Kindergarten Sports Activities

Since kindergartners may have difficulty participating in sports such as football, basketball or baseball that require exceptional skills and physicality, develop activities that are appropriate for the skill level of 4- to 5-year-olds. Physical Education teachers should organize sport activities for kindergartners that will keep them active but are also enjoyable.

Relay games are a fun and competitive sport with limitless options. Kindergartners can do traditional relay races such as the three-legged relay race, which involves tying one student's right foot to another student's left foot or a potato sack relay race where students race by hopping in potato sacks. Children can also do creative relay races including the balloon pop relay race that requires them to run and pop a balloon without using their hands and a quick change relay where kids race to put on and take off dress-up clothes.

Kindergartners can play a variety of games using a play parachute. Let them practice moving the parachute up and down before throwing a ball on top. Have the students work together to keep the ball on top the parachute. Kindergartners can also play a cat-and-mouse game with the parachute. Make waves while a student crawls underneath the parachute trying to catch another student who is also crawling. Play the Shoe Shuffle with a parachute by assigning a number from one through five to all the students. Call out a number, and all students assigned that number will throw in one of their shoes under the parachute. Have the kids holding the parachute create a mushroom shape as the others race underneath to find their shoe and return to their spot.

Transform traditional team sports such as soccer and football so they are appropriate for kindergartners. Play a game of soccer on a basketball court or half a soccer field and use miniature goals and a smaller ball. Play Capture the Chicken by placing a hula hoop at each end of a basketball court. Split the kids into two even teams and place a rubber chicken into each hula hoop. The goal of the game is to steal the other team's chicken without getting tagged. If tagged, you must be rescued by a teammate and brought back to your half of the court.

Gymnastics help improve a kindergartner's balance, flexibility, strength and endurance. Gymnastics can include learning to do cartwheels and rolls on padded mats, using balancing beams, hanging from parallel bars and jumping on trampolines. Set up an obstacle course that incorporates several gymnastic activities. In the obstacle course, have kids crawl through tunnels made from boxes, jump through hula hoops, climb up rope nets and use jump ropes.