Health Activities for the Last Few Days of School

We’re in the final stretch! Grades are in, comments are done, and we’ve only got a few days left with the kids. In many core classes, this means students will be watching movies, so I hate to make them sit through another one with me as well. Here are some filler activities for health class that are fun and don’t involve a DVD.

My students love doing skits, and it’s one of the most effective ways to evaluate them on the skills we’ve been learning. While I usually do one assessed skit per grade level, this can be fun to use as a filler as well. For these skits, I’ll give them a skill to demonstrate—decision-making, conflict resolution, difficult conversations—and then tell them they need to write a realistic skit with a scenario that could pop up for one of them. They get to practice their communication skills, and I get to find out about some of their pressing concerns. Today we had some extra time, so I called some volunteers up and we turned it into a sort of refusal skills improv game. Students were having a blast and demonstrating their skills at the same time. You can never do too much of this, these kiddos need all of the practice with face-to-face communication that they can get!

 

For another fun way to practice refusal skills, check out these awesome ideas by 2022 Health Teacher of the Year, Jessica Matheson: Using Dice in the Health Class

Thanks to social media, my students are finding new public service announcements all of the time, and this is a great chance for them to share with the class. Not only are they strengthening their research skills, but they’re evaluating what makes an effective PSA for when it’s time to make their own. Also, you’re building up your resource bank, so it’s an absolute win-win.

It’s easiest to do this with computers, but students can use their phones as well. Tell them they’ve got to find some low cost, fun, and healthy activities to do over the summer. Community classes, discount days at the golf course, free swim at the pool, two free weeks at the yoga studio—anything they can come up with. If you want to give them more direction, you can assign specifics, like plan a family field trip, come up with something for a large group of friends to do, or locate a gym/fitness studio with discounted summer rates for teens. Working in groups, I like to have them come up with three ideas or events. Then we write the master list on the board and the kids all copy it down. Depending on the size of your city, you can find some pretty cool stuff going on. This is especially helpful for the kids who won’t be traveling or whose parents are working full-time.

Some of my favorite memories as a kid are of long summer evenings playing random types of tag. Ask your class what some of their favorites were, then have someone give everyone a refresher on the rules before you head outside to play. Before they head off with all of that time on their hands, it’s important to remind the kids that there are multi-player games that don’t involve a screen and ways to exercise that don’t involve a treadmill. Plus, there’s nothing like a good old game of Cops and Robbers to get everyone excited for the summer.