Christmas PE Activities for Primary Schools
We’re now in the final school week before Christmas, and we all know what that means. Lots of fun and games so children can let off some steam and wind down to the Christmas break! At PE Planning, we’ve not actually slowed down at all – in fact, we’re busier than ever updating our Dance […]
We’re now in the final school week before Christmas, and we all know what that means. Lots of fun and games so children can let off some steam and wind down to the Christmas break!
At PE Planning, we’ve not actually slowed down at all – in fact, we’re busier than ever updating our Dance lesson plans… We’ll have more to tell you about those in early January, with new plans, videos and more to arrive sometime in the middle of January.
These, along with other updates and changes to our PE lesson plans, means we hope to have the best PE lesson plans 2024 can offer you!
5 simple Christmas PE activities
For now, though, we’ve compiled some of our favourite Christmas PE activities to give you some ideas to fill the final days of school! If keeping your pupils active and engaged in this final week is a challenge, these PE games are likely to get them moving with joy and Christmas spirit!
And, if you like what you see here but want more, there’s a link to last year’s Christmas lesson plans blog post at the bottom of the page, where you’ll find Christmas Pe lesson plans, too.
Santa’s Sack Relay
Divide the class into teams and designate a starting line and finish line. Place a large sack, filled with soft objects (such as beanbags) at the starting line for each team. On the signal, the first pupil from each team must race to the sack, pull out an item, and carry it to the finish line. They must drop the item at the finish line and then race back to the start to tag the next team member.
The relay must continue until all the team members have had a turn – and the team to finish first wins. A nice, easy activity that promotes teamwork in a festive way!
Snowball Toss
Use soft, lightweight snowballs (well… Anything you can find to represent snowballs!) and create different target zones on the ground. Assign different point values to each zone. Pupils should take turns tossing the ‘snowballs’ and accumulate points based on where their snowballs land. Add any extra angle – get children to calculate their own scores!
Festive Freeze
For this activity, all you’ll need is some festive music and six festive ‘poses’ – for example, reindeer, robin, Father Christmas.
Begin playing music and at random intervals press pause. When the music stops, children must freeze, mimicking one of the six poses in any way they wish. The last pupil to stop moving has to fall out of the game, with the last child standing bing the winner.
Reindeer Tag
Children love a game of tag!! This festive edition is bound to be popular.Taggers take on the role of elves, while runners become reindeer. Once a runner is tagged, they must freeze on the spot, placing their hands on their heads with thumbs first and fingers outstretched, mimicking reindeer horns. To release a frozen runner, fellow ‘reindeer’ who haven’t been tagged can un-freeze tagged runners by singing the first phrase of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer while releasing the frozen runner with a high-five.
Snowball Throw And Catch
Provide children with soft, lightweight ‘snowballs’ (such as beanbags). Pair children up, with one tossing the snowball to their partner. Partners take turns tossing and catching the snowball, but must increase the distance between them with each throw. See which pair can continue to throw and catch with the furthest distance between them!
Add a festive element by encouraging pupils to make snowflake shapes with their bodies while waiting to catch the snowball. The winning pair is the one that hasn’t yet missed a catch!
Other Christmas PE activities
Want more? These Christmas themed PE lesson plans are quick and easy to follow, and we’ve provided downloadable plans, too!
If you’d like more activities that can be carried out in the classroom, take a look at our Classroom PE Activities.
If you don’t have a PE Planning subscription, we have plenty of lesson plans available as part of our free membership. Find out more about PE Planning membership here.
And finally, thank you for visiting our website – and if it’s not your first visit, thank you for your continuing support. From everyone at PE Planning, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We’ll see you in January!
