Classroom Energisers

These classroom energisers are designed to get students active while they are learning. By being physically active students will concentrate better, improve their social and communication skills by interacting with others and improve their overall school performance. Incidental activity is a great way to get students active who may ordinarily shy away from physical activity.

Below are some ideas on how to incorporate energisers into a lesson. These activities can be modified to suit different age groups.

Science

Name of Activity: Don’t Break Newton’s Laws

Purpose: Students will have a better understanding of Newton’s Laws and Physics

Formation: Standing at desks

Equipment: Paper ball

Directions:

Students make a paper ball and perform the following activities for one minute each. They will record the number of successful catches for each activity.

1. Throw and catch (to self).
2. Throw and catch (to self) while hopping on left foot.
3. Throw and catch (to self) while walking in place.
4. Throw and catch (to self) while hopping on right foot.
5. Toss and catch (to self) while jumping in place.
6. Throw and catch (to self) while jogging in place.
7. Compare recordings and discuss Newton’s Laws:
   1. force and friction restricts motion
   2. for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction
   3. the greater the force, the greater the change in motion
   4. the object’s motion is the result of the combined effects of all the force acting on the object
   5. a moving object that is not subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed in a straight line
   6. an object at rest will remain at rest

Maths

Name of Activity: Star Jump Math (Jumping Jacks) Purpose: Students can practice mental maths skills Formation: Standing at desk

Equipment: No equipment needed

Directions:

1. Teacher calls out an addition, subtraction, multiplication and/or division problem, integers, fractions and ratios.
2. Student must mentally solve problem and perform the corresponding number of jumping jacks or other specified movements.

Movement Variations:

• Bicep curls with math book
  • Knee lifts
  • Standing sit-ups (raise right knee to left elbow, then raise left knee to right elbow)
  • Squats
  • Marching in place
  • Chair dips
  • Sports activities (tennis shots, football passes, volleyball spikes)

English

Name of Activity: Active Adjectives

Purpose: Students will have a better understanding of adjectives/alliteration

Formation: Standing at desk with partners

Equipment: Paper and pencil

Directions:

1. Teacher reads a story or passage that contains adjectives.
2. Whenever the students hear an adjective they jog in place.
3. Students begin physical activity (e.g. jogging on the spot) and continue for 30 seconds or until teacher resumes reading.

Variations:

1. Have the students think of a physical activity that begins with the same letter of the adjective.
2. Adaptation for advanced classes or a higher age group can be ‘Active Alliteration’

Music / Drama

Name of Activity: Reading Rhythms

Purpose: Students are given the opportunity to improve creative expression

Formation: Students stand at desks

Equipment: CD, book

Directions

1. Teacher selects a story.
2. Students stand by desks.
3. Teacher reads a section of the story and then plays music.
4. As music is playing students express themselves by dancing, moving, or acting out the section they have heard from the story

Social Studies

Name of Activity: Africa, Asia, Australia – Where do I belong? Purpose: Students will have an increased understanding of geography and culture

Formation: Standing at desks facing map

Directions:

1. Teacher invites one student at a time to approach map and describes a country/Continent using a particular social studies topic (see below examples) making sure the rest of the students to do not hear.

Examples:

• Specific governments identified by teacher
  • Colonisation by European people
  • Languages include Swahili, Hausa and Yoruba
  • Languages include Hindi, Korean and Arabic
  • Birthplace of homo sapiens
  • Key figures identified by teacher (e.g. Barack Obama, Mao Tse-tung, Gandhi etc.)
  • Buddhist religion

• This student then performs a movement to the rest of the class and they have to guess the country/continent the teacher described.
  • Hopping (like a kangaroo) if Australia
  • Marching in place if Asia
  • Dancing if Africa
  • Walk like penguin if Antarctica

The rest of the class must guess which continent/country this student is acting out.

Health

Name of Activity: Steppin’ for Snacks

Purpose: Students will have a better understanding of the food pyramid

Equipment: None

Directions:

1. Teacher calls out a meal or snack item or writes it on the board.
2. If the food is healthy and could be consumed anytime, hop five times.
3. If the food should be consumed in moderation, hop 15 times.
4. If the food is unhealthy and should be consumed only occasionally, hop 30 times.
5. When teacher calls time, discuss food choices written on the board.
6. OPTIONAL: Link to Australian Healthy Living Pyramid.

http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/healthy-living-pyramid

English

Name of Activity: Language Lingo

Purpose: Students practice whichever English skills teacher prefers Formation: Divide the class into groups of no more than four members and create stations.

Equipment: Various: calculators, jump ropes, cones, balls and stopwatch

Directions:

1. Set up various stations with an English task and physical activity at each station.
2. The students perform a physical activity as group (eg. Perform Over and Under with a book, jump rope 15 times each, hula hopping around waist 15 times each).
3. Upon completion of physical activity, students are to complete the academic task (eg. Give three characteristics of fiction, give three characteristics of poetry etc.)
4. Upon completion of the activity and task students rotate to the next station.

Health

Name of Activity: Stop and Scribble

Purpose: Students develop a better understanding of mental, social and physical health benefits of physical activity Formation: Partners standing at desks

Equipment: Paper and pencil for each pair

Directions:

Maths

Name of Activity: Over and Under

Purpose: Students practice whichever maths skill teacher prefers

Formation: Lines of 5-6 (as long as they’re even)

Equipment: 10-20 paper balls per team

Directions:

1. Teams stand in single file line with the same amount of paper balls at the back of its line.Teacher writes Maths problem on the board while students march/star jumpStudents figure out the answer to the problem and pass the balls up their line in an over the head under the legs style until the correct number of balls are at the front end of the line.Students can only pass one paper ball at a time.First team with the correct number gets a point. Students pass paper balls back to the end of the line to get ready for the next problem.Students must perform star jumps or marching until teacher has written next Maths problem on the board.

Note: answer to problem can be no higher than paper balls available.

Science

Name of Activity: To Infinity and Beyond

Purpose: Students improve their understanding of Science topic of teachers choice

Formation: Students stand beside desks

Equipment: None

Directions:

1. The teacher writes five solar system vocabulary words and corresponding physical activity on the board (eg. constellation = shake or wiggle, telescope = touch head, shoulders, knees and toes etc.)
2. Teacher reads a statement that describes one of the five vocabulary words (eg. ‘a group of stars that form a pattern in the sky’ or ‘a device that gathers electromagnetic radiation’ etc).
3. Students must allow teacher to finish reading each statement before performing the correct corresponding activity for 10 seconds.

Note: This activity can be adapted fit any Science subject with different topics.

*Activities are adapted from beactive North Carolina. These activities can be modified to suit any topic and age. For more classroom energisers visit: http://hlnces.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/Classroom+Energizers

Originally developed with actbelongcommit.org.au