First Day of School Lesson Plan in Physical Education (2024)

What do you do on your First Week of School?

The first day is tough – you want to play some games, have some fun, but you know that you need to establishthe procedures and class expectationsas well.

How do you accomplish all of it and what kinds of activities do you plan?

Remember, this is a great opportunity for you to establish the DNA of your Phys Ed program and set up the culture of your classroom.

Remember the old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure“. I think about this every year before school begins and I think it rings true in our classrooms. The better you can setup your class culture at the beginning of the year, the easier it will be for you to avoid future problems and time wasted on management or behavioral issues. This translates into what we all want – more teaching time for us and activity time for our students.

Note that Kindergarten is a little different since most of them are brand new to school – Here are My Tips for Teaching Kindergarten

This is what I do with my 1st – 5th Grade students on their first day of Physical Education Class:

Let’s break down the first 2 weeks in PE below:

• Introductions – kids tell me about their summers, I tell them about mine. I meet any kids new to the school. I do this for about 5 minutes as soon as the kids walk in the door. I could wait, but I know they are dying to tell me about all of their summer trips, experiences and adventures – and honestly I love hearing about them. Your relationship with your students is what everything else is built on, so spend some time here first.
  • You couldcreate a slide presentation with some pictures/videos to show the kids some of the trips and adventures that you’ve been on over the summer to help them connect – kids love hearing about your personal life (this might be a good idea especially if you are new to the school)… just keep it short
    • Note: Feel free to use the presentation linked above, you’ll need to copy it to your Google Drive first. Do this by going to “File” – “Make a Copy” you can then edit the copy in your Google Drive. I can’t grant you access to edit it, since it’s the master copy 🙂
  • If you want to spend a little time on it you could also just create a quick 2-5 minute video to recap your summer for your students, I recommend checking out the App iMovie (Here’s a tutorial on how to use it). You can see an example video that I made below – although I used a program called Final Cut Pro – you could make something similar with iMovie along the same theme:
    • You could also just throw up a few pictures on a slideshow to show kids some adventures you went on or some pictures of your family to help them connect with you and learn a little bit about you

Normally I try and shoot for 2-3 minutes for a video, but the one below I had to give myself 5 minutes because I had too much fun stuff to share 😁

• Watch a Video (optional) about what we will learn this year or about the type of culture you want to create in your gym. I normally use my Summer Recap Video for this to talk about adventure and the purpose of my Phys Ed Program being to help kids build the Skills, Knowledge and Confidence they need to pursue any adventure they want for the rest of their life.
  • Create a video or slideshow showing students what activities they will be learning throughout the year
  • Show them Part One of this 3 part Physical Literacy Series (check it out if you haven’t seen it) – We will have a short discussion about the student’s thoughts on the video and them move on to the next activity.

• Go over the GYM RULES
  • Go over the 6 gymrules and consequences, talk about why they are important and ask students if they agree that they are fair, and make sure they don’t want to add any more or make any changes (Get them to buy-in).

My Management Overview and Rules Posters can be found here

• Mention and explain orange form to be filled out if students get injured, forget their tennis shoes or have to go to time out after a Strike 3.
• Practice an Instant Activity – throughout the year we do different Warmups and Instant Activitiesas soon as students walk into the gym, but our fall-back is always walking the short lines and jogging the long lines for 2 – 3 minutes with the music blasting.
  • Go over stopping signal “1,2,3 signal” before beginning activity and then practice Walking and Jogging for 1-2 minutes – use the “1,2,3 signal” and “music off” to freeze students (see the example video below)

• Go over Bathroom and Water Fountain Procedures
  • Go over all the rules quickly, explain rules if needed.
  • Summarize– When the music is on you can get water or use the bathroom, when the music is off, you need to be listening or lining up to leave the gym.

• Go over Emergency Procedures – Practice Lining Up for each drill quickly and quietly
  • Fire, Tornado/Earthquake, Code Red/Intruder Alert
• Go Over Daily Self Assessment (if there’s time)
  • Note: Usually if I’m short on time I’ll save this part of the lesson for the next week so we can have time for the game – you know we gotta get moving 🙂
  • Explain how the daily self assessment works and why we do it
  • It is part of our GATOR Goals (Our school’s Mission/Vision Acronym – the T = Take responsibility for what you say and do)

• Play a Game for the last 15-20 minutes – Noodle Dance Tag ,Adventure Bingo or The Crazy Cards Challenge Icebreaker Game
• Closure
  • Preview Week 2 – Review the Gym Rules and Talk about the Conflict Corner , Get Home Base Spots and learn about the Daily Self Assessment, before the team building activity (usually a super fun team building activity called Hula Hut Relays or learning how to play Four Square so kids will know how to play at recess)

That’s it. It’s definitely a full lesson and a lot to pack in, but I want to set expectations up front and lay the groundwork for a successful year. I try to help the students have fun by moving them around a lot, making jokes and getting their feedback on the routines and procedures that we have in place.

Also, since I’ve been at my school for 15+ years, most of the kids are familiar with the routines we have so I can move through the content pretty quickly. If you’re brand new to your school, you might want to break this lesson up into a 2 part lesson, since it will be the first time your students are being exposed to new routines/procedures/activities.

If you want to use the Google Slides that I use for my presentation on the first day you can copythem HERE:

You can also download a free printable first week of school lesson plan below:

A Couple of My Favorite First Week Games

Adventure Bingo

If we have time, one of my favorite First Week of School Games is “Adventure Bingo” – you can check out the video and also download it below if you’re interested.

The Crazy Cards Challenge

The crazy cards challenge is a super fun activity for any students that can read, I normally use it for 3rd grade and up. You can see an example of the game being played in the video below:

• You can see a more detailed breakdown of the game and get a link to purchase the cards on this post

P.S. If you’re interested in checking out all the Posters and Visuals I have up in my Gym you can find links to everything and a walkthrough of each poster here

Want to take a deep dive with us?

Check out our Q & A Show episode below on tips for the first week of school:

Show Notes and Links from the episode above available here

Week 2 of PE Class

During Week 2 I usually hit all the rest of the procedures and routines that we didn’t cover during week one and then we play a fun team building game

Free Yearly Plan Template

Now that you’ve got your first couple weeks ready to go, knock our the rest of your year too!

To see an example of how I plan my entire year of PE and download a sample yearly plan Click the Link Below

Take 15 Minutes and Plan Out an Entire Year of PE Class

What do you do differently for your first week of school?

If you have some good ideas leave them in the comments. Have a great first week!