- Definition
A warm-up is when your child does light exercises to get their body ready for more active play or sports, helping to prevent injuries.
Doing some gentle jogging in place before a game of tag is a warm-up.
How to teach this in 30 seconds
Try this analogy: A warm-up is like gently waking up your body in the morning before you ask it to run and play.
Ask your child: How can we wake up our running muscles?
Common mix-up: Kids may think they can just start running and playing at full speed. A good warm-up prepares the body for big movements by starting with small ones.
Examples
- Doing arm circles to get your shoulders ready to throw a ball.
- Marching with high knees before starting a running race.
warm-up is a term used in Ontario’s Kindergarten to Grade 8 curriculum.
Where this shows up
- Grade 1 Health and Physical Education
- Grade 2 Health and Physical Education
- Grade 3 Health and Physical Education
- Grade 4 Health and Physical Education
- Grade 5 Health and Physical Education
- Grade 6 Health and Physical Education
+2 more mentions across the curriculum
The descriptions on this page are SmartStudy’s own original, plain-language writing — not the Ministry’s wording. They are aligned to the Ontario Curriculum, © King’s Printer for Ontario. For the Ministry’s official wording, see the source link below. SmartStudy is an independent service and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the Government of Ontario or the Ministry of Education. Ontario Curriculum and Resources ↗
