Introducing the skeletal system and teaching the names of bones in PE
I am a firm believer in introducing or reintroducing some anatomy in PE. I think students need to understand their bodies and how they work to fully understand WHY physical activity is important. For the skeletal system here are some things I do in my classroom to make sure I am ensuring movement AND knowledge.
When I introduce new material, I make sure I give knowledge but also make sure students are moving. The activity I use for this I created and has station. Students partner up and go to each station. The cards have information on them about the skeletal system as well as exercises to perform at each station. There’s a corresponding worksheet they fill out as they go around. We gather up at the end and discuss as well as elaborate more on the answers on the worksheet. (I use this in a 90 min class but you could break it down over multiple classes if you wanted). The link to the product is below.
After this activity I harp a lot on the benefits of bone loading exercise and why it’s important at different stages of life. As this unit progresses I make sure they understand the difference in bone strengthening and muscle strengthening and what types of activities do which.
Day 2 Introducing the Skeleton
For the warm up and active part of class we play Head-Shoulders-Knees- Cone but with a twist! I have included a video tutorial below. The students LOVE this activity and buy into it every single time! For my version you would need dumbbells, but could easily do this with body weight exercises instead.
At the end students label a skeleton sheet with the names of the bones. They keep it and have it to practice the names of bones for later lessons.
Day 3- Bones Graveyard/Buy a Bone
I began by setting up these bones puzzles in the middle of the gym in a “graveyard”. I had 5 different puzzles that I put in the graveyard. I wrapped twine around the chairs just to make it harder to get into the graveyard. I then grouped students into 5ish teams and had them relay race style run the get the bones out of the graveyard to build their skeleton (which they will later label). If they touch the twine they had to run and touch the bleachers before they could go back and try again. It added a little mission impossible fun to the activity.
Once they had built their skeleton they began to “buy” the names of the bones. I created money that had the name of a bone and an exercise. They would do the exercise and earn the labeling card for their skeleton. First team to correctly label their skeleton wins! I would suggest having a student helper for this because being the only one to demo exercises as well as give them the cards they earned was kind of a lot. I also made them only come one at a time from a team and rotate.
*I will like the skeleton puzzles at the bottom of this page*
Here are the freebies for this activity
- Names of bones printable (FREE)- https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/26-Names-of-Bones-Printable-Cards-7587926?utm_source=EAA%20Blog&utm_campaign=Skeletal%20System%20Blog%20Post
- Purchase a bone money (FREE) –
The goal at the end of these 3 lessons that they will know the names of the bones and have learned some new strengthening exercises. From here we move on to the muscular system and really dive into resistance training and why it’s important.
Elliott's Active Academy 