INTEGRATED PE LESSONS
ACTIVITY: Space
LESSON: 1
GRADE: 1-4
INTEGRATED CONCEPT: What do you need to survive in space ?
EQUIPMENT: Cage Ball, playground or nerf balls
PROCEDURE: Introduction into the space unit:
What is the name of the solar system ? Milky Way
How many planets are there in our solar system ? 9
What's the name of our planet ? Earth
I ask them what 2 events occurred this past summer that happened in outer
space ?
1. The solar eclipse
2. The planet Jupiter being hit by a comet.
I have the students answer the question. If they are having a little
difficulty then you can give them some hints.
By using 2 students and the cage ball you can demonstrate how the earth
revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth. You can
demonstrate how the solar eclipse occurs by using the 2 students and the cage
ball.
The second part of the discussion will be on the comet hitting the planet
Jupiter. We discuss how a comet is made up of small meteors and that the one
that hit Jupiter was the first one that man has ever witnessed !
The class is divided into 2 groups. On one side of the gym is the green
comets and the other is the red comets (or whatever name they decide to
have). In the middle of the gym is the cage ball (Jupiter). the objective is
to move Jupiter ( cage ball) to a designated spot on the other teams side by
hitting it with the balls. No one is allowed to touch the cage ball with
their hands or any part of their body. The balls must be thrown. A player
can't hold onto a ball and push Jupiter, the ball must be released from their
hands. If a player touches the ball he/she is burned up by the hot planet and
sits out for a few minutes to cool off and then can return to the game.
POINTS TO CONSIDER: students must learn to work together and to constantly be
picking up balls and throwing them. A lot of students have a tendency to
throw a ball and then just watch. they also can use strategy such as rolling
a ball under Jupiter to stop it from gaining too much momentum.
VARIATIONS: you can add larger balls to show different size meteors such as
the slo-mo balls.
INTEGRATED PE LESSONS
ACTIVITY: Moon Rocks
LESSON: 2
GRADE: 1-4
INTEGRATED CONCEPT: What do you need to survive in space ?
EQUIPMENT: Balloons (enough for each pair of students to have their own, plus
some extras when the balloons break), foam hockey sticks or pillo polo sticks
PROCEDURE: The students are introduced to the "Moon Rock" unit by a short
discussion about gravity on the moon as opposed to it on earth. Discuss with
them about weightlessness in space and the reduced gravity on the moon.
Students are asked select a partner and go to the line and set up, one in
front of the other. Each pair has a balloon and are ready for the challenges:
1. They must bat the balloon across the gym and back and then give the rock
to their partner and he/she does the same. ( imagining that they are
collecting "hot rocks" and therefore can only bat them because they're so
hot)
2. They can only use 1 hand batting the balloons across the gym
3. Using the foam hockey sticks or pillo polo sticks, have the students bat
the balloons across the gym, like a robots arms picking up "moon rocks"
4. Using 2 hockey or polo sticks have students pick up the rocks and bring
them to the space ship
.
5. Partners - each person uses one stick and together pick up a "moon rock"
and bring it to the space ship.
INTEGRATED PE LESSON - Space
ACTIVITY: Space-shuttle Game
LESSON #: 4
GRADE LEVELS: 1-4
INTEGRATED CONCEPTS:
What do you need to survive in space?
EQUIPMENT:
Foam hockey sticks (pillo polo sticks or anything that you can use to handle
the balloons without using your hands), balloons (enough for each team to
have at least 2 turns), 4 tubes (any container to put the balls in), 4 large
cage balls or SloMo balls
PROCEDURE:
The introduction for this lesson is the space shuttle. You can discuss with
the student the different space shuttles that have gone into space and their
missions. When this lesson was being taught the space shuttle Discovery had
just landed. We talked about the shuttle and what its job was. We also had a
brief discussion about satellites. The student's interest really picked up
when I tied in the satellites with cable tv. The mission of the Discovery
was to fix some satellites and to collect space debris from meteors hitting
the satellites.
Divide the class into pairs ( Let them do this on their own If there's
an odd number then I will be their partner or I'll make one group have 3. )
The object of the game is to bring back all the space debris to the
shuttle container (tubes or trash barrel, hockey nets whatever you chose
for the collection container on the shuttle.
This can be accomplished by using the sticks to bat the balloons to the
shuttle.
When one partner finishes the next one takes the stick and retrieves
space debris (balloons).
Students are not allowed to use their hands in picking up the debris.
The next challenge will be to pick up the debris using 2 sticks.
When the tube or container is full you have to "Cap it" because it's
radioactive.
The group together, without using their hands, rolls a cage ball or
slo-mo ball to the tube or container and collectively tries to lift the big
ball into the waste container. When they finish they can go and help another
group that might be having trouble. All students should be involved in this
activity as each person will have only 1 stick.
POINTS TO CONSIDER:
Point out that the students have to work together to accomplish their goal.
It
is not a race and the idea is to properly do the task rather than quickly
finish.
VARIATIONS:
2 students can bring the balloons together to the waste tube. Each one
using 1 stick.
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