Overview

Skip the screen this summer and get outside! Enjoy the outdoors and get your heart pumping with a Backyard Fitness Circuit Course.  Fitness circuit courses are a fun and interactive way for anyone to be physically active. These courses consist of setting up several stations of different activities that kids rotate through in a short period of time (one or two minutes).

Take Action

Consider including some of these fitness stations in your Backyard Fitness Circuit Course:

• Movement Dice: On index cards, write down 10 different exercises such as push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, etc. Randomly pick a card. Using dice, roll a number. That’s the number of exercises you’ll need to do!
• Throw a Frisbee to a target. How many times can you hit the target before rotating to the next station?
• Pull a wagon along a sidewalk chalk path.
• Throw bean bags into a laundry basket or corn hole set.
• Basketball throw! How many baskets can you make?
• Throw a water balloon at a target.
• Walk the tight rope using a jump rope or garden hose. If you fall off, you have to start again!
• “Army crawl” from one cone to another.
• Bowling: Using half-filled water bottles, arrange them in the shape of a triangle. Using a heavier ball, try to knock down all the bottles.
• Water Bottle Toss: Set up 10-20 half-filled water bottles in the shape of a rectangle. Using diving rings, see if you can toss the rings onto the water bottles.
• Hula Hoop Hop: Spread hula hoops hopping distance apart so you have to hop from one to another without stepping outside of the hoops.
• Balloon Hunt: Inflate 5 balloons for each child participating. Using an upside-down laundry basket, try to capture all of the balloons as they try to float away.
• Shoe Box Race: Place a shoebox on each person’s feet. Run to the cone and back as fast as possible without falling.
• Noodle Toss: Hang a hula hoop from a tree. Using pool noodles, see how many noodles you can throw through the hula hoop before rotating to the next station!
• Run through the sprinkler (this is good for the finale!)

Social Emotional Health Highlights

Activities such as these help students explore…

Self-Awareness and Social Awareness: Encourage children to use their creativity to come up with their own ideas for stations in a backyard fitness circuit! Involving children in the creation of a backyard fitness circuit course may help them to develop a better understanding of the mind-body connection. Children may have an idea but quickly realize that it is too simple or too challenging, improving self-perception and recognition of modifications needed to create an environment inclusive to all.

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