New
New
Year 1

Effect of exercise on our breathing

I can identify changes to my breathing when I exercise.

New
New
Year 1

Effect of exercise on our breathing

I can identify changes to my breathing when I exercise.

These resources will be removed by end of Summer Term 2025.

Switch to our new teaching resources now - designed by teachers and leading subject experts, and tested in classrooms.

These resources were created for remote use during the pandemic and are not designed for classroom teaching.

Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. Move: exercise and rest causes our breathing to get faster and slower.
  2. Think: breathing faster and deeper enables our body to take in more oxygen, which is our body's energy.
  3. Feel: showing courage enables us to be brave and think of our own ideas.
  4. Connect: playing fairly with others shows gratitude so everyone can enjoy the game.

Keywords

  • Breathing - the process of moving air into and out of the lungs to bring in oxygen

  • Exercise - being physically active while playing a game or performing an activity

  • Oxygen - an important gas needed by most life forms on Earth to survive

Common misconception

Pupils may not recognise that during exercise, the depth of breathing changes as well as the speed per minute. Depth of breathing is a more abstract concept than how many breaths are taken per minute.

As well as taking more breaths per minute during exercise, a child will take deeper breaths each time. This is also a way for the body to get more oxygen.


To help you plan your year 1 physical education lesson on: Effect of exercise on our breathing, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

When playing 'Energy eaters and oxygenators', pupils can be asked to predict what they think will happen to the energy in the body when the energy eaters are moving more quickly than the oxygenators, or when the oxygenators can carry 2 pieces of energy and the energy eaters only one.
Teacher tip

Equipment

Floor markers (1 per pupil), 15+ beanbags, 30+ cones, Bibs for half the pupils

Content guidance

  • Risk assessment required - physical activity

Supervision

Adult supervision required

Licence

This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Prior knowledge starter quiz

Download quiz pdf

4 Questions

Q1.
Which of these activities helps us exercise our bodies?
Correct answer: playing tag
watching television
playing board games
Q2.
Which of these activities is most likely to make your heart beat faster?
reading a book
writing a story
Correct answer: running a race
Q3.
What is needed to help to keep your body and mind healthy?
Correct answer: regular exercise
lots of sugar
screen time
Q4.
Which of these things does your body do on its own, even when you are sleeping?
dancing
Correct answer: breathing
catching

Assessment exit quiz

Download quiz pdf

4 Questions

Q1.
What action does our body do to take in oxygen?
Correct answer: breathing
blinking
kicking
Q2.
Why does our body need oxygen?
gives us knowledge
gives us food
Correct answer: gives us energy
Q3.
When we play games and exercise, what can you do to make it enjoyable for everyone?
Correct answer: play fairly
break the rules
whatever you want
Q4.
What might happen to your breathing if you start doing fast, energetic star jumps?
get slower
stay the same
Correct answer: get faster