Kindergarten PE Blueprint for Success

What's up PE Nation!

Don't let kindergarten scare you!

Teaching kindergarten PE requires a thoughtful approach centered on structure, simplicity, positive reinforcement, basic games, and genuine enjoyment. When these five elements come together, kindergarten classes transform from potentially chaotic experiences into joyful learning environments where young students thrive.

• Structure forms the foundation for kindergarten success
• Students need consistent routines and expectations
• Keep instructions simple 
• Praise specific positive behaviors 
• Use tangible rewards 
• Stick to basic games 
• Have fun!

Take care and happy teaching!

Dave

Check out supersizedphysed.com for more resources, including free PDFs, articles, and courses to help with your kindergarten PE program. Please leave a review to help grow this podcast and keep pushing our profession forward.

-Team Building Games Ebook (with preview): https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Team-Building-Games-and-Activities-for-PE-Class-14063095

-Kindergarten PE Kickoff Guide: article

-Free resources include Substack and Medium articles with PE tips, games, and strategies

-A free video course on the "PE-9": principles for improving your PE program

-High Fives and Empowering Lives  book available as an ebook or paperback

-Paperback or download: HERE

-Amazon Ebook: HERE

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Kindergarten PE
• 1:47 Structure: Foundation for Kindergarten Success
• 5:53 Keep It Simple: One Step at a Time
• 7:02 Praise and Reward Positive Behavior
• 9:59 Stick to Basic Games and Activities
• 14:15 Have Fun and Enjoy Teaching Kindergarten
• 15:21 Cowbell Tip and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

Hello and welcome to the Super Size Fizzhead podcast. My name is Dave, and today let's talk kindergarten. It doesn't have to be a scary word. Kindergarten can be the best thing ever. So, without further ado, here we go. Welcome in PE Nation.

Speaker 1: 0:41

I am recording this outside again, so I apologize if you hear my dog squeaking a ball or you hear the raindrops, please, it just, I think, stopped raining. So my goal, as always, though, is to get out content as best I can to you weekly and do the best I can to spread good PE practices, and kindergarten is no different. Let's talk kindergarten First of all. I love teaching kindergarten. The little ones entering your PE classroom or class for the first time is just an amazing experience. Just seeing those happy faces come into your class for the first time. It's a great experience for them and for you. And, yeah, I know some are worried, some are excited. Most of them have to use the bathroom right away, but they're all curious to see what PE is about, so let's give them what they deserve. Let's have a great school year in kindergarten, and I want to tell you how in my five-step process here. So let's make this a boomer. Here we go.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Before I begin with number one I do want to say last year in kindergarten was the toughest year I've ever had in kindergarten. It was just it was not good and the students just they had a hard time listening and focusing and it was just really difficult. I don't know how else to say it, but I do think, and it goes along with number one, what I'm going to talk about in a moment. I think it's the first time we've ever had them, at least at my current school, in the afternoon and we had them in the hottest part of the day because we're outside. We had them in the, like I said, in the afternoon after lunch. It was like basically nap time for them. They were like done, they were done for the day and they had a hard time with the heat. They had a hard time with just we're inside a lot because the heat index and the rain kept us inside quite a bit in the beginning of the school year. It's how Florida is. It's just unpredictable with the weather school year. It's how Florida is. It's just unpredictable with the weather. So we didn't have.

Speaker 1: 2:47

What I'm about to say, which is number one, is structure, structure, structure. They didn't have that. We started the school year. You know, in the media center, sometimes we're in their classroom, sometimes we weren't under the pavilion as much as we should have been, or I hoped we could have been, and they didn't get the structure they needed and the consistency with being a PE under our pavilion, on their dots and so forth.

Speaker 1: 3:13

So structure is what's most important in teaching any grade level, but especially for kindergarten. And you know, without structure there's no learning, it's just chaos, and I just can't. I can't do chaos. I'm not saying be a tyrant, though. Structure doesn't mean strict, it's just chaos and I just can't, I can't do chaos. I'm not saying be a tyrant, though. Structure doesn't mean strict. It means you know law and order and kids crave structure, they need it and they deserve it, especially for our younger children who are coming into a new, sometimes frightening situation. They need to know they're in a safe, orderly environment. There's rules, there's procedures, expectations, and those are the most important things to cover in the first two weeks of the school year and then continually practice throughout the year.

Speaker 1: 3:55

And I want to go over some things that we cover the first two weeks of school really the first week but just slowly get these down and make sure we have these. So here's what we cover. So first thing is how we enter the pavilion. They wait at a certain spot for us and then we come get them and they go to their dots. Actually, they put their water bottles in a hoop that matches their color of their line. How we sit on their dots or how they sit on their dots, how we signal for a bathroom or drink break and the bathroom and drink procedures. As far as teaching them how to, you know, lock the door and knock and make sure nobody's in there and clean up after themselves, things like that. How to get a drink from the water fountain, how to put their water bottles there and to fill it back up, those type of things.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Also, how the coaches get their attention, that's a big thing, that's almost right away and it's a whole nother podcast, so I'm not going into that right now. But attention grabbers, how we warm up with a song or music mix and we take it real simple at first. How we interact with our partners so you know, just talking to our shoulder partner or stand up, hand up, pair up Now we don't do that right away, but within the first couple of weeks how we travel from place to place. So that means you know, station to station or from the pavilion to the field or pavilion to the basketball court. Now again, we don't do that right away, that's probably week two, but it's definitely things we cover. What happens if there's a fire drill or a lockdown drill, and where do we go and how do we act and how do we end class? We usually end them on their dots. We do a thing where the boys and girls do a great job, we get to roll the dice, and kindergarten is just for fun. For the older boys and girls it's for points for like a free day or something like that. So those are some of the details we cover, and then there's more, but those are the main ones we cover the first two weeks of school.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Number two is keep it simple, and I've made this mistake many times. Students, especially our kindergarten students, need one at the most three I say one, two or three step directions at the most. They need to be able to process a little bit of time and then add slowly to it. So when we add games and things it should be like one step at a time, one level at a time. Here's how we walk and then next time. Here's how we follow the line I guess I'm just thinking of Pac-Man or something and then we add you know how do we tag? And then what do we do if we get tagged? And then we just slowly, slowly, slowly. So we make simple happen in PE class by repeating instructions. Often we rehearse and reinforce directions. We begin with basic games for the first few weeks and then add as we go, even add levels as we go, and we review concepts from the previous class. This is a constant for kindergarten. We have to keep things simple, right, k-i-s-s. Keep it simple, stupid. Yes, always, always, always simplify. And that is number two.

Speaker 1: 7:02

Number three is praise and reward positive behavior. And it sounds simple, I know, but this step is often overlooked. If we want our students to repeat positive behavior, we must use praise and positive rewards, and that's like a brain tattoo right there. I mean, we really need to do that and I forget sometimes. There's so many kids in my kindergarten class. There's, I mean, around a hundred, and I used to have more in my former school, but you know I had also another para. Right now I have myself and two paras and about maybe it's not a hundred, but somewhere in that 90 to a hundred range and sometimes I forget to just reward, because it just there's a lot of kids and you can't reward them all and so why bother rewarding any of them? And that's not. That's not true and I really don't feel that way, but sometimes maybe I'm. I get a little bit like oh, I gotta get this done, I gotta get this done, I gotta start the music. I just slow down and look for people boys and girls doing a great job and reward them.

Speaker 1: 8:02

It doesn't have to be a physical token, but we do have those in our school. They're called bear paws and each teacher carries them in their pocket or whatever and gives them to students doing a great job or being helpful in some way. So in PE class we give these out like candy on Halloween. For the first couple weeks we give them to every student sitting nicely listening to final directions, being helpful, just doing what we are doing. If I'm doing like a freeze dance or something, they're matching me. You know, giving out these bear paws and reinforcing what we want to see and hear in our program and that makes it just successful for everybody, especially for you, but definitely for a kindergarten that needs that tangible token of appreciation.

Speaker 1: 8:47

And yes, praise goes a long way. Of course, verbally, telling a student they did an amazing job brings them joy and repeatability. You want to keep them going. Just make sure when you praise or give a tangible item, they know specifically why they received it. And this is hard. I'm not great at this. But instead of just being like hey, great job, it should be great job sitting correctly and listening to the teacher, or great job throwing the ball to your partner, instead of awesome, say, that was awesome how you remembered the rules of our class. I really appreciate that, and that goes for kindergarten, all the way through well being an adult. So, definitely, specific praise and you know I'm not always the best at specific praise because it feels like, oh man, it takes forever to be specific. But do the best you can and that's my goal, to get better at it. And don't forget about high fives and fist bumps. Just, you know, go around, greet your students. You see them around school. High fives, fist bumps, just saying hi, that can make a child's day. So definitely, definitely, definitely praise and reward positive behavior.

Speaker 1: 9:59

Number four is stick to basic games. So in the beginning of the year we repeat and rehearse basic skills and games just for a long time. And you know, like I said, we're outside. It's just very important to our program to be ready for anything that comes our way, and especially a backup game or inside activity that, just at a moment's notice, all of a sudden lightning's in the area. We have to unsign things like that. This is true for teachers that have a gym as well and I envy you, by the way but especially for outdoor teachers like myself. Kindergarten students want to learn and have fun. Sitting around isn't fun, so make the most of your movement in the class.

Speaker 1: 10:39

So here's how we keep games simple. First of all, we do a lot of games with basic locomotive movements. We practice moving on the pavilion to music. We, you know, can walk, skip if they can. That's kind of a little upper level thing there Sliding, hopping, galloping, if they can. But just do simple things, like you know. Hey, let's be airplanes and walk around the pavilion, let's drive, pretend like you're driving a car, let's take giant steps and baby steps and even do like the cha-cha slide Is there hopping and clapping and anything I can think of to just keep it simple and to do the basic movements. We do them, and that's the first thing. Again, just keep everything simple, simple songs.

Speaker 1: 11:22

Songs I play a lot, I just repeat them and I choreograph them, just with simple dance and exercise moves. I'm not Justin Timberlake, although I sometimes feel like I should be in a different life or something. Not really. We play them a lot and then we slowly expand our list of songs. I'd say basic games, like I said, short and sweet games, very few rules. We rehearse them a lot. Some of them are musical hoops, rollout, pac-man, freeze dance, just learning boundaries, and simple tag games with noodles, and I will link some of these, by the way, in the show notes so you can get a feel for what I'm talking about. I just that's.

Speaker 1: 12:04

These are some of these are for like another podcast, completely so. Another one is number and color recognition. Our dots have numbers and colors. Each student is assigned a well, definitely a number, and then I usually keep kindergarten on the same colors each time. So even if I have uh, three or four classes coming in, they have their own colors all the time and numbers and I call them. These are their home dots. We play games where they travel around the pavilion until the music stops. Then they have to find their home dot and sit down in a timely fashion, things like that, where they just try to remember their numbers. And, by the way, they have a hard time with numbers and colors right now. So I'd say the final one for this one is number and letter recognition. So we just talked about number and color, but also number and letter. So I've written grants for what's called brain balls, if you've seen them online, and again, I have an article which I'll put in the show notes so you can see some of these things. They're small basketballs with letters and numbers on them, so we practice rolling and bouncing balls by themselves and with a partner.

Speaker 1: 13:12

The literacy aspect of our PE program is very important to our school, and working on just the letters, colors, numbers, recognition, all that stuff is very important and sometimes I think or feel like they oh, they got this Kindergarten. They know their letters, they know their numbers. I mean maybe, but we just played the other day, honestly, and we have some work to do. They had to say a word that begins with their letter on their ball and one of the girls had it wasn't just her, it was a few people. She had the letter C. I'm like, oh, what does C stand for? She goes Seagull and she was very happy and proud about it. I'm like, oh well, no, but okay, let's try, maybe cat. So they definitely struggle with that, not everybody. But you know, not all kindergartners come in with, you know, pre-k experience or just you know they just need a little help. So work on that with them.

Speaker 1: 14:05

And so the bottom line for number four is stick to the basics, right? Number five, and the best one, is have fun. After you put all this work in, you have a well-oiled machine or you know, sort of. I guess fun is the most important aspect of kindergarten. If you're not having fun wearing gym clothes and playing games with children, you really need to find another career. I mean, we have the best job ever and it's not easy all the time and, trust me, I'm sometimes. I get really, you know, not happy. Look upset and things aren't always perfect, they're not. But I mean, come on, I wear tennis shoes and gym shorts and a dry, fit shirt every day to work. I mean, who else can do that? And I have fun and I play games. It's awesome. So you know, just seeing the smiles giving high fives, encouraging our little ones to achieve their highest potential is what it's all about.

Speaker 1: 14:59

Kindergarteners love their teachers and you can make their day. They love PE class the most, even. But you've got to make it fun and have fun. That's what it's all about. Be silly, play fun games, smile every single day and have fun single day and have fun. And now it's time for your cowbell tip of the day.

Speaker 1: 15:35

All right, so your tip of the day is to just enjoy kindergarten. It's the best. I mean, really, if you put these things in place, things can go wrong, but if you put the structure in place, you put all this in place and you're having fun. Just enjoy kindergarten. It's not always easy. Like I said, last year it was very, very difficult. It was the absolute most challenging kindergarten I've ever had. It was very, very difficult. It was the absolute most challenging kindergarten I've ever had. And then this year, as first graders, they're much better. They, you know, just watching them see. You know, grow and learn and achieve and smile. You know that's the best reward for us. So it's not always easy teaching kindergarten, but it's amazing. And you know I just want you to have fun teaching kindergarten and I put some different resources in these show notes to check out.

Speaker 1: 16:17

To help you with that, some free things, some PDFs, all that stuff and, of course, the article that I've been talking about. So that is your cowbell tip of the day. Thank you everybody for tuning in today. I really do appreciate it. As always, go to supersizefizcom for more information and to check out everything I talk about in these podcasts, my courses, pdfs, my book, just all the stuff, the freebies, everything, the articles, everything is at supersizefizcom and a bunch of them are in the show notes at your convenience. If you want to check those out and definitely leave a hopefully five-star review, it'll take you 3.5 seconds I didn't really count that out, but something like that just to leave a review. That'd be awesome to help grow the podcast. So have a great day, week, weekend, pe Nation. You guys and girls are awesome and let's keep pushing our profession forward. Thank you.