3 Crazy Fun WINTER PE Games Your Elementary Students Will Love!
Bring winter fun to your gym with these 3 Easy and Fun Elementary Whole Class WINTER PE Games.
Build teamwork, fitness, and excitement about the winter weather in gym class with: SNOWBALL ISLAND, ICE SKATING TAG, and SNOWBALL ATTACK.
3 Winter PE Games
Your physical education students will absolutely love playing these three Awesome Winter PE games.
They’re not only fast-paced and extremely engaging, they also provide students with opportunities to enjoy the fun of the snowy season while practicing key Standard-based skills including, overhand throwing, sliding, running, teamwork, and more.
3 WINTER PE GAMES – FUN BUNDLE
Get Your Winter PE Games Fun Bundle RIGHT HERE
Additionally, all three games are easily adaptable and suitable for students in kindergarten all the way up to fifth grade without much need for any special accommodations.
These three games are a MUST-HAVE for your PE teacher toolkit. Simply print the lesson plans and keep in your Instant PE Game Binder so you’re always prepared with quick, easy, and crazy fun, go-to activities your students will request again and again, all winter long!
In this post love2teachandlearn (Mrs. T.) will share every awesome detail related to how to play these incredible Winter PE Games.
Hi there, it’s so great to meet you! I’m Mrs. T. (or you can call me Jen) – a Michigan mom, wife, new grandma (aka “Jemma”) and K-12 PE teacher who has also taught Kindergarten, 3rd, and 6th grades.
I love teaching PE class because I get to spend time telling silly sports jokes and exercising while laughing with my students.
So, if you’re ready, I’m ready to play some super awesome Winter PE Games.
READY! SET! LET’S PLAY SOME WINTER PE GAMES!
SNOWBALL ISLAND
This whole class game focuses on overhand throwing accuracy, while practicing evasion techniques, and improving cardiovascular fitness.
Students will love the winter theme as they attempt to evade safe “snowballs” being thrown by their classmates standing on SNOWBALL ISLAND.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
To play this winter PE game you are going to need a few pieces of equipment including:
- 4-5 Medium-Sized EXERCISE MATS
- MUSIC
- Bucket of FAKE INDOOR SNOWBALLS or PAPER WADS or Basket of SMALL, SOFT BALLS
- *OPTIONAL – Large Soft Playground or Bouncy Ball (Magic Snowball)
EASY GAME SET-UP
FIRST, place the 4 exercise mats in a square formation (see diagram below).
NEXT, If you have a circle in the middle of your gym, send one student to the middle (SNOWBALL ISLAND) with the bucket of snowballs.
If you don’t have a circle in the middle of your gym, you’ll need to lay down a 5th exercise mat in the middle to act as your SNOWBALL ISLAND.
THEN, Divide the rest of the students up as evenly as you can.
FINALLY, send them to stand on the 4 outside mats – safe islands.
HOW TO PLAY – Snowball Island
Explain to the class that the student in the middle is the SNOWBALL KING OR QUEEN standing on SNOWBALL ISLAND with all of the snowballs. The rest of the students should be evenly spread out on the 4 “safe” islands or mats.
The game begins with fun music. When the teacher starts the music, all students on the “safe islands” must run (in a counter-clockwise direction) to the next safe island and stop there.
The OBJECT is to make it to the next mat (safe island) without getting hit by a snowball.
The “Snowball King or Queen” overhand throws one, or two, (you decide) snowballs as the students are running to the safe islands, trying to hit someone.
The teacher pauses the music after about 5-10 seconds. If a runner gets hit with a snowball before they reach the next safe island, they must head to SNOWBALL ISLAND, join the Snowball King/Queen, and become a snowball thrower with them.
When the snowball throwers in the middle are ready, start the music up again and have students run to the next safe island. The game continues until there is only one student/runner left.
They WIN THE GAME and are declared the new Snowball King or Queen.
When you play again, that student should start as the new Snowball King or Queen in the middle.
BONUS GAME TEACHING TIPS
- TIP #1: It’s really fun to play the song FROSTY THE SNOWMAN with this game.
- TIP #2: To keep the game moving right along, I make a rule where if a student is caught between safe zones and the music stops they automatically must go to the middle and become a snowball thrower. This helps eliminate the students who like to hang out on the “safe zone mats” for just a little too long.
- TIP #3: The fake snowballs work the best (order from Amazon) for this game. But, if you don’t have indoor snowballs you can easily just use small, soft balls (Gator Skin Balls work great). You can also use paper wads but, honestly, they don’t work nearly as well as the balls or snowballs.
- TIP #4: I recently started sending the Snowball King/Queen to the middle with a giant soft ball, calling it the “Magic snowball” and allowing them to throw that instead of the fake snowballs. It works especially well with the younger grades and helps them to get someone to “Snowball Island” to help them a bit quicker.
- TIP #5: I also like to play a version where if a student catches a snowball while they are running to a “safe Island” they get to free one person from Snowball Island and get them back in the game.
ICE SKATING TAG
ICE SKATING TAG will definitely be an awesome addition to your physical education curriculum this winter season!
This unique PE game is designed to engage elementary students in a fun, active, and skill-building gym game that simulates ice skating indoors.
This exciting PE game focuses on developing sliding skills, evasion techniques, and cardiovascular fitness. Students will love pretending to ice skate using paper plates as “skates” while playing a crazy fun tag game.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
To play this Ice Skating Tag game you are going to need a few pieces of equipment including:
- 3-4 BLUE POOL NOODLES
- 2 RED HULA HOOPS
- PAPER PLATES – Enough for each student to have two
- KIDS ready to have some SERIOUS FUN
EASY GAME SET-UP
FIRST, give all students a pair of skates (2 paper plates).
THEN, choose 3-4 students to be the “Ice Taggers”, give each tagger a blue pool noodle and send them to the middle of the gym.
NEXT, choose 2 students to give the 2 red hula hoops (Hot Hoops) to.
FINALLY, have those students and all others spread out on the skating rink (gym floor) with their skates.
HOW TO PLAY – Ice Skating Tag
Explain to the students that the gym floor is the ice skating rink for this game. Students will be using the paper plates as their skates. They will simply step on them with their shoes on and glide across the gym floor.
When the music starts or the game begins, the “Ice Taggers” will skate along trying to tag other skaters using their blue pool noodle. If a skater gets tagged, they turn into a frozen icicle. They must freeze with their hands in the air, making a point, like an icicle.
The skaters with the Hot Hoops (red hoops) have the power to melt the icicles and get them back in the game. They do this by skating over to an icicle and dropping the red hoop over them (thawing them out).
The rescued skater now picks up the Hot Hoop and looks for another icicle to rescue. Students with the Hot Hoops CAN NOT BE TAGGED by the Ice Taggers.
After a minute or so, switch taggers. Play as many rounds needed to give everyone a chance to be an ice tagger.
BONUS GAME TEACHING TIPS
- TIP #1: I like to play the song ‘LET IT GO’ from the Disney movie, FROZEN, when I play this ice skating tag game. The kids either love or hate that song (little kids usually love it and the older kids SAY they hate it (LOL) but even the kids who hate it have a blast when I play it. It’s so fun to hear them silly sing it at the top of their lungs.
- TIP #2: Instead of paper plates, you can use juggling scarves for the skates. Or, I’ve even had the kids just take their shoes off and play in their socks.
- TIP #3: Let them know that they need to press down with their feet & put a little pressure on the paper plates. This will help keep the skates on. For students with bigger feet, I’ve found that the bigger paper plates with the lip/edge on them work a little better than the smaller, cheaper ones. SO FUN!
SNOWBALL ATTACK
This exciting winter PE game focuses on developing overhand throwing accuracy, dodging and fleeing skills, while improving cardiovascular fitness.
Students will have a blast attempting to evade safe “snowballs” being thrown across the gym by the SNOWBALL KING or QUEEN.
EQUIPMENT NEEDED
To play this winter PE game you are going to need a few pieces of equipment including:
- Bucket of FAKE INDOOR SNOWBALLS or PAPER WADS or Basket of SMALL, SOFT BALLS
- KIDS READY TO HAVE A BLAST!
Easy Game Set-Up
FIRST, choose one student to be the Snowball King or Queen.
THEN, send the Snowball King/Queen to the middle of the gym with a bucket of fake snowballs.
NEXT, have the Snowball King/Queen grab 2 snowballs.
FINALLY, have all of the other students line up on an end line in the gym.
HOW TO PLAY – Snowball Attack
OBJECT OF THE GAME: Make it safely across the gym to the opposite end line of the gym without getting hit with a snowball & be the last snowball survivor.
The game begins with the Snowball King/Queen standing in the middle of the gym (two snowballs in hands) and yelling “SNOWBALL GO”.
Once the Snowball King/Queen yells those words, the students on the end line run across the gym attempting to make it to the other side of the gym without getting hit with a snowball by the Snowball King/Queen.
If a student gets hit, they join the Snowball King/Queen and become a snowball thrower.
Once all of the students have made it to the opposite end of the gym, the Snowball King and all other snowball throwers grab 2 more snowballs and begin a new round with kids running from end line to end line again after hearing the start words.
- After the Snowball King/Queen shouts “SNOWBALL GO” they have free reign of the gym and can throw their snowballs from anywhere in the gym.
- Snowball throwers, however, can only move along the middle line of the gym when throwing their two snowballs.
The game continues until you only have one snowball survivor left.
They WIN the game and become the new Snowball King/Queen who starts the next game.
BONUS GAME TEACHING TIPS
- TIP 1: The fake snowballs work the best (order from Amazon) for this game. If you don’t have indoor snowballs you can easily just use small, soft balls (Gator Skin Balls work great). You can also use paper wads but, honestly, they don’t work nearly as well as the balls or snowballs.
- TIP 2: To keep the game moving right along, I make a rule where if one or more students are taking too long to make it to the opposite end line of the gym, I simply shout out a countdown from 10. If they haven’t crossed by the time I get to zero, they are automatically eliminated and must become a snowball thrower.
“SNOW” MUCH FUN!
Spark joy and enthusiasm in the gym this snowy season with these 3 Super Fun Winter PE Games.
And hey – guess what? Don’t forget that you can grab your very own Winter PE Games Fun Bundle RIGHT HERE!
So, what do you say? Why not blast some “clean” and upbeat PE music , maybe tell a few silly Winter Jokes or funny sports jokes and bring the excitement of these super fun Winter PE Games to your gymnasium today!
Mrs. T’s K-5 PE GAMES GROWING BUNDLE
And if you really want the absolute BIGGEST BANG FOR YOUR BUCK, these 3 Winter PE Games are also included in my “ALWAYS GROWING” K-5 PE Game GROWING BUNDLE too!
You can snag my Physical Education HUGE GROWING BUNDLE Right Here.
Thanks so much for stopping by to learn all about my Winter PE Games. I really appreciate it.
Have a FABULOUS Day filled with plenty of FUN and FITNESS! See you soon!
Be sure to check out my other unique and fun PE Resources and Games in my Love 2 Teach and Learn TPT store RIGHT HERE!
