If there is one thing Physical Education teachers are good at, it is harnessing the energy of what is popular and using it to get students excited about moving. Pokemon Go is a mobile game currently sweeping the world in popularity where you walk to real world locations to catch and battle Pokemon. A video game where you have to go outside and walk is a physical educator’s dream! So, of course Phys Ed teachers are capitalizing on the phenomenon to get people moving, and here are some the ways they are doing it.
A core aspect of the Pokemon franchise is catching the pocket monsters by throwing a pokeball at them. A Pokemon trainer who cannot properly perform an overhand throw has now chance of becoming the best, let alone the best that there ever was. A couple of teachers I spoke to shared games where they have their students playing games throwing pokeballs which could be hand painted tennis balls, crocheted bean bags, or plush pokeballs off of ebay. There are plenty of throwing games out there that you can slap a fresh coat of Pokemon paint on in order to capitalize on this current frenzy. This one is a good example. I know that I would have loved to been able to pretend I was a Pokemon trainer in any of my PE classes growing up!
A core aspect of the Pokemon franchise is catching the pocket monsters by throwing a pokeball at them. A Pokemon trainer who cannot properly perform an overhand throw has now chance of becoming the best, let alone the best that there ever was. A couple of teachers I spoke to shared games where they have their students playing games throwing pokeballs which could be hand painted tennis balls, crocheted bean bags, or plush pokeballs off of ebay. There are plenty of throwing games out there that you can slap a fresh coat of Pokemon paint on in order to capitalize on this current frenzy. This one is a good example. I know that I would have loved to been able to pretend I was a Pokemon trainer in any of my PE classes growing up!
Another part of the Pokemon series that Phys Ed teachers are using is the idea of training your Pokemon. Training your body is just like training your Pokemon. You have to work hard in order for them to get better! There are quite a few ideas centered around this concept. Here are some of my favorites. Mike Morris, @MikeMorrisPE , came up with a couple of training games, one where you are throwing pokeballs and one where you train like your pokemon would.
Here are two Pokemon #Physed integration activities that I created using Pokemon cards that your students will enjoyhttps://t.co/HDSLEVb9jA
— Mike Morris (@MikeMorrisPE) July 31, 2016
The pokemon training game is really cool because each student finds a Pokemon card that has their attacks listed on it. If you are on that card, you choose an attack and pretend like you are using that attack! Like Mike says in his description of the activity, “This allows students to be creative and expressive through creative movement.” A great way to have students use their critical thinking abilities along with self expression. If you want your students to work on specific exercises, there are the Pokemon fitness cards created by Mike Ginicola, @PhysEdDepot , In order to evolve, you must complete the exercises on the starting Pokemon in order to get stronger and move on! Check it out here. Don’t have any cards? That’s okay! Kevin Shephard of www.supportrealteachers.org shared this Trading Card Creator. You could also use the card creator for other things, like muscles bones, and other health related items!
Some teachers are incorporating the egg related gameplay into their classes and programs. In the Pokemon games, including Pokemon Go, you must walk your character around while holding a pokemon egg. After a set number of steps, the egg hatches and you are now the proud owner of a new baby Pokemon! One teacher is using pedometers to track their students’ steps, and once they get to 2,000 steps they get a pokemon sticker from their hatched egg. At 10,000 steps they get a Pokemon Trainer Certificate! Another teacher incorporated this concept into their Let’s Move Active Schools campaign and run club. They have different tiered eggs the students can hatch, like 1 mile eggs, 5 mile eggs, and 10 mile eggs. The higher milage the egg the rarer and more powerful the Pokemon! A trainer creator was also shared with me that was created by Joy Ling With this tool, you can have your students create and print out a trainer, then use the trainer to track their progress in your run club or any other poke-related activity.
Overall, I say some very cool things teachers were doing to capitalize on this global game. It makes sense none of the teachers that I heard from are actually going out and playing the game on phones. That would be a very expensive ordeal trying to supply a device with mobile internet to every student. Pokemon Go is actually a great way to get people into geocaching. I know that some teachers do geocaching units. I am excited to see how teachers who do geocaching incorporate this augmented reality game into their unit!
Happy hunting, everyone!
Overall, I say some very cool things teachers were doing to capitalize on this global game. It makes sense none of the teachers that I heard from are actually going out and playing the game on phones. That would be a very expensive ordeal trying to supply a device with mobile internet to every student. Pokemon Go is actually a great way to get people into geocaching. I know that some teachers do geocaching units. I am excited to see how teachers who do geocaching incorporate this augmented reality game into their unit!
Happy hunting, everyone!