Warm-Up Your Heart

Equipment/Space Needed:

• Large Hall

Instructions:

• The teacher stands at the front and facing the class.
• The teacher assigns movements to numbers that will be called out.
  
  For example:

1. Sprint
2. Jump
3. Touch the ground

• Everyone jogs around the hall.
• The teacher calls a number and everyone does the corresponding movement for the number called. For example, the teacher calls out “1” and everyone sprints.
• This is repeated with the teacher calling out the different numbers for about a few minutes until the class is warmed up.

Stretches:

After the warm-up, get the students to perform dynamic stretches targeting the following muscle groups in preparation for the activities:

• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Gastrocnemius and soleus (calves)
• Deltoids (shoulders)
• Biceps and triceps (upper arms)
• Trapezius (upper back)
• Pectoralis major and minor (chest)

Bean Bags and Blood Vessels

Equipment/Space Needed:

• Large hall
• A sheet of paper with “HEART” written on it (per team)
• A sheet of paper with “BODY” written on it (per team)
• A sheet of paper with “LUNGS” written on it (per team)
• Tape or blue tack
• 2 baskets (per team), about the size of a typical laundry basket
• 5-10 blue  bean  bags  (per  team)  which  represent  carbon  dioxide  in  the  blood
• 5-10 red bean bags (per team) which represent oxygen in the blood
• Note: Bean bags can be substituted with balls or even crumpled pieces of red and blue paper.

Preparation:

• Secure the sheet of paper with “BODY” written on it to the first basket using tape or blue tack.
• Put the blue bean bags into the “BODY” basket.
• Secure the sheet of paper with “LUNGS” written on it to the second basket using tape or blue tack.
• Put the red bean bags into the “LUNGS” basket.
• Put the “BODY” and “LUNGS” baskets on one side of the room.
• On the other side of the room, secure the sheet of paper with “HEART” written on it to the wall using tape or blue tack.

Instructions:

• Students are grouped into teams of 4 (or a number divisible by 4).
• Half the students on a team line up on one side of the hall, and the other half line up on the other side of the hall.
• The teacher says “Ready, steady, go”.
• Student 1 from each team takes a blue bean bag (carbon dioxide) from the “BODY”  basket.  (Student 1  represents  blood  carrying  carbon  dioxide  and the sprinting path a vein from the body to the heart).
• Student 1 sprints across to the other side of the room where a teammate, Student 2, is waiting with his/her hand on the “HEART” sign that is taped to the wall.
• Student 1 hands over the blue bean bag to Student 2.
• Student 2 releases his/her hand from the “HEART” sign and sprints across to the other side of the room. (Student 2 represents blood carrying carbon dioxide and the sprinting path the pulmonary artery from the heart to the lungs).
• Note: Student 2 can only release his/her hand from the “HEART” sign and start sprinting when he/she has the blue bean bag.
• Student 2 puts the blue bean bag into the “LUNGS” basket.
• Student 3 grabs a red bean bag from the “LUNGS” basket.
• Note: Student 3 can only grab a red bean bag from the “LUNGS” basket after Student 2 has released the blue bean bag.
• Student 3 sprints across to the other side of the room where a teammate, Student 4, is waiting with his/her hand on the “HEART” sign that is taped to the wall. (Student 3 represents blood carrying oxygen and the sprinting path the pulmonary vein from the lungs to the heart.)
• Student 4 releases his/her hand from the “HEART” sign and sprints across to the other side of the room. (Student 4 represents blood carrying oxygen and the sprinting path the aorta from the heart to the body).
• Student 4 puts the red bean bag into the “BODY” basket.
• The sequence is repeated until the “BODY” basket is full of the red  bean bags and the “LUNGS” basket is full of blue bean bags.
• Whatever  team  fills  the  “BODY”  basket  with  the red  bean  bags  and“LUNGS” basket with the blue bean bags first wins.

Oxygen Tag

Equipment/Space Needed:

• Large hall
• 8-10 blue  bean  bags  (per  team)  which  represent  carbon  dioxide  in  the  blood
• 8-10 red bean bags (per team) which represent oxygen in the blood
• Note: Bean bags can be substituted with balls or even crumpled pieces of red and blue paper.

 Instructions:

• The  teacher  divides  the  class  into  three  teams  with  equal  numbers  of  students:
  
  1. Oxygens
  2. Carbon Dioxides
  3. Cells

• Each student from the Oxygens team gets a red bean bag.
• Each student from the Carbon Dioxides team gets a blue bean bag.
• The teacher says “Ready, steady, go”!
• The students on the Carbon Dioxides team try to tag the students on the Cells team.
• If a student from the Cells team gets tagged by a student from the Carbon Dioxides team, they have to stop running and stay on the spot they were tagged, i.e. the student is “frozen”.
• The frozen student cannot move unless they are tagged by a student from the Oxygens team.
• If the Carbon Dioxides team manages to freeze all of the students on the Cells team at the same time, then they are the winners.
• If  the  Oxygens  team  manages  to  prevent  all  of  the  students  on  the  Cells  team from being frozen at the same time after a predetermined amount of time, then they are the winners.
• Once  the  winning  team  is  determined,  have  the  students  change  teams  and play again. For example, students who were on the Cells team switch to the Carbon Dioxides team; students who were on the Carbon Dioxides team switch to the Oxygens team; and students who were on the Oxygens team switch to the Cells team.

Stretches

Get  the  students  to  perform  static  stretches targeting  the  following  muscle  groups that were worked during the activities:

• Hamstrings
• Quadriceps
• Gastrocnemius and soleus (calves)
• Deltoids (shoulders)•Biceps and triceps (upper arms)
• Trapezius (upper back)
• Pectoralis major and minor (chest)