40+ Dynamic PE Games for Middle Schoolers

By the time middle schoolers get to PE class, they’re ready to work off some stress or expend their excess energy. While some gym classes are dedicated to skill-building and assessments (we see you, Mile Mondays), other PE periods offer opportunities to use those skills to enjoy being physical and strong with collaborative games.

Celebrate not being at a desk with a collection of PE games for middle schoolers that work for anything from perfectly sunny days outdoors to rainy days in the gym. Whether you’ve got a utility closet full of balls and cones or you need some resources for equipment-free activities, these junior high PE games and resources are bound to make everyone look forward to PE all day — especially you!

PE Ball Games for Middle Schoolers

After graduating from elementary PE games, middle schoolers need activities that involve enough creativity, physicality, and teamwork to keep them engaged. Use these gym activities for middle schoolers that use bouncy balls, soccer balls, volleyballs, or any other balls, either inside or outside the gym.

Concentration Ball: Using the classic game of concentration, students call out items in a category (fruit, for example, or animals), then bounce a ball to someone in the circle. You’re out if you can’t think of an answer no one’s said before!
Clap Catch: Students toss a ball to a partner, who must clap before they catch it. (Substitute claps for hops if they’re kicking soccer balls to each other).
Crab Soccer: Middle schoolers can crab walk, and they can play soccer. Combine these skills for a scrambling soccer game in which they only walk and kick in the crab-walk position!
Catch Tag: Think Freeze Tag with a catching twist. Students “freeze” when they’re tagged and “thaw” when someone tosses them a ball.
Basketball Shot Put: How far can students throw a basketball? Have them use the shot put technique on a basketball to see who can make the greater distance.
Human Bowling: Set middle schoolers up like pins and have a student throw or toss a ball at them, bowling-ball style. Whoever they hit counts as a fallen pin!
Free the Prisoners: The inner circle of students is prisoners, guarded by a middle circle of dragons. The outer circle is soldiers, and they toss balls to the prisoners. Catching a ball frees a prisoner, but look out — those dragons can catch, too!
Quadrant Volleyball: Make it a four-team volleyball game with chalk lines or cones instead of a net. Then let each team serve the ball to another for an unpredictable volleyball game!

Junior high PE games for regular days and sub days

Need some reliable games to add to your lesson plan, no matter the situation? Use no-prep games for any day on your schedule, whether you’re expecting a sub in PE or you’re teaching during inclement weather.

Go To Games for Elementary Junior High Physical Education PE Sub Plans No Prep
By Mountain Movers PE
Grades: PreK-12th

An array of junior high PE games scale up or down to meet your students’ grade-level skills in spatial awareness, physical activity, and fair play. Each lesson comes with an activity description and learning outcome to help you measure success and student skill-building.

Riveting Running Games for Middle School

Middle schoolers may complain about running in PE, but the benefits of cardiovascular activity are so important that they need to do it anyway. Make the journey more entertaining for reluctant runners with PE games for middle schoolers that use running as a competitive tool.

Blob Tag: As the “It” student tags their peers, they join together in a blob that seeks out the rest of the class. It’s all fun and games until there’s only one person left untagged!
Switch: All you need is a foursquare court and some strategic thinking to play this corner switch game, in which students try to switch places without the student in the middle running to take one of their spots.
Musical Sprints: When the music plays, students run — and when it stops, so do they! See who can get to the finish line first.
Skip Races: Sometimes skipping makes running extra fun. Have students race each other with skipping instead of running, or try galloping, crab walking, etc.
Sharks and Minnows: One student’s a shark, the others are minnows. The minnows run past the shark, who tags anyone they can, turning them into fellow sharks. Then the minnows run again!
Land or Water: Designate one part of the field or gym “land” and the other “water.” Put the students in the middle, then call “Land!” or “Water!” They run as fast as they can to get there.
Band-Aid Tag: When students get tagged, they put one hand on the spot the tagger touched. They run with their hand on that spot, then put their other hand on the second spot they’re tagged. When they’re tagged for a third time, they’re out (or “It”).
Fill the Bucket relay: Using beanbags, small balls, or anything else you’ve got that can fill a bucket, students have relay races to move the contents of one bucket to another, just one item at a time.

Find activities to get their hearts pounding

With a focus on cardiovascular health, your PE curriculum may be a life-changer for your junior high students. Use these fitness-minded games to ensure middle schoolers are getting the most from your lessons (and having a great time, too!).

101 Fun PE Games for Elementary and Middle School
By PE Power Pack
Grades: K-8th

With such a variety of obstacle courses, football games, throwing games, icebreaker PE games, and so many more, you’ll have half your PE year planned already! Use 101 PE games for middle schoolers to practice new skills, work in teams, and enjoy the most physical part of their days.

Cool Games With Cones and Hula Hoops

Whether you’ve inherited a class set of hula hoops and cones or you’ve just gotten your order from the main office, it’s great to have games that use these middle school PE staples! Bring out these easily stackable supplies (plus a pool noodle or two) to play PE games for middle schoolers.

Hula Hoop Tic-Tac-Toe: Using chalk or masking tape, create Tic-Tac-Toe shapes on the ground. Students toss hula hoops on each spot to get three in a row first.
Steal the Bacon: Two lines of numbered students listen for their individual number. When you call it, that designated student runs to the middle to grab the “bacon” (a hula hoop or cone) before the student from the other line!
Hula Hoop Horseshoes: Set up cones and put students and hula hoops at a distance. Set a timer and see how many hoops they can throw around the cones (and knocking cones over doesn’t count).
Hula Tag: During a game of tag, students can grab hula hoops and “unfreeze” their peers by having them step through the hoop. Limited hoops make this game especially competitive!
Pool Noodle Archery: Who needs bows and arrows? Use pool noodles as arrows that students toss through targets (another student holding up a hula hoop). The student with the most bullseyes wins.
Tunnel Escape: Create a moving obstacle course in which a team sends runners through a tunnel of hula hoops held by their peers. They can crawl, hop, or climb through the hoops to get to the finish line.
Flip the Cone: Have students put their bottle-flipping skills to use with a game that encourages them to flip cones to standing positions. Set a timer and see who wins!
Blind Maze: Set up a cone maze and have teams verbally guide blindfolded students through. (If your field has a lot of gopher holes or obstacles, consider having peers guide them by the shoulders.)

Build camaraderie with cooperative PE games

PE is all about sports, and sports are all about teamwork. Get students working together with a collection of collaborative games that encourage teamwork with healthy competition.

Cooperative Games for P.E. and the Classroom
By Health Education Today – Health and PE Resources
Grades: 5th-12th

Can PE be a collaborative experience, even with competition? Help students get to know each other and build physical skills at the same time with a collection of team-building activities, communication games, and fun PE games for middle schoolers to learn to work together.

Engaging Equipment-Free Middle School PE Games

Take a break from the dodgeball days and hula-hoop contests with games that don’t need any equipment. With body-weight exercises and yoga contests, your students may not even miss pelting each other with dodgeballs!

Fitness Bingo: Have students fill out a Bingo card with exercises they’ve learned in class (crunches, push-ups, stretches, etc.). When you call them out, they mark off the exercises after doing a required number of them.
Balance Birds: Position students on a line or balance beam, and have them try to stay on as their balance positions get increasingly tricky (putting their hands on their head, lifting up a foot, doing a squat, etc.).
Stay-up Circles: Put students into small groups, where they stand in circles. They must all decide on a way to stay up longer than the other circles in a chosen pose, such as a figure four or leaning back while holding hands.
Target Jump: With a target in the middle of a circle, students practice their long jumps to see who can get closer. (Let everyone go one at a time to prevent crashes!)
Yoga Corners: Name each corner of the field a yoga position, and have students run to them as you call them out. Once they’re there, they hold the position until you call out the next one.
Hold It: Who can hold a yoga position the longest? Have teams send up volunteers to try and hold the position you call out before their competitors fall.
Somersault Relay Races: Perfect for a gymnastics unit, this activity encourages students to practice their somersault form and racing strategy to beat the other teams in a relay race.
Plank Leapfrog: Break the class into teams and have each get into a line. They then go into plank position, except the last person, who “leapfrogs” over their team members to form a plank at the end of the line. The next person breaks their plank and does the same until everyone’s had a turn. The fastest team wins!

Feel the burn with fitness games for middle school

Strong students have strong minds and strong bodies! Have students practice bodyweight fitness techniques with resources that encourage equipment-free physical activity in PE class.

PE Fitness Games BUNDLE | 4 activities | Distance Learning | Virtual PE
By Coach Gore-PE
Grades: PreK-12th

These fitness games allow students to practice important physical skills in creative ways. They master lunges, squat jumps, crab walks, mountain climbers, burpees, and more with games that test their bodies and minds!

21 No Equipment PE Games for Elementary, Middle and High School
By Maverick Minds Education
Grades: 1st-10th

Need some straightforward, everyday PE games? These no-prep, no-equipment games include fun choices like octopus tag, sit-down stand-up, and plank challenges for students to work on individual skills and national PE standards.

Classic Middle School PE Games

In between your skill days and creative activities, remember to include the classics! These traditional PE games for middle schoolers are favorites for generations of students who love running, sports, and playing outside with their friends.

Capture the Flag
Freeze Tag
Horse (basketball)
Relay races
Three-legged races
Leap frog
Kickball
Dodgeball

Take middle schoolers through sports foundations

Whether you’re teaching basketball, soccer, hockey, or another classic sport, you’ll need to address the needs of all students. Meet them where they are with foundational lessons on sports that teach basics to beginners and help experts hone their skills.

Physical Education Floor Hockey Unit and Lesson Plans | Grades 6 – 12
By Teaching Pak
Grades: 7th-10th

Nine lesson plans and over 50 learning activities take middle schoolers through the basics of floor hockey. This resource includes modified games, relays, and drills to keep students moving and interested, making this floor hockey unit a quick favorite for students and teachers alike!

Make healthy lifestyles fun and fit with TPT

When students are having fun, they don’t notice that they’re learning! Use additional middle school PE resources to prepare for rainy weather, sub days, or those PE periods when tag seems like the best option for everyone. And for more advanced physical learners, try out PE games for high school to keep students on their toes (literally, in some cases!).