Teachers First - Thinking Teachers Teaching Thinkers

The Jr. NBA at Home initiative is designed to keep young basketball enthusiasts engaged and active at home. It has a collection of instructional videos and exercises focused on fundamental basketball skills such as ball handling, shooting, passing, and footwork. Furthermore, there are guided workouts led by NBA and WNBA players and coaches, providing expert tips and motivational support. This content is available for players and coaches, including practice plans, health and safety tips, and coaching guides.

tag(s): fitness (39), sports (82)

It isn't always possible to participate physically in sports, so Sports Games provides an online option for sports fans. Choose from a large selection of games based on sports, including soccer, basketball, BMX racing, and more. Hover any of the game thumbnails to view the title and select it to go to the game's start page. Some games include options for multiple players.
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tag(s): game based learning (205), sports (82)

This collection of math activities from PBS Learning includes five lesson plans, and five videos focused on practicing and learning math facts. Lessons also integrate physical education into learning activities. Select an activity for an overview of learning objectives and the activity then click on the "view" icon to open a PDF document containing the lesson. Use the links found in each lesson to assign to Google Classroom or share via social media options.

tag(s): addition (129), counting (60), fitness (39), multiplication (122), subtraction (110)

MyNetDiary will help you keep track of calories, exercise, AND also has a support community to give you help with meeting your goals. The community forum is monitored by a registered dietitian for extra support. In addition to calorie counts, the program keeps track of 36 different nutrients (like sodium, saturated fats, calcium, and more). Per the MyNetDiary site, they have "over 800,000 professionally-entered and verified foods with accurate information on servings." There is a free tier of service, plus a premium membership. This review is for the free tier.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), fitness (39), nutrition (140)

My Plate Match is an interactive game for students to learn all about nutrition and healthy eating. Students will learn all about the food groups by dragging and dropping the food items to the appropriate section of their plate. Not only will they learn about the food groups, but they will also learn how to stay active for 60 minutes per day.

tag(s): fitness (39), game based learning (205), nutrition (140)

Maintained by a company that sells pool accessories, this collection of links on swimming, swimming pools, and water-related topics helps teach students about being safe around water. Scroll down the page to see resources organized by grade levels and content areas. The links include research articles, videos, lesson plans, worksheets, experiments, activities, and games for science, math and history classes. If your district blocks YouTube, the videos may not be viewable.
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tag(s): chemicals (41), safety (68), sports (82), water (102)

Ducksters is a safe, extensive, educational portal for kids. Find a wide choice of content such as interactives, sports, movies, and music. Begin by choosing a category to explore choices. The study category includes extensive information such as world history, many biographies, science explanations, and information on all continents and many countries. Interactive subjects include math times tables, checkers, and guess the country. There is a TON here to explore.
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tag(s): addition (129), african american (115), american revolution (82), animal homes (57), animals (295), artists (85), biographies (94), china (81), civil rights (209), civil war (139), cold war (30), continents (33), countries (73), data (151), division (98), egypt (56), elements (34), energy (133), environment (252), explorers (64), fractions (160), friction (9), geometric shapes (135), greece (47), habitats (92), human body (93), inventors and inventions (80), keyboarding (28), mean (19), median (16), mode (13), multiplication (122), planets (113), presidents (135), puzzles (149), recycling (46), renaissance (38), rome (37), solar system (110), sound (72), sports (82), subtraction (110), sun (71), world war 1 (77), world war 2 (161)

Give yourself a brain break using the interactive classroom resources at GoNoodle. These activities promote health, fitness, and mindfulness and are based on cutting edge research. These engaging games and activities provide short bursts of movement leading to improved focus and energy within the classroom. Sign-up using your Google account, or create an account with your email. Signing-up with Google, allows you to sign-in with your Google Classroom account. If you have multiple groups of students (or classes) start by naming your class(es), since each class will show progression on this tool. Choose from Topics, Activities and Routines, Channels, Skills and Knowledge, or New on GoNoodle (directions for registering and other features). Each title has multiple sub-categories. Some options are for paid memberships only. None of the games takes longer than five minutes. While most of these are physical tasks, a few are mental/logic activities. Time required for the activity is shown with each option. Registration does require an email address. If your district blocks YouTube, some activities may not be viewable.

tag(s): classroom management (120), fitness (39), logic (161), preK (271)

Welcome to every PE teacher's best resource: Physical Education Update. Find videos and articles offering thousands of ideas, games, tips, and drills. Follow on an RSS feed or follow on Facebook or X (formerly Twitter). There is a fee-based section for members only. This review only refers to the free area.
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tag(s): fitness (39)

Type in an address and determine the walkability of any location. A map of the address entered displays nearby restaurants, coffee shops, and more that are within one mile of that location. Many, but not all, addresses will also display a walk score rating demonstrating how walkable that area is with a score from 0-100. What a fun way to workout "around the town." More "green" communities often have a better walkability score.
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tag(s): fitness (39), map skills (63), maps (220)

FIT by WebMD is a great website to promote health and healthy opportunities for students of all ages. Explore five different areas of health: Food, Move, Recharge, Healthy Weight, and Mood. The site offers a far healthier approach to fitness than simply weight. Highlights include an age appropriate body mass index calculator, video clips, recipes, age-appropriate articles, and more. There is an entire Parents area so everyone can be involved together.

A free registration gives the member free tools like a Food and Fitness Planner, Vaccine Tracker, Symptom Checker, and many more. The registration information required is minimal and is legally appropriate for the age level.

tag(s): cooking (32), fitness (39), heart (27), myplate (18), obesity (8)

"Lose It!" is a comprehensive calorie counting and activity tracking tool; this website provides a free way to monitor calorie intake and output to lose, maintain, or manage health and weight. With great graphics and an available phone application, this tool is so versatile and easy that even younger students could learn to use it. The database of food includes restaurant, grocery, and generic food brands and types.
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tag(s): calories (6), DAT device agnostic tool (147), fitness (39), nutrition (140), obesity (8), social networking (61)

This PBS site is a reorganized collection of over 16,000+ public media offerings (including radio and photographs), arranged specifically for preK-12 teachers. You can search by subject (the landing page subject is physical education) and grade level across many subjects. After viewing three offerings, you must join (for free) to continue. Membership includes the option of saving favorites. Use the search box at the top to find correlations to state standards. The site is still in development, so material is being added frequently.

tag(s): alphabet (53), careers (156), dance (31), data (151), decimals (85), diseases (67), fitness (39), human body (93), mark twain (8), multimedia (53), music theory (46), percent (59), probability (99), problem solving (233), psychology (65)

Encourage students to get sixty minutes of exercise daily by partnering school workers with this site's two sponsors: the Department of Agriculture and the National Football League. You can join the program for free and see if your school qualifies to receive grants to help educate your students about exercise, nutrition, and healthy eating and also to increase student access to more physical education programs and better foods. Check with your school administrators to be sure it is acceptable to have your school join and to allow your students to individually register. "Quick Start Resources" help you learn how to use the program and set up their class as a team.

tag(s): DAT device agnostic tool (147), fitness (39), nutrition (140)

This is a series of easy-to-use exercise videos, coloring pages, this site makes taking care of young bodies interesting for all. Learn about a healthy diet and fitness for young students. Don't miss the link for The PDF document for the Teacher's Guide.

tag(s): dental health (14), fitness (39), preK (271)

Finding fun and varied activities to keep students moving isn't always easy. The Teacher Toolbox on this site is the perfect find for quick and easy daily activities. After finding the toolbox, scroll down a bit to find the page with the link to calendars. Here is where you will find monthly calendars (in English and Spanish) and divided by age levels - Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary - with a quick and easy physical activity to accomplish for the day. Calendars are also archived back to 2016 so there are several options for each month.

tag(s): calendars (37), fitness (39)

This dandy idea is a clear and concise weekly program to enhance general physical fitness through push-ups. Reading the site is easy; however, beware of some agitating advertisements sprinkled through-out the pages of this site. This would be great for health teachers, physical education teachers, and even school wide health initiatives or challenges. Included on this website are links for two hundred squats, twenty five sit-ups, and twenty-five pull ups. If push-ups are the place you want to start, or if you would like to offer a choice in fitness challenges, these links are worth checking out as alternatives for the teacher running the class or the students' choice. The important thing is to motivate their health with the technology that they already enjoy.

tag(s): human body (93)

The close relationship between promoting physical fitness and the White House can be followed through the many topics at this site: Learn the Facts, Eat Healthy, Get Active, Take Action, and Join Us. Some of the more specific topics highlight how to limit TV time, the importance of trying new fruits and vegetables, planting a garden, and more.

tag(s): fitness (39), myplate (18), nutrition (140), presidents (135)

Long a favorite that has grown immensely since its inception in 1995, PE Central is a massive resource created at Virginia Tech University for physical education teachers. The top menu includes drop-down links for Lesson Plans, Assessments, Best Practices, Professional Development, Class Management, Videos, and more. The body of the page has several helpful categories, such as Bulletin Boards, Skills and Fitness Challenges, Adapted PE, and others. There is more here than can be absorbed in one sitting, so be sure to bookmark this site. The videos are hosted on YouTube. If you district blocks YouTube they may not be viewable.

tag(s): adaptations (16), dance (31), fitness (39), nutrition (140), Special Needs (53), sports (82), video (266)