Classroom Exercises on YouTube for Special Education

For my health class, we spent a couple weeks talking about the importance of exercising. Exercise is an important rec/leisure skill that I feel like a lot of times is left out at school. I know my students play sports in PE...but if they don't join a team, that isn't likely to continue after school. So we spent some time practicing different exercises that we could do in the classroom and that they could even do at home too.
Now, I'll admit, some of my students have a hard time following along to things, so I was a little disappointed when Zumba videos didn't work out and almost gave up...but then I landed on these few gold mines.

Walk Away the Pounds. MY FAVORITE! My students will follow this for the full 15 minute one mile walk
Search "Walk Away the Pounds" on YouTube and you will have plenty of options to choose from that range from 5 minutes to 45 minutes. I haven't dared to try any longer than the 1 mile though, but you could even do one of the longer ones for variety and just stop it sooner if you need too. I love how simple the directions are and that you do the same thing for a good amount of time before switching to the next. Practically all of my students were able to be successful with these videos and most of them by actually following along and doing the moves (there were a few students where I considered it a success if they were moving their feet, but hey, it's a start!)

Sit and Be Fit. These videos are hysterical! Check out the Sit and Be Fit channel here. Some of my students really appreciate the fact that they can sit and do these exercises. I haven't found an absolute favorite of these ones, but we've tried out quite a few of them and none of them are terrible either. Plus, they do lot more different exercises than the Walk Away the Pounds. This one was pretty good.

Go Noodle. I've talked about how I've use Go Noodle in the classroom before, and it keeps getting better. They keep adding awesome things for my students. They love Maximo (yoga poses for children) and also the Fresh Start Fitness. We try the Zumba videos every once and a while, but hardly anyone can keep up with those! There are also fun Olympic training videos that do a lot of running in place as well.

Here's one of the Maximo videos. You won't find the rest on YouTube, but they are all available (for free) through GoNoodle.


Are there any other YouTube videos that you use for fitness or break breaks with your students? I'd love to hear about them!

3 comments

  1. My guys have done some Paul Eugene "kids" videos like this one:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=pWmscIVv8-4
    However I don't love that they're kids videos since we are in HS, but they are pretty independent with following the video since they worked on it in middle school.
    We also started putting together our own video! Each student picked and modeled one exercise for the video, I just have to put it all together - I think they'll be really excited to see themselves in the video!
    I also put together a yoga PowerPoint with some simple poses, added in stretches and deep breathing pages which I really like working on.
    I'm excited to check out your links and try out some new exercise videos!! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. I love these! Thanks so much. We have several of the old Richard Simmons Sweating to the Oldies VHS tapes that my kids just love to do. They're usually slow enough that the kids can keep up. We'll definitely give these videos a try a try!

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  3. These look great! My students love Just Dance videos and Cosmic Kids Yoga.

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