Whats up Phys Ed Friends!
Today I want to share with you some tips on how to teach skills by using station activities in your PE Class.
Station activities are a great strategy to allow your kids to get a lot of practice time with whatever skill you are working on. It’s really a fun way to engage your class and it’s easy to set up as well. I’ve found station activities to be one of the best ways to build the fundamental skills especially for Kindergarten and First Grade students. That’s why for younger students, I set up stations really frequently so they can get a lot of practice.
So why use Station Activities as a Teaching Strategy?
- Not only that your kids will have fun doing them, but it is also a great way to review the previous content that you’ve taught.
- As a practical example, after the first four units of the year, you could plan a day when you’ll just have activity stations set up. You can set up two stations for each unit. So if your first 4 units of instruction were Soccer, Basketball, Striking with Implements, and a Fitness Unit, you could have 8 stations set up with 2 station activities focused on each of the 4 units you’ve already taught. As your kids practice the station activities, they will get a review on how it is done and it will be a refresher.
- Don’t know what the next 4 units you’re teaching are? Check out our post on How to Plan a Year of PE in 15 Minutes
- Stations are a great tool to allow you to do assessments of your students skills. While students are rotating around to different stations, you can assess students skills at one of the stations making it much more manageable than trying to assess an entire class at once.
- Looking for assessment ideas? Check out The Locomotor License Test or Our Basketball Dribbling Cues Assessment
- Looking for assessment ideas? Check out The Locomotor License Test or Our Basketball Dribbling Cues Assessment
- Don’t know what the next 4 units you plan on teaching? Check out our post on How to Plan a Year of PE in 15 Minutes and our Scope and Sequence Podcast to get a plan squared away for the rest of the year.
- Since you’re spending less time with direct instruction of the class, stations allow for more one on one time for you to give feedback to students or do quick assessments (like the basketball cues assessment linked above).
- Stations also allow you to expose kiddos to equipment you have, but don’t have a full class set. For example, if you don’t have enough equipment for an entire class, you can allow students to get more practice time by splitting up your classes into smaller groups and letting them each have a piece of equipment at that station. (I do this with my Spooner Boards since I only have 6 of them, My Balance Boards and also my rock wall, monkey bars and climbing ropes see below for an example)
- Most importantly, station activities give students freedom, autonomy, choice and independent practice time which is super motivating for students and will also transfer to time spent being active outside of PE class. The ultimate goal of PE is to transfer to an active lifestyle – so helping students learn to do things on their own is an important aspect of Physical Education (this is one reason why The Conflict Corner is such an important part of my program as it helps students take responsibility for their actions and helps them learn to resolve their own conflicts).
- Also stations are perfect for younger students who don’t have the skills or knowledge to play complex games yet. They just need to practice the skills in order to improve their abilities. Station activities allow them to challenge themselves and get lots of practice time which is perfect for K-1st students (more tips on teaching Kindergarten here).
A few recommendations for setting up your stations
The idea is for your class to rotate in different stations after practicing a skill or activity required in that station. You can set up many stations as you like and put up skills that you’ve previously covered in your lessons or allow students to try a skill out for the first time as a station activity.
- Use good music in class. Music is a great management tool that you should use in class. The music serves a signal for the class to know when they should be moving and when it’s time to rotate. When the music is playing, it means the kids should be moving or practicing skills in the station. When the music stops, it means that kids need to clean up their stations, stand by their station sign and point to their next station.
- Use numbered cones. This works like a miracle. What I do is I print numbers and duct tape them to the cones. With the cones numbered, my kids can easily follow where to rotate next. It is important to know where your students are rotating to, especially in a large group. The numbers make it easier and more manageable.
- Use station signs. I love placing my station signs in dry erase slips or taping them on a wall or on a cone at each station so students will have a clear expectation of what they should be doing at that station. Station signs are illustrations of the skill with directions that are printed out on a paper. To help with organization I like to color code my station signs a different color for each unit of instruction, also laminate them if possible so they last forever. The signs are less helpful with K-1 students who struggle with reading, but for older elementary students, I’ve found them to be a great way to keep kids on task and help them understand what to do.
- Give students multiple choices. Many times I place a few different activity options at one station and allow my students to choose what activity they are most interested in. You can also provide different levels of difficulty at one station and allow students to move up as they progress in the skill – Check out this Frisbee Stations Lesson for an Example.
Providing student choice and options to move to a more challenging task helps boost engagement and makes it more fun for your students. In my experience a great general rule is …
More student choice = More engagement and less off task behavior
- For automated rotating stations, you can use an app like Interval Timer Pro (which is what I also use for doing station workouts). This app allows you to program how long you want your stations to last and the break time in between to give students time to clean up and rotate.
- For Scooter Stations – go over Scooter Safety and the proper use of the Hand Guards!
That’s it for my tips on how to use station activities when teaching Physical Education!
To get you started – you can download our Free 15 Activity Station Signs below:
If you’re ready to join the Station Nation and want to check out all of our more specific station signs, they are available to members inside our Membership Program or you can check out any of the links below to purchase them separately:
- Striking With Implements Station Activity Signs
- Frisbee Throwing Station Signs
- Basketball Station Activity Signs
- Throwing and Catching Station Signs
- Christmas Activity Station Signs
- Soccer Skills Stations
- Exercise and One Page Workout Station Signs
- Gymnastics Station Signs
- Halloween Themed Activity Station Signs
- Jump Rope Station Signs
N McClay says
Implementing station activities in PE is a game-changer and we use it lots! This approach not only keeps students active and engaged but also allows for personalized learning experiences, fostering a dynamic and inclusive environment where everyone can thrive. Kudos for highlighting such an effective teaching strategy and thanks for the tips and resources!
Marcus says
So true!
Thanks for sharing your great tips!
Tyquan Cobbin says
Good morning! I am interested in creating an obstacle course for my K-6 gym class. I also wanted to know do you teach health? My prinicipal is having me do health 2 weeks and then gym 2 weeks each month. I am having a little hard time finding things for the Kindergarten class. I was wondering if you could provide some help with that. I want to order equipment for the gym as well and wondered if you had a list or any good sites to purchase gym equioment for teachers. Thank you so much you have been an amazing help for me!
Marcus says
Hey Tyquan,
Thanks for reaching out!
Check out the message below from Ben on Health:
I don’t teach health specifically, although we do try to incorporate Health concepts into all of the activities that we do – especially our Fitness Unit, which you can check out below:
https://www.thepespecialist.com/fitnessgram/
Sometimes the schedule works out to give me a random class coming twice a week for an extra PE class, if that’s the case I do a little health integration with them, which I’ve blogged about at the link below:
https://www.thepespecialist.com/health/
If you want more content, I haven’t used the resource below personally, but have seen it recommended by other PE teachers, so it might be worth checking out:
https://3rs.org/3rs-curriculum/3rs-curric-search
You can find all my recommended equipment and technology tools at the link below:
http://thepespecialist.com/amazon
We also use companies like Gopher, S&S Worldwide, and School Speciality for equipment needs!
Hope that’s helpful!
Carole says
Once again Ben thank you and your Co-Teachers for sharing and reflecting. Greatly appreciated.
Marcus says
You’re welcome Carole! Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
Cora says
Thanks for the reply! Your site and resources have been really helpful to me, thank you 🙂
Marcus says
You’re welcome Cora!
Glad the resources have been helpful!
Cora says
Hi! For a group of 30+ kindergarteners and TK students, how do you assign stations? Do you allow them to choose and then visit each one on their own time? For older students I use colored wristbands to form groups, but I feel that this would be a confusing waste of time with the little ones. I can barely get them to all stand in one place let alone divide into multiple groups.
Marcus says
Hey Cora!
Thanks for reaching out!
We assign students to a station in many different ways:
1. Give them a number based on the number of stations
2. Color – are stations are usually in a colored four square court, so we divide them up by station color
3. Gender – we assign stations sometimes by their gender, especially when it’s a double class. “Boys in class A going to station 1…”
We rarely let them choose their stations…
They sit while we explain the stations then we send them to an assigned station.
We keep students at a station while the music is playing. When the music stops, they clean up the station, and then we rotate them to the next station. Helps to keep the class organized.
Hope this helps!
Michelle Mumford says
So, I have been trying to make a Thunder stick and I am struggling to get it to work. What I need are the measurements for the stick and length of rope. Any help would be appreciated:)
Thanks for all your awesome tips.
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Michelle,
Thanks for reaching out! I’ve attached a link to a twirl and jump set it has measurements at the bottom you can use:
https://www.amazon.com/Champion-Sports-Twirl-Jump-Set/dp/B000KA4PA6/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&linkCode=sl1&tag=wwwthepespeci-20&linkId=e3761ece466f518c10fb4626aeba9ba4
Hope this gives you an idea of what to look for!
Coach S says
What do you use to attach your dry erase slips to the cone?
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Coach S!
We just tie some string to the dry erase slips and cone. If your cone is split at the top, you could slide the string in the split for a more secure hold.
Hope this helps!
Ellen Meixsell says
Awesome ! Do you have a jump rope station to be used for Jump Rope for Heart. I have put together something but curious if you might have one also. I teach prek4-8 Thank you, Ellen Meixell
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Ellen,
Below you will find a link to how we used to do Jump Rope for Heart.
https://www.thepespecialist.com/jrfh/
It explains all we did to set up for the event. Hope this helps!
Susan Gonzalez says
Hello PE Specialist! Thanks for this website with some very useful information. I am new to teaching classroom game time to 4th and 5th grade students while their classroom teachers are having their preparation time two times a week for 50 minutes. We are not calling it PE but the teachers probably will be signing off that time as required PE minutes. Anyways, once a week I like to do stations but I am running into the challenge of keeping the students to stay at the assigned stations. There are several of them in a class that want to join their friends at the stations and leave the area they have been initially assigned to. So at one time I might have 8-10 students practicing making hoops and only 3 at the hoola hoop and jump rope station. What do you suggest to hold them accountable to being at the correct stations? Thanks so much for your assistance in advance! Take care and bye for now.
Ben Landers says
Hey Susan, when kids don’t follow the expectations I have a 3 strike rule for expectations and consequences. You can see my rules/consequences here: https://www.thepespecialist.com/firstweek/
So to answer your question – provide clear expectations and then give consistent consequences
Melissa McCormick says
Can you link to the cones you use to hang your station signs on? Thanks!
Ben Landers says
We have a ton of various cones that I use, can’t remember where I got them. I’d just measure how high you want and do a search – I have 4 giant cones about 36″and a ton of mid sized ones (about 24″) and then a bunch of smaller ones 12″ that are too small to hang a sign from.