Creative PE Games Children Will Enjoy

Author: Jess Sparks
Updated on: August 8, 2023

Coming up with fun PE games that a wide range of children will enjoy whilst building fitness levels is challenging. Not only do you need fresh ideas twice a week, but they’ve also got to be structured, easy to follow and suitable for a large number of children.

PE is a favourite lesson for many children, so you don’t want to disappoint.

Fear not! We have a range of top ideas for PE games that are creative, practical, safe, and suitable for children of all ages.

We’re a leading supplier of playground markings for schools, so we know you need games that meet national curriculum requirements and are easy to organise.

All the activities we’ve listed are no-equipment PE games, so you don’t have to spend time organising resources, and children get more time to participate in activities.

We’ve included a variety of activities, such as warm-ups, invasion PE games, and team-building games that meet an array of PE curriculum requirements and are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use.

Whether pupils are in EYFS, KS1, KS2 or secondary school, you’ll find plenty of time-saving ideas for fun PE games your children will enjoy.

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PE Games Children Will Enjoy

PE Warm-Up Games

Keep warm-ups interesting with fun PE games that get the heart, muscles, and body ready for physical activity.

1. Cat and Mouse (10 mins)

Raise children’s heart rates and get everyone moving with an energetic game of Cat and Mouse.

• Ask children to take a coloured band or tag, find a space then attach the band to their PE shorts to create a tail.
• Tell children when you blow the whistle, they’ve got to jog around without touching anyone else. Caution children to remain alert because 4 cats will be on the prowl, trying to steal their tail.
• Pick 4 children to be the cat. They have no tail.
• If any mice lose their tail, they must go to the cat’s hideout at the side of the outdoor or indoor space.
• Whilst in the cat’s hideout, children must be engaged in the given physical activity which is written on a whiteboard located in the hideout. For example, you may ask them to jog continuously on the spot or complete ongoing star jumps etc.
• Tell children they can free anyone in the hideout. They must get to the hideout and help one mouse replace their missing tail with a spare from the stash of tails left in the hideout.

If either child is caught escaping, both must remain in the hideout.

2. Body Parts Twister (10 mins)

Promote stretching, balance, co-ordination, and stamina with this easy no-equipment warm-up game which challenges children to use different parts of the body.

• Ask children to move around the space in a particular way without touching anyone. For example, you may ask them to jog.
• Tell pupils when you blow the whistle, they’ve got to have the given body part touching the floor. Each child’s body shape should look completely different to anyone else’s.

If you call all change, the command is still the same, but children have got to touch the body part to the floor in a different way.

If you call twister, children have to get into threes and find a creative way to touch the body part to the floor as a group.

• Remind children they will need to hold the move until you blow the whistle again.

Invasion PE Games

Build children’s social skills whilst teaching the importance of following rules and working as a team with fun ideas for invasion PE games. Invasion games are team-building activities which require players to enter the opponent’s zone to score points.

3. Pirate’s Treasure (15-20 mins)

Promote strategic thinking with this inclusive game all children will enjoy.

• Tell children one end of the space is an island, the other end is a pirate ship which is full of pirates and treasure (a pile of beanbags).
• Tell children they have to cross the sea to steal one piece of gold at a time from the pirate ship.
• Choose 8-10 children to be pirates. The pirates must defend the treasure. If they tap any child running across to steal the treasure, that child must stand still with their arms outstretched.

Any treasure in the child’s hand is handed over to the pirate who returns it to the ship.

Pirates are not allowed on the island.

• Children with their arms outstretched are sinking boats. They can be rescued by any child from the island who runs underneath their arm.

Both children must make it back to the island together without getting tapped or they are left stuck on sinking boats in the water.

• If you call ‘dinner’s ready’ at any point, everyone must return to their side of the space. During dinnertime children may have a team talk to discuss strategy if they wish.
• If you call ‘tornado’, everyone has to freeze then jog on the spot.

See more no-equipment playground games

4. Slide Tag (15-20 mins)

Teach children the importance of fair play and strategic thinking with this team-building PE game. 

• Split children into two teams and send them to either end of the space.
• Position children from one team along each of the three lines of masking tape which have been laid across the width of the space (or use existing playground markings)

Tell these children they can only move up and down the line. They can jump or raise one leg to turn around without leaving the line.

• Tell children from the other team that when you blow the whistle, they have to run to the other side, pick up a beanbag and run back again without getting caught.

If any child gets caught by the children standing on the lines, that child has to run down the side of the space and go back to the starting line and try again.

See more fun, no-equipment playground games

Skill-Building PE Games

5. Cricket Practice Playground Marking

Like all of our playground markings and equipment, the cricket practice playground marking is an open-ended design you can use in any way you choose.

For a whole-class skill-building activity, split children into two groups.

• Give children who are batting a vest then tell everyone else to field.
• One child from each team stands in position to bat or bowl. The pair have 2 attempts. If the batter misses or the bowler fails to bowl, both children move in one space.
• If there is still no successful hit after two attempts, it’s the next pair’s turn. If the pair hit the ball on the first or second go, it’s the next pair’s turn.

6. Long Jump Playground Marking

Discuss different ways to approach the jump line and how to land correctly. Children take it in turns to run up and jump as far as they can.

Discover lots more markings and equipment for fun PE games in our extensive collection for schools and nurseries.