July 7, 2025 • 22 mins
Greetings PE Nation!
Ready to start a new school year or new program? Today we explore the nine essential equipment pieces needed to start an effective PE program from scratch, based on experience establishing two programs with minimal resources.
• Sound system is the top priority for making activities more engaging and fun
• Cones serve countless purposes from boundaries to stations to improvised equipment
• Tennis balls provide exceptional value, especially when acquired through donations
• Pool noodles transform games with their safety, affordability, and versatility
• Hula hoops function as collection areas, targets, safety zones, and improvised goals
• Pins provide targets for bowling, hockey, and throwing games
• Gator Skin balls serve multiple functions beyond just dodgeball activities
• Beanbags offer texture variety for throwing, catching, balancing, and point systems
• Poly spots create designated spaces for seating, scoring positions, and game elements
Happy summer,
Dave
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• Free ebook on setting up your PE program, especially helpful for newer teachers
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dave (00:10):
Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast.
My name is Dave and today Iwant to talk about your PE
equipment starter pack.
Yes, essential equipment tostart at a new school or a new
program somewhere.
This is going to be level one,just the very bare bones, the
basic stuff you need.
(00:31):
You absolutely must have, orshould have, to start an
effective PE program.
So, without further ado, herewe go.
All right, welcome in everybodyand welcome to my new listeners
(00:55):
.
I see you from all over theworld.
Actually it's pretty coolseeing that.
Um, you know, I I know we havedifferent everything, different
equipment, different facilities,different everything, but we
all can agree on wanting aneffective PE program.
So, thank you so much fortuning in and, yeah, love to
(01:16):
have you.
It's been awesome.
So today again I want to talkabout what you need to start a
program from scratch, and I'vedone that twice already.
I've been to two schools whereI just walked in and, yeah, we
had stuff, but I also threw outa bunch of garbage too, like a
bunch of crap that I just neverused and it was old.
(01:36):
So these are just for peoplethat are just starting from
absolute scratch, and I've seenit before where people post it
online.
Like you know, help, I havenothing.
So here's the bare minimumthings I think you need to have.
And as you grow your program,I'm going to put out the next
couple levels as we go, but thisis going to be like level one,
you know, from the ground, fromground zero.
(01:58):
Here's what you need and we'llmake this a boomer.
So here's number one here, andwe'll make this a boomer.
So here's number one.
Here we go.
All right, number one I'm goingto say sound system.
So now you can debate me onthis one, because when I came
into both my programs, they didnot use music, and I think
that's a crime, it just is.
(02:19):
You got to have music, you, youknow, maybe it's.
I think it's more of a factthan an opinion.
So, man, it's just, I think youjust need it.
It's more fun for the students,especially the little ones,
like I do.
You know we use music forwarm-ups, for stations, for free
(02:39):
time, um, just all the time.
And you know it just makeseverything better.
It makes everything more fun.
It can start the signal of aclass, of your class, like it
does with mine.
I make my music montages andthat's how we do our warms with
music every single day, unlessthere's like testing going on or
something, we can't use music.
I mean, it is like every day westart with a song or a little
(03:04):
music mix and on fun Fridays theolder boys and girls lead the
dances.
Like, I teach them these movesand I'm not a good dancer at all
, but you know basic stuff likeYMCA kind of stuff, you know
like line dances, things likethat, and sometimes we'll use
(03:24):
music as a transition tostations, either signaling the
end of a station, end of a class.
Sometimes we use them duringgames.
We'll play a game called StarWars and I'll play Star Wars
music or Pirates of theCaribbean.
It makes everything better,it's more fun right At the very
end of class.
(03:45):
I don't do this a lot, butsometimes on free days or
something we might have a fewextra minutes and I'll play like
a name, that tune kind of game.
So you know I just it's fun andagain, it helps signal
different things as well.
You know, in this case, or in mycase, you know if the music's
on during a game, they canfreely.
You know, if they have to gobathroom, get a drink, do what
(04:10):
they have to do without you knowasking, say, hey, can I?
You know, whatever, it's, justgo.
If the music's you know off,then they know it's time to
listen to the coach or we'redoing a group.
You know strategy, you knowtalk kind of thing.
So you know, music is a greatthing to have and that is the
first thing I think you shouldhave.
And in my case I had a soundsystem, a huge sound system.
It's more built for what I wastold like a high school stadium.
(04:32):
It was really loud at my formerschool and I didn't have really
.
I do have one at my currentschool, but it's not very good
and it's not wireless.
So I just have a you know blockrocker that I bring out and you
know I bought with school moneyand you know I use it every day
.
So, no excuses, get some music,let's go.
That's number one.
All right, before I get tonumber two, I want to remind you
(04:57):
that you can hear some birdsand if you're hearing beeping,
sometimes it's the garbage truckis here, my neighborhood.
Um, it's not in your head.
So sorry, I'm on my little aneye recording this.
So yeah, anyways, let's get tonumber two.
Number two is cones, and they'reI mean, they're just the basic
need for any program.
(05:18):
Even if you're inside, youstill need cones, just you know,
for a lot of things, but ifyou're outside they're essential
.
So here's some of the ways weuse cones and, by the way, I get
lots of different kinds ofcones.
I get the real cheap orangedomes like you use in soccer, or
even the bigger cones, liketall cones, to put hula hoops
(05:40):
over, things like that.
So here's some of the main wayswe use cones, first of all for
boundaries of a game.
And it's some of the main wayswe use cones, first of all for
boundaries of a game.
And it's funny teachingkindergarten boundaries in a
game.
It's like we put those conesout there for a reason.
I promise you do not go outsidethe boundaries and you know
we'll try to make it a game likeOK, this is Gotham City and you
have to stay within theboundaries of the city and
they'll go off and run aroundthe field and whatever, but it's
(06:04):
to work on the boundaries.
Obviously, with cones we putstation numbers over top of them
, especially on field days,things like that.
I have some things you drapeover the cones with numbers and
even station titles, things likethat you can slip the cards in
there, so things you can putover top of the cones.
With our obstacle course wemake tunnels by connecting
(06:26):
broken who hoops, like half whohoops, and we connect them with
the cones.
Uh, you can make actually Ididn't put this in my article
but and I'm going to link thearticle in the show notes, but
in the article um, I did not putthis and I just thought of this
um, you know, you could put, uh, jump ropes over top of them,
like connect them and makealmost like a little net kind of
(06:48):
thing.
Or you can connect anything tothe things two cones, like make
a line over top of it so you canhit over and pick a ball or
something like that.
All right, like I said, youcould put, like, if you have a
big one, a big cone, you couldkind of put the hula hoops over
top of them.
When the kids are done for theday In certain games we do that
you can use them as batting tees.
(07:09):
When we do baseball, ourbaseball unit, we use the large
tees or large cones as teesbecause, as I'm sure a lot of
you have had trouble in the pastwith tees, they break really
easily because the kids aretaking sledgehammers to them and
they're not very accurate.
So definitely use those fortees.
(07:29):
Sometimes I'll use thesoccer-style cones as like ball
rests, like I'll put them on top.
I use the brain balls and I'lljust rest them on top of the
soccer cones.
And even like cone-flippinggames, like water bottle
flipping, we will use the youknow little cones for that.
So just get a lot of cones, alot of colors, a lot of sizes
(07:51):
and along with the colors, likeI like when I saw my variety
here, you know that coulddesignate okay, the red team, go
over here by the red cone, andyou know purple and so forth,
and we do that a lot.
So that's number two.
You definitely need a lot ofcones.
Number three is tennis balls.
I have a ton of tennis ballsand now if you don't call your
(08:13):
local tennis club I did this andask, just be like, hey, are
there any tennis balls you'regoing to throw out?
I'm just willing to donate andI've done this a couple of of
times and you might call aroundand be like, nah, we don't have
anything.
But if you get a goodconnection, which I did the
guy's like, hey, yeah, just letme know Anytime every couple of
months I might have some for you.
(08:34):
He gave me a couple of garbagebags full of tennis balls and
they're not going to give youthe best ones, but they also
didn't give you or didn't giveme like garbage ones.
They gave me some good ones.
They're just not brand new.
So I use tennis balls for a lotof reasons.
So here's some of the reasonsor some of the things I use
tennis balls for.
I use them for points in a game, like let's say, okay, go grab
(08:57):
a tennis ball, bring it back.
That's like treasure.
I use them for like a rainy dayunder the pavilion, because
everybody, I have enough whereevery child can have one.
So then we'll do things likewe'll roll to a partner or we'll
bounce and catch or we'll youknow they'll kind of follow me
doing the cha-cha slide, youknow, bouncing a ball and things
like that.
So again, it's something thatevery child can have.
(09:21):
If you have a lot of them andthere's not a lot of equipment
that I have that every childwill have one.
If I have 100 kids, but I havewell over 100 tennis balls, um,
you use for bowling, for hockey.
If you don't have any.
The orange balls, um, andspeaking hockey, I use them in
my game called pinball, which,um, these are all in the article
I wrote.
(09:41):
If you want to check out theshow notes, the game pinball.
I just dump a ton of tennisballs on the court and the kids
are just shooting at pins andthen we use them for golf.
That's our golf balls.
From First Tee.
They use the clubs to striketennis balls.
I'm sure there's more that Iuse them for, that I'm not even
(10:03):
thinking of right now, buttennis balls are just great and
you need to have a lot of them,all right.
Number four is noodles.
Yeah, noodles make everythingbetter.
They're cheap, safe, fun, youknow, especially during the
COVID time.
You know, just tagging, and weuse them a lot for tagging, by
(10:23):
the way, and here's some of theways besides tagging, we use
them and, as a matter of fact,when we do tag, I usually cut
them in half.
Um, you use them as a baton ifyou're passing them, like a half
noodle to pass.
Um, you can use them forbalancing and throwing.
Uh, again, usually half noodles, just kind of balance on your
hand or balance, however youwant to do it, and you know they
(10:44):
walk around things like that,or throwing, like a javelin that
could be a half or whole noodle, um, collecting as treasure.
You want to cut them up, and Idon't do this a lot because
we're we have a lot of wind, butif you're inside, you cut them
up and they're treasure.
Or, and as a matter of fact,with treasure, the next thing is
stacking them so you can stackthe little.
They're called noodle bits.
(11:04):
Stacking them is so you canstack the little.
They're called noodle bits.
Stacking them is just a greatum, I can't we.
I don't do it a lot because wehave a lot of wind, but if
you're inside it'd be a greatgame.
Uh, or just any game, just addthat you know little layer to it
.
There's different noodlechannels.
You can do just pull, balance,helicopter hopping over it, um,
or even using as a jump rope.
So, um, when I cut them, I usea steak knife or scissors and
(11:28):
I'll usually mark a line on thembeforehand to be as accurate as
I can.
So definitely get a lot ofnoodles.
They are a game changer.
Number five are hula hoops.
I am not good at hula hoopingand I'm going to throw jump
roping in here.
I didn't put this in thearticle.
But hula hoops and jump ropes.
I am good at jump roping.
(11:49):
I'm pretty good.
I'm not great.
I don't do all the tricks andstuff.
But, um, hula hooping I cannotget it at all.
My mom is actually really goodat hula hooping.
She's won good contests oncruise ships and stuff like that
and I I have a lot of kids thatcan hula hoop for hours.
That is not me yet.
Right, you got to use the wordyet I'm not going to give up.
They've tried to teach mebefore a lot of the kids and
(12:11):
they're very, very sweet, likehere, coach, here's how you do
it.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, Ijust can't do it.
But hula hoops are great for alot of different things.
So I use hula hoops for a placeto collect and organize my
(12:32):
treasure.
In many games like bring itback to the hoop and you know
they can organize things.
We have the small tag ed ballswith the names and or not names,
but the letters and numbers onthem and they make you know.
They put them in the hula hoopand they make different words.
You can use them as top golftargets, like when you're
golfing there's targets, beanbagtoss targets In a tagging game
(12:58):
where you slide the hoop.
You slide it like soccer styleTo make hula huts or castles,
whatever you want to call them,as spinning timers, as a
basketball net for youngerstudents who can't reach the
goal, like you put on the rim,and as safety spots in certain
games, like certain capture flagtype games.
We might add some safety zoneswhere it's a hula hoop or the
(13:19):
floor is lava kind of thing,where you have to make it across
the river or whatever.
Those are safety zones or hoops.
Just use your imagination andhave a bunch of different colors
and everything.
So yeah, hula hoops, gamechanger.
Number five All right, right,number six are pins, and I'm
always looking for a good pin,like always most of the pins I
(13:43):
have.
Okay, here's the pins I have.
I have actual, real bowlingpins.
They're old and they've beenthere probably 20 years in my
pavilion or my office kind ofthing, and they're heavy,
they're really heavy, so wedon't use them a thing.
And they're heavy, they'rereally heavy, so we don't use
them a lot.
I mean, they're real bowlingpins.
Then I have some that are waytoo light.
I have plastic ones.
I have um, kind of like foamones, like nerf kind of things,
(14:05):
and those ones break all thetime.
By the way, I use those a lot,but they they fall over in the
wind.
Kids hit them too hard in theneck kind of area of it of them
and I have to duct tape them allthe time.
I have the thin ones, the realthin ones again, the wind if.
If you're inside, you don'thave some of these problems.
But I have a lot of problemswith the wind and pins.
So the best ones are the onesyou can fill with sand or water,
(14:27):
and I have those at my formerschool, I think I found similar
ones and I just got them at theend of the school year.
So I'm going to use them nextthis coming school year.
In the meantime I created a gameand again, this is all in the
episode notes, the show notescalled Splat Ball.
I filled tennis ball cans justa little bit of the way with
water, so they're not too light,they're not too heavy, they're
(14:48):
perfect as far as the weight.
But then, hey, this is anoutside game, right, I'm talking
outside.
When the kids hit them, theyfall over and they usually burst
open for playing hockey or,just like with gator skin balls,
throw them at the pins or evenfoaling like football bowling.
They knock them over and theysplat and the kids love them and
(15:12):
fortunately, if you're outsideplaying it on the court during a
hot season which we're inFlorida, it's almost always hot
it dries really fast.
But anyways, you've got to getsome kind of pins.
They're just great for any kindof target game and you know,
again, it's just something youneed to have, something I use
all the time for soccer, forhockey, for bowling, for
(15:34):
anything.
So get some pins, let's go.
That's number six.
All right.
Number seven are Gator SkinBalls, and this is not a
dodgeball debate, I could gothere right now, but these are
great for, like, a lot of thingsGator Skin Balls are.
I mean, I use them for a ton ofdifferent games, a ton of
(15:56):
different activities, and here'ssome of them I use them to bowl
with, obviously to roll to apartner, like just roll or throw
back and forth to a partner,especially the little ones.
And, by the way, if they, ifthe I guess the skin part of it
comes off, I still keep them.
They're really soft and it'sgreat for kindergarten.
(16:18):
I use them as a pilopolo balland a gaga ball.
I use them to throw at targets.
Again, we'll talk about thepins and things like that.
We just said To collect astreasure.
Sometimes you have to gocollect the little gator skin
balls or even the big ones andput them in a hoop or on a dot
on a poly spot kind of thing.
I use them in our game Rollout,I use them as a chook ball or
handball, any game where thekids are passing down the court.
I use them a lot in PE.
(16:40):
So get a bunch for your program, all right.
Number eight are beanbags, andyou could start off without
beanbags.
You could just use the tennisballs that are more free, I
guess.
But beanbags, you know, addthat extra color, they add the
extra just, I guess, texture andthrowing and catching ability
(17:04):
or just something different thantennis balls.
So here's a few ways we usebeanbags for self and partner
toss and balancing.
By the way, especially thelittle kids, kindergarten first,
like balancing them on theirshoulders, on your elbows, just
balancing beanbags on your headas you're walking.
Obviously you use them as acornhole-type game into hula
(17:26):
hoops.
We use them for stacking inrelay races and I use them a lot
as treasure, kind of liketennis balls, but in my my game,
treasure hunters or porchpirates, we use them a lot as
far as collecting treasure.
Again, different colors you caneven have I do this a lot as
well where I'll say, okay, ifyou have purple.
(17:46):
Like at the end of the roundI'll say, if you have purple,
they're worth five points, whereeverything else worth one, or
if you have orange, they'reworth whatever points.
Um, so we is worth one, or ifyou have orange, they're worth
whatever points.
So we use beanbags a lot.
Like I said, like all thesethings, we use them a lot and
they're very versatile.
That's another thing I want tomake sure with these equipment,
we use them for a lot ofdifferent things.
I don't want to just getsomething that we use one time
(18:11):
for one unit for like five kids.
Like it's got to be somethingbig and bold and something we
use a lot.
So beanbags are one of thosethings.
And that is number eight.
All right, the last one today ispoly spots, and again, they
aren't 100% necessary, but Ithink these are definitely a
level one element to have formany reasons.
First, we do have dots for ourchildren to sit on when they
(18:33):
come under the pavilion, andrubber poly spots can serve as
that purpose.
If you have like a gym,gymnasium floor, just put, you
know, spread the poly spots out,you know, and, uh, you know the
kids can sit on them, they canstand on them.
Um, we use them for a lot ofdifferent kind of ways, um.
So here's another, here's otherways we use them.
(18:54):
We use them as points and like amake it take it kind of game in
soccer, basketball, hockey.
You know, you make a shot fromthat spot and you bring it back
and then we'll say or I'll sayokay again, if you have kind of
kind of like the last one withthe beanbags, if you have, blue
ones are worth five and red onesare worth two, and so you could
use those as points, thingslike that.
(19:16):
You could use them to hidecoins under the spots or cards
like playing cards, memory matchkind of games.
You could use them as a Frisbee.
They can just play catch.
If you don't have Frisbees, youcould use them again as like a
line order.
Now we do use them in a game, inour Capture Flag game, where
(19:36):
there are going to be threepeople in the scoring area to
get the football, and in thiscase we're talking about
football, I say capture flag,but it's really football and
they have to be in a line order.
There's only three people on adot, so we'll put the dots out
there on the field and they'llhave to take turns, like the
first person has a chance at theball, then the next person
(19:57):
moves up to the first spot andanother person can come in.
So, uh, the final thing, Ithink, is, if you're, if you
ever played chicken taco tag um,I think I got that from mike.
Uh, michael graham, mike graham, you wrap, uh, rubber chicken
around it and, uh, you play tagwith, so it becomes a wrap.
We just use them a lot andthey're fun, they're
(20:17):
multifunctional.
And that is number nine.
And now it is time for yourcowbell tip of the day.
All right, everybody.
(20:44):
So your tip of the day is tograb a copy of my ultimate pe
equipment checklist.
It is in the show notes and itgives you all the like level one
, two and three, which we'lltalk about soon.
It's all the musts and I'll addto that as we go.
There's some things that youmight think that are hey, I
don't agree, or I think thisshould be added or taken away,
and I'd love to hear from you aswell on that.
So definitely reach out to meif you want to add or subtract
(21:06):
to that or just add youropinions on that.
I'd love to hear from you.
But definitely grab that in theshow notes if you want an extra
little checklist to take withyou to school this year and that
is your cowbell tip of the day.
Thank you everybody for tuningin today.
(21:33):
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Go to supersciencescom for moreinformation.
Thank you everybody for tuningin today.
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Go to supersciencescom for moreinformation and definitely go
to the show notes for all thelinks I've talked about in here
the ultimate PE equipmentchecklist and anything that I've
talked about in the article.
You can grab it in there.
So, without further ado, peNation have a great day, week,
(21:54):
weekend, summer whenever youlisten to this and let's keep
pushing our profession forward.
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to the Supersize Phys Ed podcast.
My name is Dave and today Iwant to talk about your PE
equipment starter pack.
Yes, essential equipment tostart at a new school or a new
program somewhere.
This is going to be level one,just the very bare bones, the
basic stuff you need.
(00:31):
You absolutely must have, orshould have, to start an
effective PE program.
So, without further ado, herewe go.
All right, welcome in everybodyand welcome to my new listeners
(00:55):
.
I see you from all over theworld.
Actually it's pretty coolseeing that.
Um, you know, I I know we havedifferent everything, different
equipment, different facilities,different everything, but we
all can agree on wanting aneffective PE program.
So, thank you so much fortuning in and, yeah, love to
(01:16):
have you.
It's been awesome.
So today again I want to talkabout what you need to start a
program from scratch, and I'vedone that twice already.
I've been to two schools whereI just walked in and, yeah, we
had stuff, but I also threw outa bunch of garbage too, like a
bunch of crap that I just neverused and it was old.
(01:36):
So these are just for peoplethat are just starting from
absolute scratch, and I've seenit before where people post it
online.
Like you know, help, I havenothing.
So here's the bare minimumthings I think you need to have.
And as you grow your program,I'm going to put out the next
couple levels as we go, but thisis going to be like level one,
you know, from the ground, fromground zero.
(01:58):
Here's what you need and we'llmake this a boomer.
So here's number one here, andwe'll make this a boomer.
So here's number one.
Here we go.
All right, number one I'm goingto say sound system.
So now you can debate me onthis one, because when I came
into both my programs, they didnot use music, and I think
that's a crime, it just is.
(02:19):
You got to have music, you, youknow, maybe it's.
I think it's more of a factthan an opinion.
So, man, it's just, I think youjust need it.
It's more fun for the students,especially the little ones,
like I do.
You know we use music forwarm-ups, for stations, for free
(02:39):
time, um, just all the time.
And you know it just makeseverything better.
It makes everything more fun.
It can start the signal of aclass, of your class, like it
does with mine.
I make my music montages andthat's how we do our warms with
music every single day, unlessthere's like testing going on or
something, we can't use music.
I mean, it is like every day westart with a song or a little
(03:04):
music mix and on fun Fridays theolder boys and girls lead the
dances.
Like, I teach them these movesand I'm not a good dancer at all
, but you know basic stuff likeYMCA kind of stuff, you know
like line dances, things likethat, and sometimes we'll use
(03:24):
music as a transition tostations, either signaling the
end of a station, end of a class.
Sometimes we use them duringgames.
We'll play a game called StarWars and I'll play Star Wars
music or Pirates of theCaribbean.
It makes everything better,it's more fun right At the very
end of class.
(03:45):
I don't do this a lot, butsometimes on free days or
something we might have a fewextra minutes and I'll play like
a name, that tune kind of game.
So you know I just it's fun andagain, it helps signal
different things as well.
You know, in this case, or in mycase, you know if the music's
on during a game, they canfreely.
You know, if they have to gobathroom, get a drink, do what
(04:10):
they have to do without you knowasking, say, hey, can I?
You know, whatever, it's, justgo.
If the music's you know off,then they know it's time to
listen to the coach or we'redoing a group.
You know strategy, you knowtalk kind of thing.
So you know, music is a greatthing to have and that is the
first thing I think you shouldhave.
And in my case I had a soundsystem, a huge sound system.
It's more built for what I wastold like a high school stadium.
(04:32):
It was really loud at my formerschool and I didn't have really
.
I do have one at my currentschool, but it's not very good
and it's not wireless.
So I just have a you know blockrocker that I bring out and you
know I bought with school moneyand you know I use it every day
.
So, no excuses, get some music,let's go.
That's number one.
All right, before I get tonumber two, I want to remind you
(04:57):
that you can hear some birdsand if you're hearing beeping,
sometimes it's the garbage truckis here, my neighborhood.
Um, it's not in your head.
So sorry, I'm on my little aneye recording this.
So yeah, anyways, let's get tonumber two.
Number two is cones, and they'reI mean, they're just the basic
need for any program.
(05:18):
Even if you're inside, youstill need cones, just you know,
for a lot of things, but ifyou're outside they're essential
.
So here's some of the ways weuse cones and, by the way, I get
lots of different kinds ofcones.
I get the real cheap orangedomes like you use in soccer, or
even the bigger cones, liketall cones, to put hula hoops
(05:40):
over, things like that.
So here's some of the main wayswe use cones, first of all for
boundaries of a game.
And it's some of the main wayswe use cones, first of all for
boundaries of a game.
And it's funny teachingkindergarten boundaries in a
game.
It's like we put those conesout there for a reason.
I promise you do not go outsidethe boundaries and you know
we'll try to make it a game likeOK, this is Gotham City and you
have to stay within theboundaries of the city and
they'll go off and run aroundthe field and whatever, but it's
(06:04):
to work on the boundaries.
Obviously, with cones we putstation numbers over top of them
, especially on field days,things like that.
I have some things you drapeover the cones with numbers and
even station titles, things likethat you can slip the cards in
there, so things you can putover top of the cones.
With our obstacle course wemake tunnels by connecting
(06:26):
broken who hoops, like half whohoops, and we connect them with
the cones.
Uh, you can make actually Ididn't put this in my article
but and I'm going to link thearticle in the show notes, but
in the article um, I did not putthis and I just thought of this
um, you know, you could put, uh, jump ropes over top of them,
like connect them and makealmost like a little net kind of
(06:48):
thing.
Or you can connect anything tothe things two cones, like make
a line over top of it so you canhit over and pick a ball or
something like that.
All right, like I said, youcould put, like, if you have a
big one, a big cone, you couldkind of put the hula hoops over
top of them.
When the kids are done for theday In certain games we do that
you can use them as batting tees.
(07:09):
When we do baseball, ourbaseball unit, we use the large
tees or large cones as teesbecause, as I'm sure a lot of
you have had trouble in the pastwith tees, they break really
easily because the kids aretaking sledgehammers to them and
they're not very accurate.
So definitely use those fortees.
(07:29):
Sometimes I'll use thesoccer-style cones as like ball
rests, like I'll put them on top.
I use the brain balls and I'lljust rest them on top of the
soccer cones.
And even like cone-flippinggames, like water bottle
flipping, we will use the youknow little cones for that.
So just get a lot of cones, alot of colors, a lot of sizes
(07:51):
and along with the colors, likeI like when I saw my variety
here, you know that coulddesignate okay, the red team, go
over here by the red cone, andyou know purple and so forth,
and we do that a lot.
So that's number two.
You definitely need a lot ofcones.
Number three is tennis balls.
I have a ton of tennis ballsand now if you don't call your
(08:13):
local tennis club I did this andask, just be like, hey, are
there any tennis balls you'regoing to throw out?
I'm just willing to donate andI've done this a couple of of
times and you might call aroundand be like, nah, we don't have
anything.
But if you get a goodconnection, which I did the
guy's like, hey, yeah, just letme know Anytime every couple of
months I might have some for you.
(08:34):
He gave me a couple of garbagebags full of tennis balls and
they're not going to give youthe best ones, but they also
didn't give you or didn't giveme like garbage ones.
They gave me some good ones.
They're just not brand new.
So I use tennis balls for a lotof reasons.
So here's some of the reasonsor some of the things I use
tennis balls for.
I use them for points in a game, like let's say, okay, go grab
(08:57):
a tennis ball, bring it back.
That's like treasure.
I use them for like a rainy dayunder the pavilion, because
everybody, I have enough whereevery child can have one.
So then we'll do things likewe'll roll to a partner or we'll
bounce and catch or we'll youknow they'll kind of follow me
doing the cha-cha slide, youknow, bouncing a ball and things
like that.
So again, it's something thatevery child can have.
(09:21):
If you have a lot of them andthere's not a lot of equipment
that I have that every childwill have one.
If I have 100 kids, but I havewell over 100 tennis balls, um,
you use for bowling, for hockey.
If you don't have any.
The orange balls, um, andspeaking hockey, I use them in
my game called pinball, which,um, these are all in the article
I wrote.
(09:41):
If you want to check out theshow notes, the game pinball.
I just dump a ton of tennisballs on the court and the kids
are just shooting at pins andthen we use them for golf.
That's our golf balls.
From First Tee.
They use the clubs to striketennis balls.
I'm sure there's more that Iuse them for, that I'm not even
(10:03):
thinking of right now, buttennis balls are just great and
you need to have a lot of them,all right.
Number four is noodles.
Yeah, noodles make everythingbetter.
They're cheap, safe, fun, youknow, especially during the
COVID time.
You know, just tagging, and weuse them a lot for tagging, by
(10:23):
the way, and here's some of theways besides tagging, we use
them and, as a matter of fact,when we do tag, I usually cut
them in half.
Um, you use them as a baton ifyou're passing them, like a half
noodle to pass.
Um, you can use them forbalancing and throwing.
Uh, again, usually half noodles, just kind of balance on your
hand or balance, however youwant to do it, and you know they
(10:44):
walk around things like that,or throwing, like a javelin that
could be a half or whole noodle, um, collecting as treasure.
You want to cut them up, and Idon't do this a lot because
we're we have a lot of wind, butif you're inside, you cut them
up and they're treasure.
Or, and as a matter of fact,with treasure, the next thing is
stacking them so you can stackthe little.
They're called noodle bits.
(11:04):
Stacking them is so you canstack the little.
They're called noodle bits.
Stacking them is just a greatum, I can't we.
I don't do it a lot because wehave a lot of wind, but if
you're inside it'd be a greatgame.
Uh, or just any game, just addthat you know little layer to it
.
There's different noodlechannels.
You can do just pull, balance,helicopter hopping over it, um,
or even using as a jump rope.
So, um, when I cut them, I usea steak knife or scissors and
(11:28):
I'll usually mark a line on thembeforehand to be as accurate as
I can.
So definitely get a lot ofnoodles.
They are a game changer.
Number five are hula hoops.
I am not good at hula hoopingand I'm going to throw jump
roping in here.
I didn't put this in thearticle.
But hula hoops and jump ropes.
I am good at jump roping.
(11:49):
I'm pretty good.
I'm not great.
I don't do all the tricks andstuff.
But, um, hula hooping I cannotget it at all.
My mom is actually really goodat hula hooping.
She's won good contests oncruise ships and stuff like that
and I I have a lot of kids thatcan hula hoop for hours.
That is not me yet.
Right, you got to use the wordyet I'm not going to give up.
They've tried to teach mebefore a lot of the kids and
(12:11):
they're very, very sweet, likehere, coach, here's how you do
it.
And I'm like, oh my gosh, Ijust can't do it.
But hula hoops are great for alot of different things.
So I use hula hoops for a placeto collect and organize my
(12:32):
treasure.
In many games like bring itback to the hoop and you know
they can organize things.
We have the small tag ed ballswith the names and or not names,
but the letters and numbers onthem and they make you know.
They put them in the hula hoopand they make different words.
You can use them as top golftargets, like when you're
golfing there's targets, beanbagtoss targets In a tagging game
(12:58):
where you slide the hoop.
You slide it like soccer styleTo make hula huts or castles,
whatever you want to call them,as spinning timers, as a
basketball net for youngerstudents who can't reach the
goal, like you put on the rim,and as safety spots in certain
games, like certain capture flagtype games.
We might add some safety zoneswhere it's a hula hoop or the
(13:19):
floor is lava kind of thing,where you have to make it across
the river or whatever.
Those are safety zones or hoops.
Just use your imagination andhave a bunch of different colors
and everything.
So yeah, hula hoops, gamechanger.
Number five All right, right,number six are pins, and I'm
always looking for a good pin,like always most of the pins I
(13:43):
have.
Okay, here's the pins I have.
I have actual, real bowlingpins.
They're old and they've beenthere probably 20 years in my
pavilion or my office kind ofthing, and they're heavy,
they're really heavy, so wedon't use them a thing.
And they're heavy, they'rereally heavy, so we don't use
them a lot.
I mean, they're real bowlingpins.
Then I have some that are waytoo light.
I have plastic ones.
I have um, kind of like foamones, like nerf kind of things,
(14:05):
and those ones break all thetime.
By the way, I use those a lot,but they they fall over in the
wind.
Kids hit them too hard in theneck kind of area of it of them
and I have to duct tape them allthe time.
I have the thin ones, the realthin ones again, the wind if.
If you're inside, you don'thave some of these problems.
But I have a lot of problemswith the wind and pins.
So the best ones are the onesyou can fill with sand or water,
(14:27):
and I have those at my formerschool, I think I found similar
ones and I just got them at theend of the school year.
So I'm going to use them nextthis coming school year.
In the meantime I created a gameand again, this is all in the
episode notes, the show notescalled Splat Ball.
I filled tennis ball cans justa little bit of the way with
water, so they're not too light,they're not too heavy, they're
(14:48):
perfect as far as the weight.
But then, hey, this is anoutside game, right, I'm talking
outside.
When the kids hit them, theyfall over and they usually burst
open for playing hockey or,just like with gator skin balls,
throw them at the pins or evenfoaling like football bowling.
They knock them over and theysplat and the kids love them and
(15:12):
fortunately, if you're outsideplaying it on the court during a
hot season which we're inFlorida, it's almost always hot
it dries really fast.
But anyways, you've got to getsome kind of pins.
They're just great for any kindof target game and you know,
again, it's just something youneed to have, something I use
all the time for soccer, forhockey, for bowling, for
(15:34):
anything.
So get some pins, let's go.
That's number six.
All right.
Number seven are Gator SkinBalls, and this is not a
dodgeball debate, I could gothere right now, but these are
great for, like, a lot of thingsGator Skin Balls are.
I mean, I use them for a ton ofdifferent games, a ton of
(15:56):
different activities, and here'ssome of them I use them to bowl
with, obviously to roll to apartner, like just roll or throw
back and forth to a partner,especially the little ones.
And, by the way, if they, ifthe I guess the skin part of it
comes off, I still keep them.
They're really soft and it'sgreat for kindergarten.
(16:18):
I use them as a pilopolo balland a gaga ball.
I use them to throw at targets.
Again, we'll talk about thepins and things like that.
We just said To collect astreasure.
Sometimes you have to gocollect the little gator skin
balls or even the big ones andput them in a hoop or on a dot
on a poly spot kind of thing.
I use them in our game Rollout,I use them as a chook ball or
handball, any game where thekids are passing down the court.
I use them a lot in PE.
(16:40):
So get a bunch for your program, all right.
Number eight are beanbags, andyou could start off without
beanbags.
You could just use the tennisballs that are more free, I
guess.
But beanbags, you know, addthat extra color, they add the
extra just, I guess, texture andthrowing and catching ability
(17:04):
or just something different thantennis balls.
So here's a few ways we usebeanbags for self and partner
toss and balancing.
By the way, especially thelittle kids, kindergarten first,
like balancing them on theirshoulders, on your elbows, just
balancing beanbags on your headas you're walking.
Obviously you use them as acornhole-type game into hula
(17:26):
hoops.
We use them for stacking inrelay races and I use them a lot
as treasure, kind of liketennis balls, but in my my game,
treasure hunters or porchpirates, we use them a lot as
far as collecting treasure.
Again, different colors you caneven have I do this a lot as
well where I'll say, okay, ifyou have purple.
(17:46):
Like at the end of the roundI'll say, if you have purple,
they're worth five points, whereeverything else worth one, or
if you have orange, they'reworth whatever points.
Um, so we is worth one, or ifyou have orange, they're worth
whatever points.
So we use beanbags a lot.
Like I said, like all thesethings, we use them a lot and
they're very versatile.
That's another thing I want tomake sure with these equipment,
we use them for a lot ofdifferent things.
I don't want to just getsomething that we use one time
(18:11):
for one unit for like five kids.
Like it's got to be somethingbig and bold and something we
use a lot.
So beanbags are one of thosethings.
And that is number eight.
All right, the last one today ispoly spots, and again, they
aren't 100% necessary, but Ithink these are definitely a
level one element to have formany reasons.
First, we do have dots for ourchildren to sit on when they
(18:33):
come under the pavilion, andrubber poly spots can serve as
that purpose.
If you have like a gym,gymnasium floor, just put, you
know, spread the poly spots out,you know, and, uh, you know the
kids can sit on them, they canstand on them.
Um, we use them for a lot ofdifferent kind of ways, um.
So here's another, here's otherways we use them.
(18:54):
We use them as points and like amake it take it kind of game in
soccer, basketball, hockey.
You know, you make a shot fromthat spot and you bring it back
and then we'll say or I'll sayokay again, if you have kind of
kind of like the last one withthe beanbags, if you have, blue
ones are worth five and red onesare worth two, and so you could
use those as points, thingslike that.
(19:16):
You could use them to hidecoins under the spots or cards
like playing cards, memory matchkind of games.
You could use them as a Frisbee.
They can just play catch.
If you don't have Frisbees, youcould use them again as like a
line order.
Now we do use them in a game, inour Capture Flag game, where
(19:36):
there are going to be threepeople in the scoring area to
get the football, and in thiscase we're talking about
football, I say capture flag,but it's really football and
they have to be in a line order.
There's only three people on adot, so we'll put the dots out
there on the field and they'llhave to take turns, like the
first person has a chance at theball, then the next person
(19:57):
moves up to the first spot andanother person can come in.
So, uh, the final thing, Ithink, is, if you're, if you
ever played chicken taco tag um,I think I got that from mike.
Uh, michael graham, mike graham, you wrap, uh, rubber chicken
around it and, uh, you play tagwith, so it becomes a wrap.
We just use them a lot andthey're fun, they're
(20:17):
multifunctional.
And that is number nine.
And now it is time for yourcowbell tip of the day.
All right, everybody.
(20:44):
So your tip of the day is tograb a copy of my ultimate pe
equipment checklist.
It is in the show notes and itgives you all the like level one
, two and three, which we'lltalk about soon.
It's all the musts and I'll addto that as we go.
There's some things that youmight think that are hey, I
don't agree, or I think thisshould be added or taken away,
and I'd love to hear from you aswell on that.
So definitely reach out to meif you want to add or subtract
(21:06):
to that or just add youropinions on that.
I'd love to hear from you.
But definitely grab that in theshow notes if you want an extra
little checklist to take withyou to school this year and that
is your cowbell tip of the day.
Thank you everybody for tuningin today.
(21:33):
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Go to supersciencescom for moreinformation.
Thank you everybody for tuningin today.
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Go to supersciencescom for moreinformation and definitely go
to the show notes for all thelinks I've talked about in here
the ultimate PE equipmentchecklist and anything that I've
talked about in the article.
You can grab it in there.
So, without further ado, peNation have a great day, week,
(21:54):
weekend, summer whenever youlisten to this and let's keep
pushing our profession forward.
Thank you.
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