Endurance Games: 30+ Running Games for PE Class

With this collection of 30 game ideas, children and young people can improve their running endurance – with a variety of running games for physical education. Learners can drive bus routes, steal Easter eggs, or solve riddles at stations. This trains their endurance in a playful way, without monotonous running taking center stage – in the sports hall, on the schoolyard, or on the sports field.

What is included in the material

• Game descriptions with course, duration, and required materials, and variants for most games
• Setup graphics showing the setup for each game, plus a separate collection of all graphics
• Running sheets, running cards, record sheets, and worksheets for recording laps, times, answers, and letters
• Bingo templates for endurance dice bingo and sports acquaintance bingo
• Cards and signs such as exercise cards, level cards, memorization and memory cards, bus stop signs, as well as number and letter cards
• Game templates such as bus timetables, a game board for “Run! Run! Run!”, a number pyramid, and an island poster with a price list for “Captain Coconut”
• Riddles with answers for the riddle run

Tips for using the material

• Adapt to the group: The games can be adapted to the performance level, age, and group size. The variants can make a game easier or harder, for example by making the lane wider or narrower in tag or reducing the throwing zone in “Takeshi”.
• Against or with each other: Many games can be played as a competition between teams. In others, the whole group pursues a common goal, such as delivering all the letters or completing the marathon distance together.
• In pairs with role reversal: In some games, learners can work in pairs: one person runs while the other counts the laps or stops the time, then they switch roles.
• Combine running and thinking: The questions in the riddle run can be adapted to current classroom topics, and cards with math problems can be used in the group search.
• Additional tasks: Many variants can be supplemented with additional tasks such as squats or jumping jacks, obstacles on the route, or a specified movement such as hopping or running backward.

These skills are promoted

• Running endurance through games that involve running for extended periods
• Sense of pace in the turnaround run and the time estimation run, which require a steady running pace and the ability to estimate time
• Reactivity to commands from the game leader, for example when touching a suitable object upon hearing the command in “Touch something…!”
• Memory when remembering the fields on a memorization card, color sequences, or letters
• Cooperation when teams decide for themselves who runs which laps, or complete all the routes together

To complement this, there are endurance station cards, an endurance obstacle course with accompanying material, the beep test as an endurance test, and a running diary for endurance training.