Creative Ways To Utilise Indoor & Small Space's for HPE lessons

If you have worked in a small school or school amid massive building projects, you probably have experienced having limited or no space to undertake activities outside of the classroom. If you’re a P.E teacher then you have most definitely experienced this to some degree. Over the years I have been able to pick up some really creative ways you utilise normal outside space and turn it into useful P.E. environments.

I will credit these ideas largely to the many wonderful JP teachers I have worked alongside, some of the most resourceful and creative people in the teaching game. I guess you have to be when you are trying to engage 5-year-olds all day! Here are a few tips to ensure HPE is still a possibility regardless of available space.

Using Chalk

In the modern school chalk is something rarely seen or potentially not even on a school site anymore, what a crazy thought. Chalk was one of those standard teaching tools that every class and teacher had as they were used on blackboards. As we don’t have a use for blackboards anymore chalk has slowly slipped away from being seen at schools.

They are still a very handy tool and largely due for two main reasons. Firstly, they are inexpensive and you can get a wide variety of chalk in a range of colours, I would recommend using the Jumbo chalk which not only last longer but they are much harder to break. Secondly, chalk can write on almost any surface, brick, wood, asphalt, timber… the list goes on! It also is non-permanent. This gives us a ton of flexibility on how we can use this tool and where we can draw with chalk.

Chalk comes extremely handy in target games as you can use chalk to create targets on walls or floor surfaces. Chalk can be used outside of the classroom or anywhere with an open asphalt/bitumen area to create:

Target Games
Hopscotch course
Golf course
Obstacle course
Treasure hunt (Drawings around the school)
Number Hunt (Numbers around the school)
Chalk Boundaries for tag-based games
Capture the Flag/Area

Chalk Games!

These games can be drawn on a range of surfaces around the school either by yourself or students and then games can be made out of them. This means you will need a lot less equipment to create interesting engaging games than utilise the whole school site or parts of the school that are not specific HPE areas. This uniqueness alone will interest students and allow them to see that any space can be an active space if used in the right way.

In addition to this, a conversation can be started around how we can make our newly chosen space safe and free of risks and hazards and even ask the students if we need to choose a more suitable space to play our game. The curriculum talks about games in non-conventional spaces and nature play areas as well as understanding and discussing risk and hazards in the South Australia HPE curriculum across a range of areas. What a great place you for to address those aspects of the curriculum through these chalk-centred games!

There are so many ways you can use chalk to adapt regular games or spaces, you just need to be creative. This could even be a lesson idea, posing to students how they can convert standard games int chalk-based games or create brand new games using chalk to create boundaries instead of regular P.E. equipment.

Hopefully, this has encouraged you to think about chalk differently! These games work, I have done them for years. I try to incorporate chalk in some of my units of work especially when teaching junior years. It’s not only enjoyable and familiar with primary students but it’s also really efficient for me as a teacher as I can use a range of available spaces and only need minimal resources to teach a lesson. It also has so many interesting teaching points which allows me to address so many different aspects of the HPE curriculum.

Here is an example taken directly from the Australian Curriculum V9 (Year 1 and 2) Strand:

Elaboration On: AC9HP2M02

‘Inventing new games, based on rules and equipment from familiar games, and drawing conclusions about whether the rules and choice of equipment provide for an interesting, challenging and enjoyable game’ (ACARA 2024)

Chalk games are perfect for this!!

Indoor Games

We have discussed how we can utilise outdoor space but of course, we can use classrooms if needed. If I have to use a classroom for a practical HPE lesson, generally something has gone wrong! Either the weather is terrible or all available larger indoor spaces are used for assemblies or events. At times I will utilise this time to do health lessons but I think its also important to allow students to understand that even indoor spaces can be used to be active spaces. This is extremely important after the covid pandemic where many of us had to self-isolate. This time indoors allowed us to understand how important physical activity is for our mental and physical well-being and health. Teaching students these games indoors will prepare them for situations where they may need to be indoors but will need tools and an understanding of how they can still be active.

You will need to clear space in the room for obvious safety reasons. Here are a few game ideas you do inside your classroom.

Table Tennis

Push a few class tables together to create a table tennis board and allow students to start playing some net-court and wall games. If you have nets available you can attach them to the tables. There are many great resources now that sell special table tennis nets that can be used indoors. One in particular that I have used in the past is the retractable nets, these can be purchased from many places. In the past, we utilised the ‘Spinaroos’ Table tennis packages through sporting schools. Highly recommend these as they are great for indoor activities.

“Any table can be a Table Tennis table’ (SpinaRoos, Table Tennis Australia, 2024)

Here is an example of their price packages:

Table Tennis is a great sport and students can modify it in so many ways:
Using different shaped tables and a varied amount of tables (creating bigger or smaller playing surfaces)
With or without nets
Creating their own table tennis bats out of paper/cardboard
Using their hands

Hoop Cross | Hoop Games

There are many ways to use Hula-hoops for team building activities. One that I really like which is super simple is asking your students to form linking circles. You could split them up into random teams or into a boys’ team and a girls’ team.

Then ask students to join hands with the students on either side of them. You will place one hoop in between one set of students with them holding hands in the middle of the hoop. You will do the same with the other team.

Students are tasked with trying to get the hoop around the circle without breaking the linkage of hands. Students will need to support each other and move their whole body in order to get the hoops around their body and onto the next person In the circle. Whichever hoop gets around the circle first wins.

(The Washington School For Girls, 2024)

Modifications You Can Make:

Most rotations in a set amount of time
Add different-sized hoops
Make smaller or larger teams
Make the whole class one team
Add more than one hoop (I do this one a lot)
Different coloured hoops that go in different directions
Students aren’t allowed to make a sound and only use non-verbal body language to communicate

Water Pong

Ask students to create a shape using paper cups on either end of the table opposing another player. Let’s say both students create pyramids, 3 paper cups at the back, 2 paper cups in the middle and one paper cup placed on top. Students will then need to use a ping pong ball or scrunched-up foil/paper ball to try and throw it over the table into their opponent’s cups. Each cup that is landed is a score.

This Game Can Be Modified In A Variety Of Ways:

Distance thrown
What is being thrown
Shape of cups
Team games

Twister

Students can play active indoor games that are already created such as Twister. If twister is not available students can use hula hoops instead or anything that can serve as a place mat to play the game. You could even use classroom sit spots for the game.

Just a few examples- you can create a unit on indoor games, and ask students to create indoor games after providing a few examples. You can even use a few of these games together to create a full lesson. The options are endless! Let me know how you go.

Creative Ways To Utilise Indoor & Small Space's for HPE lessons | Under-resourced

Feb 16, 2024