PowerUp Fitness caters to all ages and incorporates the academic expectations of each grade. Shape Jumps are just one example of an exercise that can be adjusted for a variety of ages. By fine-tuning the math integration, students of all ages can apply lessons from the classroom into a fun exercise that gets them moving.
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Shape Jumps: Participants will jump to “draw” a variety of shapes.
Let’s break Shape Jumps down into specific grade examples
PK-Early Elementary: Identifying shapes
Put the emphasis on identifying the general shapes and “drawing” them out. Ask, “which shape has three sides?” After the kids answer, everyone jumps in the shape of a triangle. Start at the bottom point and jump their way to the top point and back down the other side to complete their imaginary drawing on the ground. Everyone counts aloud together as they build their triangle.
Upper Elementary: Perimeter, Area, Complex Shapes
By moving the age bracket up a couple years, the activity will ask more of the children. Staying with the triangle example, ask students to jump to make a triangle with the perimeter of nine. So, how many jumps per side? This requires children to work backwards to come up with the length of each side. The answer, three!
Let’s try another shape, share that this time a circle has a radius of two. Then ask, “if the radius is two, what would the diameter be?” The answer, four! Have them start with the circle, then hop across the middle of their “drawn” circle while counting aloud to four. This engages the vocabulary behind solving equations.
To push the kids mind’s more, bring up comparisons in shapes. Tell them to construct a rectangle and square with a perimeter of 12. This pushes them to think about the differences between a square and a rectangle and be able to work through the lengths of each side.
Middle School: Geometry, Angles, Pythagorean Theorem
Taking another step up in difficulty, let’s utilize equations to find the lengths themselves. To finish out with the triangle example, ask students to use the pythagorean theorem. If the base has a length of three hops and the height has a length of four hops, what would the hypotenuse be? They would have to recognize the formula, square both three and four, sum the squares to equal 25, then find the square root. The hypotenuse is five jumps!
Another example would be to give a perimeter of 20 and work through what numbers evenly go into 20 which would be two, four, five, ten and 20. By working through the factors, start a discussion on which types of figures would have equal side measurements. A square, or four-sided figure would have a length of five hops, a hexagon, or five-sided figure, would have a length of four hops and a decagon, or ten-sided figure would have a length of two hops per side.
Download this printable pdf version of our PowerUp Teaching Social-Emotional Learning Skills with Physical Activity!
Did you enjoy these activities? Take a look at our activity bundles or even request sample lesson plans to learn more!
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