Megan Reynolds

Megan Reynolds

I am a teacher & designer. Connecting with students & seeing them enjoy learning is my favorite feeling on earth! I hope you enjoy this article!

1st Grade Exercise Choice Board Tutorial for Teachers

Build your own Exercise Choice Board for 1st Grade in minutes! Keep kids engaged & learning using these tactics & templates
To use a choice board in your 1st Grade Classroom during Exercise you will need to create the Exercisechoices (there are lots of examples), organize the classroom, and have a goal;

Time-saving, differentiation, and dynamic classroom management are my favorite reasons to use a choice board!

Integrating choices every day you will need to hone in on the best way to apply 1st Grade Exercise choice boards to your classroom style!

Here are a few ideas and instructions on choices, classroom management and getting buy-in from your1st Graders

Ideas & Examples of Great 1st Grade Exercise Choices

Animal Moves Adventure
Pretend to be animals! Hop like a frog, crawl like a bear, slither like a snake, and flap like a bird. Let’s move and roar like lions on a fun adventure!
Balloon Keep-Up Game
Hit a balloon up with your hands and don’t let it touch the ground! Count how many times you hit it before it falls. Play alone or with friends. Fun!
Dance Party Freeze Game
Dance to music and when it stops, freeze like a statue! Keep still until the music plays again, then dance! It’s like musical statues. Fun and easy!
Silly Shadow Shapes
Make funny shapes with your body and see your shadow copy you! Stand in the sun, move your arms, legs, or whole body. What shapes can you create? Play and see!
Hopscotch Math Jump
Draw boxes with numbers 1-10. Toss a beanbag on a number, skip that box, jump on others, and shout the numbers. Jump back, pick up the beanbag, and let a friend try!
Yoga Story Poses
Yoga Story Poses: Pretend to be animals! Be a strong tree with roots (stand tall), a sleepy cat (arch back), and a brave lion (kneel & roar). Have fun stretching!
Treasure Hunt Fitness Quest
Find hidden pictures around the room. Each picture has a fun move like hopping or twirling. Do the move 5 times to find the next clue and win!
Superhero Stretch Challenge
Pretend you’re a superhero! Stand up tall, reach your arms high like flying, then touch your toes to rescue your feet. Next, zoom to one side, then the other. Save the day with stretches!
Jungle Gym Journey
Climb like monkeys, swing on bars, hop like frogs on pads, crawl through tunnels, and slide down like snakes. Have fun being animals in our jungle gym!

Using a Choice Board to Differentiate Exercise in a 1st Grade Classroom

Keep It Simple

Everyone “teacher & student” should know exactly what they are doing. If you don’t make it even easier! 

Differential Instruction vs Saving time?

There is nothing more irritating than “Saving Time” with a Choice Board & ending up with “More work!”.  Are you using this to hit standards or save time or both? 

"Self Guided" or "instruction-based"?

If you giving out work, should they do it on their own or are these more instructions for each choice?

General rule, if the grade is > 3 there is more work per choice.

FREE Blank Fillable & Custom Choice Board

All ages, all grades where you need 9 grid choice board. Start loving learning again! 

How To Manage Your 1st Grade Classroom During Exercise (With a Choice Board)

I find its easiest to use a big board at the front of the classroom where all students can see the choices  then decide what they want to do

This often will be coming in from a break or transition between subjects. 

If you can get all students to know whats expected during a choice activity it becomes one-hundred times easier to manage the class & have everyone know what choices they have!  

There are three core steps you have to hit when using a Choice Board; 

1) The Set Up
2) 
The Instruction 
3) The Q+A 

1) The Set Up

Select your choices, decide on how you are going to use this time in your classroom. Build the choice board

1) The Instruction

Tell the students what they are going to be doing (this becomes easier over time) Simply start with 3 options & move from there. 

1) The Q & A

Does anyone have questions? This will help you or the next time. Remember the goal is to make this easier each time! 

Why Use A Choice Board?

So, let’s chat about choiceboards and why they’re like the coolest thing ever in your classroom. 

Picture this: kiddos bouncing into the room, eyes lighting up because they get to pick their own adventure in learning new words.

 It’s like a mini vocab party, and everyone’s invited!

We all have our own jam, right? Some of us are little artists, others are born performers, and some love to get lost in stories. Choice boards are like a buffet of fun learning snacks, so every munchkin finds something tasty that helps the vocab stick!

And here’s the kicker – when the little ones get to steer the ship, they turn into these mini captains of learning. They’re making the calls, and with every choice, they puff up a bit more with confidence. It’s a win-win – they’re learning and feeling like the boss at the same time.

Plus, for us teachers, it’s like having a secret helper in the room. We get to sprinkle in all sorts of activities that match our students’ levels and what makes their hearts tick. It’s like custom-making a learning playlist that gets every kid grooving to the vocab beat. How cool is that?