Here are five Halloween PE games to play in this season of ghosts and goblins. Turn on some Halloween theme music and get your students running, laughing, and building their fitness!
1. Pumpkin Patch Circuit Training
Prep for this activity involves cutting pumpkin shapes out of orange construction paper—at least twice as many pumpkins as there are students participating—and writing the name of a fitness skill or physical activity on each one.
You might include jumping jacks, skipping, jumping rope, Burpees, hopping on one foot, push-ups, mountain-climbers, lunges, crab-walking, planks, and so on. Also, write down the target duration or number of repetitions for each activity.
Then place all the pumpkins in the “pumpkin patch” at the center of the gym or activity area.
Students can circle up around the outer perimeter of the area. When the teacher blows the whistle, students must run to the pumpkin patch, grab a pumpkin and run back to their spot to perform the activity listed on their pumpkin. When they finish the specified number of repetitions or the teacher blows the whistle again, students can run back to the pumpkin patch to return their pumpkin and grab a new one.
2. Rolling Pumpkin Relay Race
Divide students into relay teams, mark off a starting line and set up one cone for each team at a good distance from the line.
The first student from each team will roll a pumpkin from the starting line to their team’s cone, around it and back to the start, where the next student will take over.
Orange balls are perfectly fine for pumpkin stand-ins, but this is also a fun game for using real pumpkins, since they’re often irregular in shape and are rarely perfectly round, which can make them challenging to roll in a straight line!
3. Ghost Bowling
Have students develop their coordination by rolling orange “Jack-o-lanterns” at “ghost” bowling pins! Transform simple white bowling pins into spooky ghosts by drawing on ghostly eyes and mouths with a black dry-erase marker. The same dry-erase marker can be used to draw Jack-o-lantern faces on orange balls (gator balls and regular, lightweight bouncy balls work nicely).
You can even use real pumpkins if you use smaller ones that won’t break open and make a mess if tossed by overly enthusiastic students!
4. Zombie Tag
This classic twist on tag is a kid favorite at any time of year, but it takes on an extra dose of creepy fun around Halloween. Children love pretending the zombie apocalypse has arrived as they run, giggle and evade the zombies as long as they can. (For social distancing, give the zombies pool noodles for tagging.)
Add further twists by designating a Doctor—one student with the imaginary antidote that can “save” tagged runners, returning them from zombies back to their human state. Remember, zombies can’t run in Zombie Tag; they can only walk, arms outstretched as they relentlessly pursue their prey.
5. Freeze Dance To Halloween Music
Kids love dancing, especially when they can groove to the Monster Shuffle or other seasonal songs! The teacher can start and stop the music at random intervals, and when the music stops, dancers must freeze in place. The last person to freeze in each round is out, and the last student standing at the end of the game wins. This game can also make for a Halloween-y twist on Musical Chairs.
About Marathon Kids
Marathon Kids is an evidence-based physical activity program that uses research-proven methods to help kids find their inner athlete. The goal is to increase daily physical activity by engaging kids in a positive, goal-driven program that challenges them to run, jog, walk or move the equivalent of four (or more!) marathons over the course of a season. It allows kids of all abilities to unlock their potential, one mile at a time.
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