Improve my cardiovascular fitness
Lesson details
Learning outcome
I can explain how the cardiovascular system works and can choose activities to help improve my own cardiovascular endurance.
Key learning points
- Move: increasing the intensity of my actions will increase my heart rate.
- Think: regularly moving in ways that increase my heart rate, helps my heart to stay healthy.
- Think: a healthy cardiovascular system helps me to perform well in a range of sporting activities.
- Feel: choosing to take part in activities that challenge my cardiovascular fitness requires self-motivation.
- Connect: recognising other people's differences demonstrates respect.
Keywords
Heart - a strong, muscular organ inside your chest that pumps blood around your body
Intensity - how strong, deep or extreme something is
Cardiovascular system - the body’s system that delivers blood, oxygen and nutrients through the blood vessels
Common misconception
Some pupils may not recognise the heart as a muscle because we cannot consciously move it in the same way we can other muscles in the body.
The body has voluntary and involuntary muscles. The heart is an involuntary muscle that doesn't require conscious thought to make it contract and send blood around the body. Exercising regularly can improve the strength and endurance of our heart.
Teacher tip
Pupils will have varying levels of cardiovascular endurance, so the way individuals rank the intensity of activity will vary. There are no specific correct/incorrect answers to the ranking task. Use your judgement around the sensitivity of pupils sharing this information with the whole group.
Equipment
60+ cones, 16 red & 16 blue beanbags/quoits, 15 stopwatches, 50 red & 50 blue counters/cubes, 10 basketballs
Content guidance
Risk assessment required - physical activity
Supervision
Adult supervision required
Licence
Prior knowledge starter quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Which is activity is suitable for a warm up?
Q2.Which of these is a safe way to increase your heart rate during a warm up?
Q3.Which body part sends blood around the body?
Q4.Which component of fitness will improve by completing continuous shuttle runs?
Assessment exit quiz
4 Questions
Q1.Which of these words explains the movements of the heart?
Q2.What increases to speed up the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to our muscles when they need it during vigorous exercise?
Q3.How can positive self-talk help us when activities feel challenging?
Q4.What level of intensity can help to improve cardiovascular endurance?
To help you plan your 6 physical education lesson on: Improve my cardiovascular fitness, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...
To help you plan your 6 physical education lesson on: Improve my cardiovascular fitness, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs.
The starter quiz will activate and check your pupils' prior knowledge, with versions available both with and without answers in PDF format.
We use learning cycles to break down learning into key concepts or ideas linked to the learning outcome. Each learning cycle features explanations with checks for understanding and practice tasks with feedback. All of this is found in our slide decks, ready for you to download and edit. The practice tasks are also available as printable worksheets and some lessons have additional materials with extra material you might need for teaching the lesson.
The assessment exit quiz will test your pupils' understanding of the key learning points.
Our video is a tool for planning, showing how other teachers might teach the lesson, offering helpful tips, modelled explanations and inspiration for your own delivery in the classroom.
Explore more key stage 2 physical education lessons from the Health and wellbeing: stamina, strength and flexibility refined unit, dive into the full primary physical education curriculum, or learn more about lesson planning.