Young Athletes Year Long Lesson Plans
Young Athletes is an innovative sports play program designed for students aged 2–7 years and takes place around the world. The program includes active games, songs, and other play activities that help children develop motor, social, and cognitive skills. These lesson plans are designed with the elementary school classroom in mind as it is an opportunity for students of all ability levels to come together to grow and develop in friendship, leadership, and sports skills.
Lesson Plan Sneak Peak - Week 6
Get a sneak peek of a week's worth of activities in the Lesson Plans resource!
Lesson Plans Ages 2 to 4
The new Young Athletes Year Long Lesson Plan resource is a 30 week long sport readiness program that incorporates leadership skills, gross motor play activities, and academics. It is easy to use and provides everything a teacher needs to implement it in the school!
These lesson plans are designed with the elementary school classroom in mind as it is an opportunity for students of all ability levels to come together to grow and develop in friendship, leadership, and sports skills.
Using the standards from the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE), this unit will introduce a variety of foundational motor skills. These skills include walking, running, hopping, skipping, sidestepping, and galloping. This unit will also help to prepare students for skills such as following directions, working as a team, and learning about different types of sports equipment.
Walking and running are basic locomotor movements. Other locomotor movements that will be taught throughout this unit are skipping, leaping, side stepping, and galloping. These skills will be reviewed throughout the year and taught again at the end of the year. These locomotor skills need to be explicitly taught and time needs to be given for students to practice these often.
Balancing and jumping encompass a variety of skills and are used in many different sports. Use the games and activities listed in this unit throughout the school year to help enforce skills such as strength and coordination.
This unit focuses on two key skill areas for a variety of sports. Both trapping and catching will be practiced in different ways throughout this unit to allow students time to master and understand these skills. Different sports will be introduced during this unit and will be touched on again in later units. The focus is on introducing the sport, not mastery.
Catching and throwing are closely linked so these activities will continue to practice catching as well as introducing throwing. See teaching tips at the end of this unit to help guide your teaching.
Striking is a term used to describe an action of either hitting a ball or object with one’s hand, stick, bat, paddle, or racket. Striking or even tapping a stationary ball with a fist or open hand encourages development of the skills necessary for sports such as tennis, golf, softball, volleyball, and hockey.
Kicking incorporates a variety of skills and is a fun way for students to feel success as they make contact with the ball. Vary the targets or size and weight of the balls so that students can learn the different dynamics of kicking.
Advanced skills incorporate all of the core skills we have been working on throughout the year. These lessons will introduce new sports to students and challenge them to use the skills they have learned. The goal of these lessons is to introduce sports such as softball, basketball, and jump rope. These lessons are not designed to achieve mastery of the skills. Let students enjoy trying and learning something new and encourage their love of sports.
Lesson Plans Ages 5 to 7
The new Young Athletes Year Long Lesson Plan resource is a 30 week long sport readiness program that incorporates leadership skills, gross motor play activities, and academics. It is easy to use and provides everything a teacher needs to implement it in the school!
These lesson plans are designed with the elementary school classroom in mind as it is an opportunity for students of all ability levels to come together to grow and develop in friendship, leadership, and sports skills.
Using the standards from the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE), this unit will introduce a variety of foundational motor skills. These skills include walking, running, hopping, skipping, sidestepping, and galloping. This unit will also help to prepare students for skills such as following directions, working as a team, and learning about different types of sports equipment.
Walking and running are basic locomotor movements. Other locomotor movements that will be taught throughout this unit are skipping, leaping, side stepping, and galloping. These skills will be reviewed throughout the year and taught again at the end of the year. These locomotor skills need to be explicitly taught and time needs to be given for students to practice these often.
Balancing and jumping encompass a variety of skills and are used in many different sports. Use the games and activities listed in this unit throughout the school year to help enforce skills such as strength and coordination.
This unit focuses on two key skill areas for a variety of sports. Both trapping and catching will be practiced in different ways throughout this unit to allow students time to master and understand these skills. Different sports will be introduced during this unit and will be touched on again in later units. The focus is on introducing the sport, not mastery.
Catching and throwing are closely linked so these activities will continue to practice catching as well as introducing throwing. See teaching tips at the end of this unit to help guide your teaching.
Striking is a term used to describe an action of either hitting a ball or object with one’s hand, stick, bat, paddle, or racket. Striking or even tapping a stationary ball with a fist or open hand encourages development of the skills necessary for sports such as tennis, golf, softball, volleyball, and hockey.
Kicking incorporates a variety of skills and is a fun way for students to feel success as they make contact with the ball. Vary the targets or size and weight of the balls so that students can learn the different dynamics of kicking.
Advanced skills incorporate all of the core skills we have been working on throughout the year. These lessons will introduce new sports to students and challenge them to use the skills they have learned. The goal of these lessons is to introduce sports such as softball, basketball, and jump rope. These lessons are not designed to achieve mastery of the skills. Let students enjoy trying and learning something new and encourage their love of sports.