Courses · Physical Education & Health · Kindergarten to Grade 12
Physical Education & Health
Your body is a gift to care for. These short courses teach children to keep active, drink enough water, eat well, grow stronger and build a strong heart and lungs. Each lesson starts with a real story, from Daniel’s vegetables and James Lind’s sailors to Naismith’s peach baskets and Bannister’s four-minute mile. Then it explains how the body works and has the student move, measure and try again at home.
Choose a grade
Ages 5–6
Kindergarten
Animal walks, Bruegel’s children’s games, water the best drink, eating a rainbow like Daniel, strong like a shepherd, and the tortoise and the hare.
Ages 6–7
Grade 1
Games children have always played, Blondin’s tightrope, water on hot days, the five food groups, sailors and oranges, tug-of-war, and relay races.
Ages 7–8
Grade 2
Naismith’s peach baskets, warm-up and cool-down, a water log, Daniel and the king’s food, Milo and the calf, finding your pulse, and jump rope.
Ages 8–9
Grade 3
Sixty minutes a day, the invention of volleyball, sweat as air conditioning, Captain Cook’s sauerkraut, Carver’s peanuts, good squats, and Laennec’s paper-tube stethoscope.
Ages 9–10
Grade 4
The 1896 Olympics, a home fitness check, signs of dehydration, reading a food label, a bodyweight circuit, and Paavo Nurmi’s stopwatch.
Ages 10–11
Grade 5
Eric Liddell, the London bus study, Robert Cade’s sweat tests, Daniel’s ten-day test, James Lind’s fair test, Jack LaLanne’s basics, and Bannister’s four-minute mile.
Ages 11–12
Grade 6
The YMCA and the FITT principle, electrolytes, heat safety, macronutrients by the gram, sets and reps, and Kenneth Cooper’s 12-minute run.
Ages 12–13
Grade 7
Rest as training, preventing injuries, water and performance, Amundsen’s food for the South Pole, muscle fibers, and Zátopek’s intervals.
Ages 13–14
Grade 8
The Framingham Heart Study, skill-related fitness, a game-day water plan, vitamins and bones, DeLorme’s progressive resistance, and a 5K plan.
High school
Ages 14–15
Grade 9
The activity guidelines, a fitness baseline, heat illness, energy and metabolism, how a muscle contracts, program design, and heart-rate zones.
Ages 15–16
Grade 10
From farm to desk, sweat-rate testing, why to skip energy drinks, protein from real food, the five movement patterns, periodization, and intervals.
Ages 16–17
Grade 11
Exercise, mood and sleep, injury prevention, heat acclimatization, cooking for a week, plyometrics, lactate threshold, and a race plan.
Ages 17–18
Grade 12
Fitness for life, fit to serve, safe water outdoors, cooking for yourself, self-control at the table, coaching others, and a twelve-week personal plan.
How every lesson works
Each course is a short course: 5 units of 2 lessons, one lesson a week, about one quarter of the school year. Each week has three short sessions, one to learn and two to move. The same five subjects return every year, a little deeper each time: keeping active, hydration, nutrition, strength, and aerobic training.
- Warm-up. A few minutes of marching, animal walks or jumping jacks, with a question to think about.
- Watch. A hand-picked YouTube video from a children’s hospital, a health agency or a good teacher, with a note on when to watch it.
- Learn. The story, how they figured it out, how your body works, and how to do it well, in short sections a parent can read aloud.
- Picture study. A public-domain painting or photograph, such as Bruegel’s Children’s Games, Homer’s Snap the Whip or Naismith’s first basketball team, to look at closely and talk about.
- Activity. The student moves, measures, eats or cooks: an obstacle course, a water log, a rainbow plate, a pulse test, a bodyweight circuit or a timed run, then tries again to improve.
- Fitness journal. Logs, tallies, heart-rate tables, water charts, how it felt and what to try next time.
Health, not looks. These courses are about strength, stamina, good habits and caring for the body God made. They never talk about weight loss, dieting or body size. Fitness marks reward effort and improvement, never comparison with others. Supplements and energy drinks are left out.
Safety. Every lesson with movement or food carries a short safety note. Young children use their own body weight only, and high-school lifting needs a knowledgeable adult present. Children with asthma, a heart condition, diabetes or an injury should check with their doctor first.
Each unit ends with a short review and a unit challenge, such as a week-long activity log or a two-week bodyweight challenge. In the last week, the student leads a family fitness day.
Nothing needs to be bought. Activities use a timer, a towel, a chair, a step, water jugs and things from around the house. Each unit also lists optional books, free resources and simple gear.
Every course can also be downloaded as one printable PDF, with the video links printed in each lesson.
Videos open on YouTube. Each one was checked for the lesson and for the content, but YouTube shows its own recommendations and ads around them, so parents should stay nearby.