Physical Education · Works with Track and Field

SEL activities for Track and Field

22 Physical Education activities you can teach during a Track and Field unit. Each one builds one Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) skill in about 20 minutes, inside the movement you already teach.

PE Course 1

• Who Am I as a Mover? Self-awareness · Week 1Students rotate through a movement sampler of jogging, dancing, throwing, and balancing stations, then journal about which movements feel most like them and why.
• Five Components, My Way Self-awareness · Week 3Students move through stations for cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, and flexibility and privately note which ones energize them and which feel hard, without comparing to anyone.
• Personal Bests, Private Data Self-management · Week 4Students complete a baseline fitness check, record results only in their own journal, and set one goal measured against their own starting point.
• Strengths in Every Partner Social awareness · Week 6Teams plan a relay by assigning legs based on each teammate's strengths, then journal about a strength they noticed in someone else.
• Reading My Heart Rate Self-awareness · Week 7Students take their pulse at rest, after a jog, and after slow breathing, then journal how heart rate and feelings rise and fall together.
• Breathing to Reset Self-management · Week 8After short sprint intervals, students practice box breathing to bring their heart rate down and journal one moment outside PE when the reset could help.
• Nerves and Performance Self-awareness · Week 9Students attempt a target throw once calmly and once under a loud countdown, then analyze how nerves changed their focus and technique.
• Heat Smart in the Valley Social awareness · Week 11During a shaded, low intensity circuit, students learn the warning signs of heat illness in the Coachella Valley and practice checking in on a partner and following the class heat plan.
• Looking Back on Semester One Self-awareness · Week 18Students repeat a favorite activity from the first weeks and journal how their skills, confidence, and goals have changed since then.
• Goals Without Comparison Self-management · Week 19Students redo their private baseline check, compare only to their own week four results, and adjust their goal for the next half of the year.
• Practice Plans That Work Responsible decision-making · Week 21After a quick skill check in an individual activity, students write a short practice plan based on their own results and test it for one round.
• Water and Weather Safety Responsible decision-making · Week 32In a dry land scenario circuit, students decide how to respond to risks in open water, extreme heat, and storms and journal one personal safety rule.
• How I Have Grown as a Mover Self-awareness · Week 35Students revisit their week one movement sampler and journal how their identity as a mover has changed this year.

PE Course 2

• Assessing Myself Privately Self-awareness · Week 3Students complete self-assessments in the components of health related fitness, record results only in their own journal, and note feelings that came up.
• Goals That Stretch Me Self-management · Week 4Students choose one fitness area to grow beyond where they started and write a specific, private goal with first steps.
• Listening to My Body Self-awareness · Week 9Students use body awareness and partner feedback to refine a gymnastics skill and journal the difference between healthy challenge and pain.
• Fear and the First Try Self-management · Week 11Students choose a tumbling challenge level that feels slightly scary but safe, attempt it, and journal how attitude and determination shaped the result.
• Encouraging Every Level Social awareness · Week 12In mixed ability stations, students practice specific encouragement for classmates at every level and journal about encouragement that helped them.
• Leading the Warm Up Social awareness · Week 20Small groups take turns leading a warm up and adjusting it to the group's energy and needs in the moment.
• Games for All Abilities Social awareness · Week 22Groups modify a team game so that players with different abilities, including wheelchair users, can fully participate, then play the new version.
• Coaching a Younger Player Responsible decision-making · Week 24Pairs plan a simple, modified activity they could teach to a younger child and practice explaining it with patience.
• Training Smart in Desert Heat Social awareness · Week 30Students adapt a training session for Coachella Valley heat with shade, water breaks, and partner check ins and practice spotting signs of heat illness.

Some activities are set in this sport. Others work in it with no changes, like a calm breathing reset or a self officiating routine.

RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.