Building Fun Fitness Games with Splats
Imagine an educational experience where kids are playing games, being physically active , and learning to code at the same time. Sounds amazing, right?
At Unruly Studios, we’re all about seeking new ways to combine physical fitness with playful games that challenge kids to think critically and problem solve on the go. In our latest STEM and Fitness Activity Pack, we’ll explore all these elements and more to get fun fitness games in schools back on track!
The Importance of a Fitness Routine in School
According to the CDC, physical fitness helps children strengthen muscles and bones, reduce anxiety, build confidence, and improve overall health. However, despite these benefits, less than 24% of children between the ages of 6-17 participate in 60 minutes of physical activity everyday.
Schools are uniquely positioned to boost fun fitness games through physical education and build student learning and comprehension at the same time. SHAPE America, the Society of Health and Physical Educators, recently highlighted the benefits of integrating physical activity in the classroom. This SHAPE article specifically outlines the health and academic benefits of fun fitness games in the classroom, shares strategies to help schools integrate a fitness routine throughout the school day, and highlights the role of PE teachers.
Planning for Fitness this Fall
While a return to school might look different this fall, Unruly Splats help schools combine STEM and active play through virtual and in-person fun fitness games. Splats are programmable, stomp-able floor buttons that students code on an iPad or Chromebook to code the rules that make Splats light up and make sounds. Students use virtual or physical Splats to code fun fitness games like relay races, whack-a-mole, and obstacle courses.
Although many elementary and middle school teachers found it challenging to keep fun fitness games in their virtual lesson plans, our new STEM and fitness activity pack does just that! No matter where learning is taking place this fall, at home or in the classroom while keeping students safely distanced, these activities are a sure way to get students into a fitness routine while learning!
In addition to SEL-friendly lesson plans and activities for virtual and in-person learning, we are offering all Unruly members a back-to-school coding bootcamp plus ongoing training, flexible membership start dates, and discounted pricing when you request a quote before July 15.
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Unstoppable Play with Unruly Fitness
We’re kicking our Unstoppable Play series off with coding activities for middle school students to track their fitness goals and monitor their progress. We’re offering six specific fun fitness games designed to get students thinking about what works best for their fitness routine. Through these activities, they’ll use coding skills to create a simple set of tools, namely a countdown, stopwatch, or circuit. Next up, they’ll learn how to use the tools they’ve created for a series of exercises and track their progress in the Splats Fitness Challenge Log.
How to Fitness
- Countdown - Create a super simple countdown timer to help track your progress on a variety of activities from jumping jacks and sit-ups to burpees and squats.
- Stopwatch - Use the control and stopwatch blocks to create a custom stopwatch! Use the stopwatch you build to check how long it takes to do any of your fitness activities.
- Fitness Machine - Combine your countdown and stopwatch functions for a fitness circuit and record your exercises on the Splats Fitness Challenge Log, found on page 7 of the guide.
Splats in Action
- Found Art Sculpture - Dash around your classroom or home to beat the clock and find a variety of colorful objects to design cool art sculpture.
- Movement Challenge - Add some unruliness to your workout and build on the coding exercises from How to Fitness. In this activity, you’ll do 5 different types of exercises based on the animal sound you hear.
- Robot Dance Party - Once again, build on earlier coding from How to Fitness to create a Robot Dance Party. Watch as splats light up to indicate which robot dance move you need to do. Start with a few Splats and add more to increase the challenge!
Build muscle for the body and the brain with all of these unique activities to combine fitness and coding in a totally engaging and challenging way.
Get Moving
Let’s go! To bring an Unruly Fitness routine to your students we’re summarizing a few quick and easy steps to break it all down:
- Download the Unruly Fitness activity guide for use with or without Splats.
- Access the Unruly web app on a Chrome device or Apple iPad.
- Learn tips and tricks with our latest webinar.
- Get your classroom moving and have your students track progress to share fitness goals!
We’re interested in hearing how you like to combine fitness goals with classroom learning. Share your approach with us at on Twitter with the hashtag #WeAreUnruly or email us at info@unruly-studios.com with your ideas to boost physical activity!
