version of the game is a combination of the variations played by the people native to North America (Canada and the US) with European influences. This module was created as an introduction to the sport with a focus on basic ballcontrol skills (cradling, scooping, catching, and throwing).

This module includes activities that are designed to develop and reinforce several locomotor and manipulative skills. All of the basic locomotor skills, static and dynamic balancing, as well as underhand tossing, rolling, and catching are addressed. Other learning outcomes are also addressed within the module’s activities.

Since 2009, the Ninja Warrior obstacle course movement has been broadcast into American living rooms. However, this movement began in Japan in 1997 with Ninja Warrior Sasuke Rising. On average, over 5 million American viewers tune in to each episode of American Ninja Warrior and the show has inspired many people to embrace a fitness lifestyle. Physical educators can use this excitement and inspiration to engage students in meaningful movement and fitness lessons.

This module is designed to enhance your Kids Heart Challenge program implementation.

This set of learning activities was created to generate interest and enthusiasm for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Each activity can be blended into your current block plan, or the module can be done as a whole. The authors placed focused effort on creating a large set of academic language cards for teachers to utilize throughout the Olympic Games.

Parachute activities are among the most memorable physical education experiences of a young child’s life. Just seeing the ‘chute creates excitement and joy for most students. It is also an important opportunity to reinforce critical personal responsibility skills, as well as introduce movement concepts and early muscular anatomy.

The Paralympic Games were designed to emphasize the participants’ athletic achievements and not their disabilities. The Paralympic movement began with a small gathering of British World War II veterans in 1948. Today, the Paralympics host thousands of competitors from over 100 countries and is one of the largest international sporting events in the world. This module was designed to introduce all students to the Paralympic spirit.

This module includes activities that are designed to develop and reinforce several personal and social skills associated with responsible behavior. Safety, cooperation, interpersonal behavior, receiving and providing feedback, praising and accepting others, as well as following the etiquette of activity settings are the main skills emphasized. However, a variety of other learning outcomes are also addressed within the module’s activities.

This module includes activities that are designed to develop and reinforce several personal and social skills associated with responsible behavior. Safety, working independently, following directions and rules, as well as sharing space and equipment are the primary skills emphasized. However, a variety of other learning outcomes are also addressed within the module’s activities.

Striking an object with a short-handled implement has never been this fun! This module provides a developmentally appropriate lead-up to net games like pickleball and badminton. Implement this module in full with more skilled students. Or, remove the 1V1/2V2 activities and focus on the basics.

This module was designed to prepare students both physically and cognitively to maximize their understanding of and performance on fitness tests. While each activity will help to build muscular fitness, enhance aerobic capacity, and improve flexibility, the use of the module’s academic language cards and depth of knowledge (DOK) debrief questions will enhance student understanding of critical fitness concepts.

Our partners at FITNESSGRAM® identify instruction about activity and fitness concepts as the first step in the fitness education process. OPEN’s Plug & Play Fitness activities are designed to facilitate that instruction through vigorous activities that can be done as instant activities throughout the entire school year. The authors recommend that you build these activities into your instructional routine with at least one Plug & Play activity integrated into every instructional block plan.

Our partners at FITNESSGRAM® identify instruction about activity and fitness concepts as the first step in the fitness education process. OPEN’s Plug & Play Fitness activities are designed to facilitate that instruction through vigorous activities that can be done throughout the entire school year. The authors recommend that you build these activities into your instructional routine with at least one Plug & Play activity integrated into every instructional block plan.

Skillastics® Basketball is a large group physical activity resource designed to maximize activity and participation for both small and large groups. This module expands your activity options using all of the tools that come with your Skillastics®Basketball game set while also adding all of the rigorous tools found in OPEN curriculum modules.

Harvard Medical School has labeled Tai Chi as a low-impact, lifetime exercise with evidence-based benefits. This ancient Chinese martial art has been shown to help decrease stress while helping the body maintain strength, flexibility, and balance in all stages of life.

This short module allows you to introduce Tai Chi at any time during the school year with the goal of creating a warm-up and/or cool-down activity that will have a lasting impact on your students.

Ultimate is a noncontact invasion sport played with a flying disc. The sport was created in the 1960s by a group of high school students in New Jersey before spreading throughout North America — and the world. By 2010, there were over 5 million players in the United States alone.

One of the core concepts born within the Ultimate community is that of the Spirit of the Game (SOTG). From its inception until today, Ultimate has relied on self-officiating in order to make the game accessible in all communities. Self-officiating relies on SOTG as an overarching concept of sportsmanship and responsibility. Here’s an expert from the Official Rules of Ultimate: 11th Edition:

“Spirit of the Game: Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed-upon rules, or the basic joy of play.”

Physical educators know and understand the need to get students active and engaged as soon as they enter the PE classroom. This collection of instant activities serves to help teachers get students moving quickly, while also providing meaningful learning tasks designed to work toward grade-level outcomes.

Each activity in this collection focuses on one standard and one strand of outcomes, typically fitness knowledge with an emphasis on nutrition. The activity plan has been simplified to keep instruction concise yet effective, planting seeds of awareness that will grow throughout the entire school year.

Pickleball was a sport created for all ages and skill levels. It combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong into a fun court game that is easy for beginners to learn and challenging enough for competitive play.

The history of pickleball is somewhat debated. However, all agree that it was created by Joel Pritchard, Bill Bell, and Barney McCallum in 1965 as a way to cure their children’s boredom while keeping them physically active. The debate is really over why it’s called pickleball. Our favorite theory is that the Pritchards had a dog named Pickles. Pickles loved watching the children play the game and would join in by stealing and running off with the ball. So, why not call it pickleball?

This module was started as a response to the 2017 hurricanes that impacted the physical education programs in Florida, Houston, and many other communities. The OPEN National Training Team wanted to provide some support to our colleagues who were struggling to maintain the quality of their programs. Our needs assessment let us know that equipment inventories had been ruined or lost, classes were displaced, and planning periods needed to be used for recovery efforts.

Every student can benefit from mindful movement and mental stillness. OPEN’s Yoga and Mindfulness module is designed to help your students experience the benefits of mindful practice and help them incorporate stress-reduction techniques into their every day lives.

Every year, right around the holiday season, students start to fall into a frenzy of excitement, forget their impulse control basics, and can use a little physical education etiquette reminder. This winter-themed instant activity module was designed just for that. We’ve created 8 fun and engaging instant activities with social and emotional learning academic language posters focused on the CASEL SEL competencies. Each academic language word are reinforce in a new SEL Vocabular Journal modeled after the journal charts described in Marine Freibrun’s example in her blog post – 5 Tips for Teaching Academic Language (https://minds-in-bloom.com/5-tips-for-teaching-academic-language/).