*Hey Friends, since Jump Rope For Heart has dissolved, we no longer do a JRFH event, but I left this up because you could do a similar setup for any type of fundraiser or grade level celebration event – hope it’s helpful!
Are you thinking about doing a Jump Rope For Heart or Hoops For Heart Event and looking for some activities and ideas?
In this post I’m going to share what I’ve learned from helping coordinate a Jump Rope For Heart event at my school over the past 9 years. I hope that it’s helpful in giving you some ideas to make your event fun and help it run smoothly.
We use our Jump Rope For Heart Event as the culmination of our jump rope unit, which is usually 3-4 weeks long. I hand out the packets at the beginning of the unit and give students 3-4 weeks to raise money before the event.
Why Participate?
I participate in this event because it provides students with a chance to give back to a good cause and also integrates perfectly into my curriculum by allowing students to learn a valuable skill that can help them life an active, healthy and FUN life.
There are 2 main ways to run your event
You can either have a celebration during PE Class with each of your classes and maintain a normal schedule or you can do a one day long event where all students come to the gym for a celebration throughout the day. Check out the video below for a walk through of my setup.
Like I explain in the video above, we do a day long celebration at my school. It’s a little bit more work, but I think it’s more fun for the students – and it allows me to knock it all out in one day. If you don’t have an area to meet in like a gym or multipurpose space or your school isn’t as flexible with scheduling – then try out the week long celebration and just set up fun jumping stations for your students to rotate through during Jump Rope For Heart week.
For some great ideas for jumping stations check out the video below by Mike Graham
If you decide to do a one day celebration I’ll give you some ideas below.
The way it works at my school is I coordinate with all my other related area teachers and they all come to the gym with their classes during related area time. We have students sit in a group with 1-2 partners and a choice of 3 different sized jump ropes.
Happenings during our Jump Rope For Heart Celebration (50 minutes long for each grade level)
- Do a roll call for each class after everyone is present
- Quick intro with safety reminders and the purpose of the event (raising money to fight heart disease and also keeping your own heart healthy with exercise)
- Have 1st jumper come out, find open space and start jumping 3-4 minutes
- Rotate through different jumpers every couple of minutes
- Give out some raffle prizes (jumpropes, keychains, stickers, temporary tattoos ect.)
- Allow students to do partner jumps
- Long Rope Activities
- Hula Hooping
- Introduce our school mascot and ChikFilA Cow
- Bring all students to the middle for a group dance like the Whip Nae Nae or Jump Dance
- Close with a reminder about how students are making a difference in their own bodies through exercise and also making a difference in the lives of others through raising money to fight heart disease.
Note: I always try to give kids as much choice as possible in my classes and JRFH is no exception. Any activity is optional. For example, when we do partner jumps, hula hoops or long ropes – if there is a student who doesn’t want to do those activities, they can simply continue to practice doing a single jump if they want, I just want them to have fun and create a memorable experience while raising money for a great cause.
Who Counts the Money?
The morning of the JRFH event I have a few parent volunteers counting up all the donations so that I can announce the numbers to each grade level during their celebration.
Below are a few incentive ideas to announce at the beginning of your unit:
- Top grade level gets their name on the JRFH Flag for that year
- Top fundraising class gets an extra PE Class
- Top Participating class gets free ChikFila Nuggets (ask them to sponsor your event)
- Top 4 Fundraisers get to Pie the PE teachers and Administrators in the face
- we video this and show it on the morning announcements
- Top 25 fundraisers can have their JRFH T-Shirt autographed by their PE Teachers
Hope some of those ideas are helpful! Thanks for checking out the blog.
Save Yourself Some Time
Over the years, I’ve created a system of emails/forms and announcements to save myself some time around this event. If you want to see all of my Emails, Announcements and Volunteer Forms you can check out the JRFH Resource Guide that I’ve created below:
Hope you can use a few of those ideas and as always…
Have Fun and Teach On!
P.S. If you’re looking for some ideas on teaching a jump rope unit check out our “How to Teach Jump Rope Blog Post Here”
Stephanie says
Pespecialist, I really liked your basketball activities! I have used them in my PE classes. I am curious what you do in your jump rope unit for 3-4 weeks? I am getting ready to kick off JRFH….this is my first year! Thank you!
Ben Landers says
Awesome!
I teach the individual skills and then do a lot of stations with K-1st (hula hoops, hula jumps, single rope tricks, hurdles, jumping lines, jumping spots).
2nd – 5th basic outline below
Week 1 – I work on Single Tricks the first week
Week 2 – Review singles and learn Partner Tricks
Week 3 – Review singles/partners and learn Team Jump Rope
Week 4 – K-2nd jumping stations and long rope tournament (Whirlwind) with 3rd – 5th.
Ben Landers says
Awesome! Glad it was helpful. Thanks for checking it out.
Lori Minka says
Thank you for this Blog! I missed it when it was published, but was reading through the PE Playbook and found this resource. I was going to cancel my last event of 3 as I didn’t think we could pull off our high school show for our elementary students, but got some ideas from you that might just help! I appreciate all you do for the PE community! ~ Lori Minka
Sara Wood says
How many kids do you have at a time in the gym? Our K group was over 100!
Ben Landers says
We have between 90-120 depending on the grade level. It’s a lot of kids, but we’ve had more in the past, our numbers are lower this year. K is definitely the hardest group to manage – getting them to spread out, stay in open space, not give up, untie their jumpropes ect.