Beavers Health and Fitness at home

You will need:

• Device with access to the internet
• Scrap paper
• Pens or pencils
• Stopwatch or smartphone
• Dice or online dice roller

How to measure your heart rate

Start your session by learning to measure your heart rate to meet badge requirement number three. Check out Heart rate relay for the original activity and to download the ‘My heart rate’ sheet.

1. Start by demonstrating how to measure your resting heart rate. Count how many times your heart beats in one minute while you’re resting (not after you’ve just done exercise). You can count your heart rate using your pulse, feeling the blood being propelled through the arteries in your wrist or neck. Count how many times you feel it with two fingers, like in the pictures on the ‘My heart rate’ sheet.
2. Everyone should copy and measure their heart rates. If anyone’s struggling to count their heart rate for 60 seconds, they could count it for 10 seconds then multiply the number by six (with a calculator).
3. Everyone should make a note of their resting heart rate on some paper.
4. Explain that you’ll be doing some exercises and testing the effect they have on everyone’s heart rates. Ask everyone whether they think their heart rate will be higher or lower after they’ve been exercising.

The warm up

Continue your session with a warm up. You could adapt Mirror me: the warm up to run online.

1. Quickly introduce some of the main muscle groups (you can find more information on sites like Wonderlab). See if anyone can explain why different sports use different muscles.
2. Ask everyone to find some space where they have room to move around.
3. Show everyone some warm up moves and ask everyone to copy your actions. Check out this NHS page about how to warm up before exercising for some ideas.
4. Once everyone’s got the hang of it, see if they know any other warm up moves you could try out. Does anyone want to have a go at leading the group’s actions?

Let the dice decide

Now everyone’s warmed up, it’s time to get active. Try out some activities to meet the first badge requirement and see if you can get your heart racing.

1. Ask the group to think of six different actions or exercises and write them down – you could do this on a PowerPoint and share your screen, or use the built in whiteboard so that everyone can see.
2. Take it in turns to roll a dice if you have one, or use an online dice roller instead. Everyone should complete the action that matches the number they rolled. We’ve added some more activity ideas below, including some short workout videos you could use instead.
3. Keep going till everyone has rolled, then everyone should stretch a little bit, have a rest, and have a drink of water. 

• Star jumps
• Running on the spot
• Squats
• Frog jumps
• Mountain climbers
• Burpees
• Tuck jumps
• Crab walk
• High knees
• Bear crawl
• Switch kicks

Measure your heart rate again

Finish the session by measuring your heart rates again to see what different the different activities made.

1. Ask everyone to measure their heart rate again. For this to work best, they should start counting as soon as they can after they’ve stopped moving.
2. Everyone should make a note of their heart rate and see whether it’s higher or lower than their resting heart rate.
3. See if anyone’s prediction was right – did they guess that their heart rate would be higher?
4. Explain that when you exercise, your muscles need more oxygen. You heart beats faster so that more blood is pumped around your body, carrying the nutrients and oxygen that your working muscles need

To continue working towards the Health and Fitness Activity Badge, set everyone some challenges to complete at home between your meetings. We’ve added a draft email below that you can edit and send out to your group with all the info they’ll need.

Encourage everyone to share their progress as they complete the activities – you could track progress using an online tool like OSM or by asking parents or carers to email you pictures or comments. Some groups use social media pages like Facebook to keep in touch and these can be a great way for everyone to share what they’re doing too. Alternatively, you could always just save the info to show and tell as a group next time you meet online.

The email draft includes:

• Reminders of different exercises they can do at home.
• Some information on what to bring along to your next meeting.

Email draft:

Thanks to everyone who joined us to start learning about health and fitness this week! To complete your badge, here are some activities you can have a go at home before our next meeting:

• Take part in some regular exercises at home – why not try one of Joe Wicks’ workouts or Cosmic Kids Yoga on YouTube? You could also think of some fun activities of your own.
• Think of your three favourite exercises and make a note of them to share with everyone in our next meeting.
• Next time, we’ll be making some healthy snacks. You’ll need to have some different fruits ready to use, a plate, a knife, and an adult to help.

Have a great week, and don’t forget to let us know how you get on with the challenges.

You will need:

• Device with access to the internet
• Selection of different fruits
• Plate and a knife

We like to move it, move it

Share some of your favourite workout moves and chat about why healthy eating and exercise are important to meet badge requirement four.

1. To start your session, ask everyone which activities or exercises they’ve done since your last meeting. Did anyone try any online workouts? Did anyone exercise outdoors or with any other members of their household? What were their favourite ways to keep active?
2. Everyone should take it in turns to quickly share their favourite moves or workouts with the group. They should demonstrate the different moves and everyone else should copy.
3. You could use the spotlight feature so everyone can see the person demonstrating their moves.
4. Once everyone’s had a chance to share their moves, everyone should stretch a little bit, have a rest, and have a drink of water. 

Fruity facts and funny snacks

Now you’ve worked up an appetite, make a healthy snack together to meet requirement three.

1. Explain that you’ll be thinking about healthy eating. Read out the different statements from the ‘Healthy eating: true or false’ sheet and ask everyone to vote whether they think it’s true or false. It’s up to you how people show their answers – they could put their thumbs up or down, stand up or sit down, or use another action.
2. Once you’ve read all the statements, ask everyone why they think eating a balanced diet is important.
3. Explain that eating a balanced diet is another important part of staying healthy and feeling your best.
4. Finish the session by making some fun fruity snacks together. Check out Funny fruity monster faces, or Rainbow fruit mix for some inspiration.
5. Don’t forget to congratulate everyone for earning their Health and Fitness Activity Badge.