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7 PE Activities That Are Easy at Home

Published on 7th November, 2022

Whether you are a Class Teacher, a Sports Coach or a parent, what better way to champion lifelong physical confidence and competence than encouraging your children to participate in sport and physical activity at school and at home.

Fun PE lessons are a crucial part of a child’s primary school journey. When planning PE, and delivering it effectively, you are inspiring children into leading healthy, active lives far beyond school. Whether you are a Class Teacher, a Sports Coach or a parent, what better way to champion lifelong physical confidence and competence than encouraging your children to participate in sport and pe activities at home as well as at school. With this in mind, we have created a list of PE activities that are ‘easy at home’.

Recent Statistics

The most recent statistics, published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, show that less than 45% of children take part in the recommended 60 minutes or more of physical activity each day. This figure drops alarmingly to 22% in some areas of the country and can be as low as 35% amongst ethnic minorities.

Year one children and year two children are most likely to be active (51%), but that drops to 42% across year 3 children to year 6 children.

Public Health England states “physical inactivity is the 4th leading risk factor for global mortality accounting for 6% of deaths globally. People who have a physically active lifestyle have a 20-35% lower risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease and stroke compared to those who have a sedentary lifestyle. Regular physical activity is also associated with a reduced risk of diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis and colon/breast cancer and with improved mental health.”

PE at Home

You probably already know that PE Planning offers hundreds of National Curriculum based PE lesson plans to thousands of teachers; but what you may not know is in our PE Resources section of our website, our PE at home page has resources covering a range of topics from dance to games and gymnastics. Resources include lesson plans, video demonstrations, and National Curriculum links. Take a look at some of our favourites below…

1. Boxercise

Learning the techniques and skills needed for boxercise before using these skills in fun games and challenges.

2. Athletics – T Sprints

Set up the shape of a ‘T’ using 4 household objects.

From the starting point, sprint to each object one at a time, jogging backwards to the start each time.

Challenge: How many times can you complete the circuit in 1 minute?

Reminder: Quick feet and quick hands when pushing off.

Competition: Compete against self, or family members, to improve score and overall fitness.

3. Family Fitness

We have a whole section dedicated to family fitness. With 15 circuit cards, plus warm up and cool downs, this fun PE favourite is a great resource to ‘fit’ into a family routine (excuse the pun!).

4. Paper Javelin Competition

Create a mini-Olympics at home by designing your own Athletics equipment, such as discus and javelins.

5. Dance

Learn and perform our dance to the K-Mix song ‘Waka-Waka’. These primary school dance lesson plans have been designed for parents to follow.

This PE dance can be learned and performed as an individual or in pairs/small groups.

6. Throwing Tennis

Our PE at Home resources offer lots of easy to follow ‘PE games’, from high energy activities, to simple (yet crucial) throwing and catching games.

Here’s how to play…

Set up a large area in the house or garden.
Use a ball and make out a mini tennis court using household objects such as shoes/socks.
Find a family member to play against.
The aim is to score points against your opponent by throwing the ball over the net/divide and making it bounce 3 times in their area.
To increase the difficulty for the catcher, only allow the ball to bounce twice before scoring a point.

7. Gymnastics

Our Home Gymnastics lessons can be completed individually, with siblings, or as a family group.

Ofsted have recently highlighted the importance of Motor Competence for children. These Gymnastics plans include Key Shapes, Balances, Jumps and Rolls which are all important elements to a child’s physical development.

And by the end of the week, a child will have a gymnastics routine to perform to their family.