10 Quick PE Warm Up Games

Quick & Fun PE Warm Up Games for Primary Pupils

Starting a PE lesson with the right energy can make all the difference. A good warm-up gets children moving, listening, and smiling—all before the main activity begins. At PE Planning, we know that PE warm up games are the secret sauce to a successful lesson: they’re fast, fun, and full of purpose.

Warm-ups are an opportunity to introduce the lesson, initiate new skills, recap prior learning, and outline objectives—after all, PE is a knowledge-based subject. And with time often limited, every minute counts! Below, we’ve compiled a list of our favourite warm-up games to show how they can be both fun and educational. Let’s dive in!

1. Alphabet Shapes

This imaginative warm-up gets children moving, thinking, and having fun with body shapes! It is perfect for key stage one PE lessons focusing on fundamental movement skills and movement development. Bonus—it’s cross curricular!

How to play:

• Children spread out in their own space.
• The teacher calls out a letter of the alphabet.
• Each child uses their body to form the shape of that letter.
• Between calling a letter, ask children to move around inside a safe space, avoiding others and looking for space. Change the movements often. Examples include galloping, jumping, side stepping, hopping, jogging.

Teaching Tips:

• Encourage creativity by using different points of contact with the floor—hands, feet, elbows, backs.
• Challenge children to explore different levels—standing, kneeling, lying down.
• Demonstrate strong examples to highlight clear letter shapes, varied levels, and inventive use of space.

2. Control the Ball

This engaging activity helps children develop ball control, spatial awareness, and coordination—all while having fun! It can be used in a variety of ball manipulation lessons, or invasion sport lessons with a focus on dribbling.

How to Play:

• Each child has a ball.
• Children move around the space, keeping their ball under control.
• Introduce dribbling—bouncing the ball like in basketball as they move (alter for a football or handball lesson).
• On the signal “Stop!”, children must freeze with their ball.
• Gradually increase the pace while reinforcing control and awareness.

Key Coaching Points:

• Control the ball – keep it close.
• Look where you’re going – avoid collisions.
• Stop the ball quickly – react to the signal.
• Use correct technique (important if this skill is being recapped or reintroduced).

Differentiation:

• Make it harder: Challenge children to move faster, or perform dribbling challenges.
• Make it easier: Allow children to dribble on the spot instead of moving around. Alter the equipment, such as a lighter, bigger ball.

3. Touch, Shoot, Celebrate

This lively warm-up gets children moving, listening, and reacting quickly—perfect for building fitness and focus at the start of a PE lesson. It is engaging, inclusive, and can be adapted to fit any sport by altering the terminology and actions.

How to Play:

• Children jog around the space.
• Call out action cues like:

• “Touch” – Touch the floor with both hands.
• “Shoot” – Pretend to shoot for goal.
• “Goal” – Celebrate scoring!

• Change movement styles: side-stepping, skipping, jogging backwards.

Key Coaching Points:

• Heads up – look where you’re going.
• Use of space – avoid crowding.
• Quality actions – clear, exaggerated, expressive movements.
• Direction changes – keep it dynamic.
• Gradual speed increase – build intensity.

Differentiation:

• Make it harder: Add more actions like “dribble,” “sprint,” “jump shot,” or “jockey.”
• Make it easier: Introduce actions one at a time and model them with the children.

4. Octopus

This exciting game combines speed, strategy, and spatial awareness—perfect for energising children and developing agility. It is an excellent PE warm up game for tag rugby, offering opportunities for tagging, dodging and exploiting space.

Setup:

• Mark out a large, safe area.
• Scatter flat marker spots across the space.
• Each child wears a tag belt.

How to Play:

• One child starts in the centre as the Tagger.
• The rest line up on one side of the area.
• On the tagger’s signal, players run to the opposite side, trying not to get tagged.
• If tagged, they stand on a marker spot and become stationary taggers—they can tag others but must stay on their spot.
• After 8 rounds, any children who remain untagged are the winners.
• Repeat the activity with a new tagger.
• Gradually increase the speed of the activity.

Learning Focus:

• Quick reactions and spatial awareness.
• Teamwork and fair play.
• Agility and directional movement.

5. Knee Tag

Knee Tag is a brilliant partner-based warm-up that builds agility, reaction time, and cardiovascular fitness—all in just a few minutes! It can be used for a myriad of sports, that require quick feet and quick reaction times (including badminton, tennis and cricket) and can be played by all ages.

Key Coaching Points:

• Keep facing your partner in a ready position.
• Move quickly and stay light on your feet.
• Gradually increase speed to raise heart rate.
• Reinforce good technique and body control.

6. Storytime

Storytime is a unique warm-up that blends physical expression with imagination, encouraging children to explore movement, storytelling, and teamwork—all without speaking. It is creative, expressive, and perfect for those artistic sports such as dance and gymnastics.

How to Play:

• Children work in pairs.
• Each pair creates a short story using only movements and facial expressions—no talking or sound effects allowed.
• Their story must include a beginning, middle, and end.
• Encourage children to gradually increase the intensity and speed of their movements to raise heart rate and engagement.

Teacher Tips:

• Creativity – reward inventive and expressive storytelling.
• Control and purpose – movements should be clear and intentional.
• Spatial awareness – encourage children to move safely and with awareness of others.

Differentiation:

• Make it easier: Provide a theme to guide their story, such as:
  • An astronaut travelling to the moon
  • Animals in the rainforest
  • Pirates on a ship
• Make it harder: Give each pair a piece of equipment to use as a prop or obstacle—adding complexity and challenge.

7. Mr. Men Moves

Inspired by the beloved Mr. Men characters, this warm-up blends imagination with movement to get children energised and engaged from the start of the lesson. This EYFS and key stage one warm up allows pupils to have a blast whilst developing balance, coordination and fundamental movements.

How to Play:

• Children begin by finding their own space in the area.
• Introduce each Mr. Men-inspired action one at a time, demonstrating clearly:
  • Mr Slow – move slowly around the space
  • Mr Rush – move quickly
  • Mr Jelly – shake the whole body on the spot
  • Mr Bounce – bounce around the area
  • Mr Small – crouch low and move around
  • Mr Strong – flex muscles proudly
  • Mr Tall – stretch tall and walk on tiptoes
  • Mr Happy – move with a big smile
  • Mr Star – perform star jumps on the spot
• Continue calling out different characters to keep the game flowing and varied. To progress the warm up, ask children to move around the area, listening for a Mr. Man to be called.

Teaching Tips:

• Give a clear safety briefing before starting – ensuring children avoid others whilst on the move and performing actions.
• Introduce actions gradually to avoid confusion.

Key Coaching Points:

• Keep their heads up and look where they’re going.
• Move into space and avoid others.
• Perform actions with energy and control.

8. Guard the Flags

Guard the Flags is a fast-paced team game that blends strategy, movement, and coordination. It’s perfect for developing teamwork, spatial awareness, and throwing accuracy—all while keeping children active and engaged. A warm up made for dodgeball PE lessons!

Setup:

• Place mats around the playing area, each with three bibs—these are the Flags.
• Assign one pupil per mat as a Guard.
• Choose one or two Running Guard to retrieve balls and return them to the Guards.
• All other pupils are Invaders.

How to Play:

• Guards stay on their mats and defend their flags by throwing balls to tag Invaders below the waist. They cannot touch the flags.
• Invaders try to steal one flag at a time and return it to their base.
• If tagged, Invaders must jog, skip, or side-step around the outside before rejoining.
• The Running Guard helps by collecting and returning balls to Guards.
• The game ends when:
  • All flags are stolen (invaders win), or
  • There are flags remaining (guards win), or
  • Time limit is reached (if time is limited) (whoever has the most flags wins).
• Swap roles after each round.

Learning Focus:

• Teamwork and communication.
• Movement into space and direction changes.
• Ball control and accurate aiming.
• Dodging and awareness.
• Head up, eyes on the ball and players.

Differentiation:

• Make it harder: Decrease the size of the playing area to increase pressure. Add more guards.
• Make it easier: Increase the size of the area to allow more space and time.

9. Traffic Lights

This energetic warm-up sharpens listening skills and gets children moving in response to quick commands. This warm up requires no equipment, is exciting for the younger pupils in Primary School, and can be progressed depending on the class ability. It offers movement development, improves listening skills and can be adapted to add a competitive element.

How to Play:

• Children move freely around the space.
• Call out traffic-themed commands:
  • “Red!” – freeze
  • “Yellow!” – walk
  • “Green!” – run
• Add creative progressions like:

• “Speed bump” – jump
• “Flat tyre” – hop
• “Roundabout” – spin

Teacher Tips:

• Encourage quick reactions and safe movement.
• Reinforce spatial awareness and control.
• Keep the pace lively to raise heart rate.

10. Animals

Animals blends imagination with physical activity, making it a favourite among EYFS and KS1 pupils. It can be used in a dance lesson to provoke imagination, or in a fitness lesson to develop gross motor skills, strength, balance and flexibility.

How to Play:

• Call out different animals for children to mimic:

• Bear crawl
• Frog jump
• Crab walk
• Flamingo balance

Teacher Tips:

• Encourage expressive movement and balance.
• Reinforce coordination and body awareness.
• Celebrate creativity and effort.

At PE Planning, our lesson plans include warm-ups that are age-appropriate, easy to deliver, and designed to support progression across all key stages.

 Ready to Energise Your PE Lessons?

Give your pupils the active start they deserve to every PE lesson!

Whether you are teaching Foundation Stage, Year 1 or Year 6, ensuring your PE warm up games are appropriate, relevant and linked to your PE lesson will transform your teaching. Explore our full range of lesson plans at PE Planning—lesson one of every unit of work is always unlocked a free membership!

As always, we are here to help with all things PE related, so please just shout if you need anything!

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