Relays - Lesson Plan

In Year 6 athletics, the second lesson on relays aims to enhance students' sprinting techniques while mastering the art of baton passing. The lesson objectives are threefold: to combine sprinting with seamless baton exchanges, to grasp the fundamentals of relay changes in a competitive context, and to hone decision-making skills regarding distance and speed. The resources provided for this lesson include cones, batons, and resource cards, with a focus on literacy terms such as speed, acceleration/deceleration, and coordination. The success criteria are clear: students should be able to run with fast arm action, maintain a stable head and upright torso, react swiftly to accelerate over short distances, and adjust their performance to improve results.

The warm-up activity, lasting five minutes, involves a numbers game where students move around in various ways—walking, jumping, hopping, skipping, jogging—and group themselves according to called-out numbers, incorporating basic numeracy. This is followed by a ten-minute acceleration activity using a traffic light system with cones to teach acceleration, likening it to a car's increasing speed. The main activity involves circular relays for fifteen minutes, where students practice baton exchanges and focus on techniques for running on bends. The lesson concludes with a five-minute cool-down using sumo squats to encourage controlled, slow movements that can be held to increase stretching, ensuring students cool down effectively after their relay practice.