What’s Up Phys Ed Fam!
Today I want to share with you my daily warm-up and stretching routine that I use at the beginning of class with my students.
I do this with my students from 1st grade through 5th grade (we have 50 minute classes).
- My Kindergarten classes are super short (25 minutes), so we don’t have time for anything other than a quick 1-2 minute jog/walk/skip/slide around the outside lines of the gym.
Warmup or Instant Activity
We start with a quick warm-up or instant activity for the first 2 minutes. We do change this up throughout the year to keep it interesting.
I’ve covered a ton of specific warm-up activities that you can do in another post (Awesome Warmup Activities) so I won’t go into a ton of detail, but check out the post if your interested in specific instant activities.
Home Base Spots
After they finish with the instant activity they go to our Home Base Spots.
Here’s a video explaining the Home Base Spots:
- For my roster template mentioned in the video above head over to the Home Base Spots Blog Post.
Daily Stretching Routine
Once we are at our Home Base Spots I lead students through a few stretches while I am taking attendance.
You can see the stretching routine I use and the poster I created as a visual for students in the video below:
Here’s a link to the Good Sport Code Poster that I mentioned in the video.
After a few weeks in this routine with my 3rd – 5th grade students I will pick a volunteer student to lead the stretches as a way to allow the class to have some independence and responsibility and give one student a chance to practice leading the class.
I give the warmup leader a laminated PDF of the poster to use as a cheat sheet when they are leading the class. I actually got this idea from a teacher who bought the poster and did the same thing with their own students.
If you’d like to purchase the Daily Warmup Poster you can click the link below to check it out on TPT (or members can download it in the membership area after logging in):
Check out the Daily Warmup Poster
Explaining “The Why Behind the Warmup”
As a student I can vividly remember feeling a disdain any time I was forced to do something in school that I didn’t see the purpose of. I will never forget one of my teachers in high school who would always explain before every lesson the useful things we would be able to do with the information that we would learn that day. It was so motivating for me to know that I wasn’t just doing busy work, but that it would actually be helpful for my future success.
I always try to explain “The Why” behind everything we do in my classes to students, it will help them be more motivated to actually put 100% of their effort into the task or activity that you’re asking them to do.
Check out the video below for an example during our 2nd week of school:
Virtual Daily Warmup
Since I’m teaching some virtual this year due to COVID, I wanted to keep a similar routine to our in person days and virtual days as much as possible, so I created this Daily Warmup Video for my kids to complete on our virtual days.
- How Did You Make This Video?
- For all my videos I use an editing program called Final Cut Pro X (Mac only), although if your starting out I would recommend using iMovie for widescreen or trying out clips for square videos https://www.thepespecialist.com/clips/
- You can consult Dr. Google for whatever editing program you decide to use and find plenty of tutorials specific to the program your using and the effect you want to use (for example timers or progress bars like you see in this video)
That’s It!
I’ve found that providing a good routine really helps me get my class started quickly and without wasting any time.
Hope that was helpful and as always…
Jose Luyando says
It was a good video
Marcus says
Thank you Jose!
Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
Kristina says
FYI Two links on the daily warmup routine page are not working; Clips and daily warmup poster
Marcus says
Hey Kristina,
Thanks for reaching out! We were able to access the links.
Can you send us a screenshot of what you’re seeing so we can troubleshoot the issue from our end?
Send to [email protected]
Thank you!
Jasmine says
I teach at a school with 1300 students. We see 600 a day. Close to 100 a class. I would love tips or tricks on different warm ups for large class sizes
Marcus says
Whoa Jasmine!
That’s a lot of students!
Check out Ben’s blog post of warm up activities for some ideas:
https://www.thepespecialist.com/warmupactivities/
Hope this helps!
Lisa Ribaudo says
I am loving all your info and ideas. Such a big help. I am hoping gas and food prices go down so I can become a paid member. Valuable stuff here.
Marcus says
Hey Lisa!
Thanks for reaching out! Glad you’re enjoying the resources!
Totally understand! Hopefully you are join up soon!
John Billy Murphy says
Emailed last week about my school district paying for my membership. My name is John Murphy and I work for new Rochelle city school District in new Rochelle New York. Could someone please respond back to me and let me know? I never got any information.
Marcus says
Hey John,
We emailed you back and responded to your post here.
We will email you the information again.
Be on the lookout in you SPAM folder as well.
John William Murphy says
Good morning. I believe my school district in new Rochelle New York paid for my membership. Did you guys receive anything from us? Please let me know as soon as possible.
Marcus says
Hey John!
We emailed you back on November 24th with your sign up info for the membership.
Have you not received the email? If not let us know, and we can send it again!
Have a great day!
Laura Torres says
I am currently about two weeks into my first time being a Physical Education Teacher and boy am I happy that I stumbled on your website and your YouTube videos as well. I have been very organized thanks to you, God Bless!
Marcus says
Laura! We are glad you found us as well! We have tons of teaching tips! Hope you find what you need! Feel free to reach out if you have any questions along the way!
Kashmir says
It was a good warm up i feel more loosing
Marcus Nellems says
Glad you’re enjoying the resources Kashmir!
Lindsey Holley says
Hi Ben,
All of your materials are awesome! I see that you have your stretching routine posters. Do you have a poster for the virtual warm-up, the one starting with jumping jacks?
Thanks,
Lindsey
Marcus Nellems says
Hey Lindsey,
Hope you found what you needed from the email we sent you.
Thanks for reaching out!
Louise Reading says
The P.E. Specialist is so helpful! Thank you!
Marcus Nellems says
You’re welcome Louise!
Rochelle Crawford says
Where do you have your posters made?
Ben Landers says
We’ve got a poster printer at school – Lucky I know!
Chelsea says
I just wanted to write and say thank you for all this information. The school I teach at now has the classroom teachers, teaching PE, I am a little familiar but all the information you have provided will help me this school year.
Ben Landers says
Bummer that you don’t have a certified PE Teacher at your school, but I’m glad it’s been helpful for you!