On this page you will find: family activities, and links to explore.
Family Activities
Dog Walk - No, you do not have to own a dog to do this dog walk.
Go for a walk through the neighborhood everyday and count the dogs that you see. On each walk that you take, try to find and count more dogs than on the previous walk. Make sure you have your parent’s permission to venture out, or better yet, bring a parent along with you. Now test your brain. As you walk and find dogs in the neighborhood, give the dogs a name (remember the names). If you are familiar with a particular dog and already know the dog’s name, great, or give him/her a nickname. Each day you walk, greet the dogs by name (don't approach the dog). The name you give the dogs can be fun silly names, popular actor/actress names, famous athlete’s, ice cream flavors, you can even name them after your own family members (the loudest barking dog can be named after your mean auntie : ). There is no limit to the creative fun ways you can use to create names for every dog. Challenge your parent. As you go for a walk, see who can remember the most dogs by name as you pass by each dog.
99 (card game)
Equipment needed: one deck of playing cards
Object of the game: don’t be the player to cause the sum of the discard pile to go over 99
Number of players: 2-6
Card values
Number Cards:
- number cards are face value, what you see is what you get
- Ace = 1
- Jack = -10
- Queen = zero (and the Queen will be reverse order of play)
- King = Zero
- Jokers (optional) = Automatically causes the discard pile value to be 99 (crazy right?)
This continues around the table and the sum of the discard pile continues to rise. As the sum gets closer and closer to 99, remember the object of the game: don’t be the player to cause the discard pile to go over 99. If you are the player that does not have a card to play to keep the discard pile at or below 99, you lose that hand/game.
Hint: Save the low cards and the face cards for when the discard pile gets close to 99!
When the game is over, everyone counts up the total value of the cards in their hand. If the sum of the cards is 1-10, do that number of push-ups. If the total is 11-20, do that number of sit-ups. If the number is 21 or more, do that number of jumping jacks.
Shuffle all the cards and play another hand of 99.
Home Circuit Training
Home Circuit training is an activity to get a little bit of exercise in multiple areas or fitness. It is meant to work on arms, legs, and core muscle fitness as well as endurance.
Select a location inside and outside of the house to perform each activity. Try to arange the order of exercise just as they are listed here. In this order, arm and leg exercises alternate to provide rest for the different muscle groups, and endurance work is followed by restful activity. Each person participating in the circuit can be at different stations. The stations should loop, meaning the “last station should lead back to the first station.
When doing circuit training try to work toward a timed circuit movement such as performing each exercise for a specific amount of time (30 sec, 45, 1 min), then rotate to the next station giving yourself a specific amount of timed rest (15 sec, 30sec). Tailor the amount of work and rest time to fit the people participating in the circuit training. The intensity level should also meet your ability. As a general rule (which you may want to ignore) the amount of rest should be ½ to ¼ (half to a quarter) of the time you spend doing each activity. The amount of rest time is flexible and should be adjusted to meet your ability. Next determine how many times you plan on rotating throw the circuit. Start with possibly 3 times through the circuit as a goal. Increase the number as your ability level improves.
- Lunges – can be done as a lunge walk, or by returning back to starting point after each lunge: hands on hips, keep back straight!
- Arm Curls – Using gallon milk jugs/half gallon jugs or canned food as hand weights, Standing up strait with your arms at your side, bend elbows/lift hands up to your shoulders. Do one arm at a time.
- Sit-ups - Use a piece of furniture to hold your feet down.
- Push-ups – pay attention to body form
- Shuttle run (outside) – on the front walk, run from driveway-to -driveway across the front of your house touching the crease in the cement slab at each end.
- Toe touches – sitting or standing, legs together or apart, gradually reach for your feet. It may also be done reaching towards the opposite foot. This should be relaxing with little pain at most.
- Vertical leap (outside) – on a flat surface, crouch down as a wind up, and jump straight up in the air. Imagine you are the center for a basketball team, and it is the game tip off.
- Planks – Keep you body straight. Try not to stop till time is up.
Get the whole family involved.
Ready, set, go for it!
Treasure Hunt
Have one person in the family hides 6-12 items (coins, stuffed animals, etc.). Assign an exercise or activity to each item: 10 pushups, 15 sit ups, 20 jumping jacks, etc. Scale the activity to meet the ability for each player. One person hides the items, and the rest of the players try to find them. When an item is found, that player will perform the activity. When all of the items are found, play another round. On this next round, when an item is found by a player, everyone else performs the exercise, but the person who found it is exempt. This is when the game gets competitive!
This game is fun for the whole family.
Push up and sit up challenge!
As instructed in class earlier this year, perform 10 sets of push ups and 10 sets of sit ups each day. Perform each set when fully rested and provide necessary time to rest between each set.
Challenge: Begin your first day with only having 1 as the quantity of each set. That is to say, 10x1, 10 sets of 1 push up each. Then, increase the quantity by one each day. So on day 2, the challenge is to do 10x2. Then day three will be 10x3, and so on. The challenge is to see how many days you can successfully increase your number in each set.
Variations on the challenge: Everyone is different. You may want to modify the challenge to fit your individual ability. You may chose to increase the quantity by only one every-other day, or maybe select to do only one of the exercises (push ups or sit ups) each day, but not both. However you chose to modify the challenge, forecast your goal to be successful for at least 5 days before you hit your "limit." Who knows how far you can really get before you reach your limit.
Consider making this a family challenge.
Go for it!
COVID-20
First came COVID-19, now comes COVID-20
Corona Olympic Virtual Individual Decathlon 2020
10 Corona-azy Challenges for your own personal field day!
To enter the games Click Here.
Links
Check out these Brain Pop videos about exercise. Click on this one for Grades K-2. . . and Click here for grades 3-5.
Click here for a Brain Pop video on safety. You can never be too careful when you go for a dog walk.
Want to try some fun physical activities? Go to gonoodle for some energetic activities!
fun Check out Mission Imposible photos here!
Kids Health - Search countless health topics. This is a terrific age appropriate resource.
Road Runners running videos - The New York Road Runners have a great series of instructional videos that promote proper running form. The ability to run correctly is a great foundation for many other physical activities. This is a great summer activity for the whole family.