Leaping Leprechauns - Fun P.E. Warm-Up Game for St. Patrick's Day

For a printable version, please click on "Leaping Leprechauns".  Pics and Videos of this game are below.

Leaping Leprechauns

By:  Carly Glanzman

Equipment Needed:
4 cones, preferably numbered 1-4
4 Buckets or boxes
30 paper shamrocks or gold coins.  May also use beanbags, small balls, etc.
Items to leap over such as hurdles, jump ropes, poly spots, etc.

Skills:
Leaping
Following Directions

Description of Activity:
Tell students they are pretending to be leprechauns who have to LEAP through the forest to find treasures (shamrocks, gold, etc.)

Four mini-obstacle courses are set up for students to go through.  After completing a course, the student collects a treasure (shamrock or other item) from the bucket at the end of the course, then they will run to the opposite end of the gym, drop treasure in the empty bucket, and choose another obstacle course to go through.  Continue playing until all of the treasures are collected.   

Set-Up:
On one end of the gym, place 4 cones on the endline.  The cones mark the beginning of each obstacle course.  Divide students equally behind each cone to begin.  After they complete the course in their line, they may get in any other line and continue playing.  

For each line, set up hurdles or other obstacles for students to leap over, going all the way to the opposite end of the gym.  

Place 2 buckets filled with shamrocks (or other treasures) in the two corners at the end of the gym at the end of the obstacles.  Place two empty buckets at the corners of the gym where the start of the obstacles are.  After completing a course, students run to the corner, take a shamrock, and run down the SIDELINE of the gym (so they do not interfere with students who are doing the obstacle courses).  They put their shamrock in the empty bucket.  Then the student chooses another line to join.  (make each obstacle course slightly different for a variety).  

Notes:
The empty buckets could be placed by the wall in the corner with a rainbow taped on the wall (like it’s a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow).  

Remind students to collect their shamrock after completing a course, and run down the SIDELINE begin a new obstacle.  

For motivation to complete courses, tell students they can keep track in their heads how many shamrocks they get.  

For more P.E. Games visit my web page at http://carlyspegames.weebly.com!



Videos of my student teacher, Mr.Gietzen, teaching this game to Kindergarten:

Video of 2nd graders:

Pictures of Set-Up Ideas:

"Stepping Stones" to balance on.

To begin, students line up behind a cone.

Cones for running though (zig zag), poly spots for hop scotch,and bowling pins for leaping over.

Hurdles, agility ladder, bowling pin to leap over.

Tunnel to crawl through, hurdle and foam pins to leap over.

Elementary P.E.- Tripods and Headstands

Activities the students have been working on since our last update:
1) Leaping Leprechauns Warm-Up Game
2) Tumbling (Somersaults, Log and Pencil Rolls, and tripods, headstands and cartwheels for 2nd grade)
3) All students are participating in basketball activities for the month of March.

See pictures and videos below!
Second grade students finished up their tumbling unit with tripods and headstands.  We taught the tripod first and required students to balance for 10 seconds before trying to lift their legs up for a headstand.  Key points to remember when practicing a tripod - 1)  make a triangle with your head and hands, 2) Spread your feet apart on the mat (to line up your knees with your elbows), 3)  Slowly walk your feet in towards your elbows and lift knees up to balance on elbows.

2nd grade student doing a tripod.

Student balancing in a tripod position before raising legs up for a headstand.

Headstand!

Headstand

Video of our student teacher, Mr. Gietzen, teaching a round-off. We typically do not teach this skill, but decided to this year because of student interest. Students had the option to try this, or participate in other tumbling activities.

Video of Kindergarten doing the "Leaping Leprechaun" Warm-Up:

Video of 2nd grade doing "Leaping Leprechauns"

Basketball Lessons for K-5th grade with Minute Club Warm-Up and St. Patricks Day Game

For the month of March, the students will be focusing on Basketball Skills.  We are doing the Minute

Club Warm-Up, and 3rd-5th graders are practicing curl-ups and push-ups in preparation for their Fitnessgram fitness testing.  The minute club is really motivating students to jog and maintain a steady pace!  They have been excited to earn these Minute Club certificates!

These are some of the activities the students participated in this week:
1)  Ball Handling Drills (K-5th)
2)  Dribbling Drills (K-5) - Poly Spot Dribbling (K-2) Dribbling Tag (5th)
3)  Shooting (2nd-5th) - Shooting Game "Hot Shot" (3rd-5th)
4)  Gold Coin Exercise Game (for St. Patrick's Day) - this is something I made up this week after buying a ton of plastic gold coins from the dollar store.  It was fun and the kids got a lot of exercise!

 This is a video of the game HOT SHOT - players had 1 minute to shoot baskets, trying to score as many points as possible. Four people were at each hoop.

Video of "Poly Spot Dribbling" idea from pecentral.com

2nd grader playing "poly spot dribbling".  Players walk or jog and dribble throughout the area and stop at poly spots to dribble on knees (there are numbers written on my poly spots with permanent marker).

These are the gold coins I purchased from the Dollar Store and used for the GOLD COIN EXERCISE GAME.

GOLD COIN EXERCISE game - Students earned a gold coin by doing 10 exercises on the poly spots.  They placed their coins in the "girl bucket" or the "boy bucket" and continued earning more and more coins.  I stopped the game every 2 mins to change exercises (picking berries, jumping jacks, push-ups, etc).

For more St. Patrick's Day games, please visit:  http://carly3.blogspot.com/search?q=leaping+leprechauns