Are you a physical educator hoping to maintain your students’ physical education with schools shutting down? Are you having trouble finding an enriching PE curriculum for home? Well, look no further!
Starting today, Active Schools has teamed up with the Online Physical Education Network (OPEN) to launch “Bring PE to your Family Week,” which is an educator-led initiative that invites families to join their child virtually for physical education. From October 19-23, physical educators around the country will virtually participate in PE activities that the whole family can enjoy, and OPEN is providing a list of resources tailored to each specific age group that families can utilize.
Participate in Bring PE to Your Family Week:
Step 1. Take two minutes out of your day and register your school for this advocacy event. Active Schools can bring media attention to Bring PE to Your Family Week if they’re able to report a high rate of participation. Once you register, the Bring PE to Your Family logo (in various formats) will be emailed to you.
Step 2. Set the date for your Bring PE to Your Family Week. If the dates of Oct. 19-23 don’t work for you, it’s not a problem! You can pick a date that does work for you, and the resources will be available through the rest of the year. You can use this parent letter template to reach parents in your school district.
Step 3. Download the lesson resources provided by OPEN for the age groups you teach.
Step 4. Plan one or two lessons with the Bring PE to Your Family theme. The lessons range from routine physical activities to understanding nutrition.
Step 5. Be sure to use #FamiliesLovePE on all social media channels to share screenshots, parent testimonials, and advocacy gems for the #PhysEd world to enjoy. You can also encourage parents to promote the week as well.
Step 6. Ask your principal or another department head to record a short video discussing the importance of physical education. This is something you can use at the beginning of each video you make.
If you’re a little unsure about how a virtual PE lesson would look like, no worries! There’s an entire YouTube playlist that has a free example of a lesson for every single age group! So get moving and take physical education to your students’ families!