PE Lesson Plan Generator

What this generator does

Produces a whole lesson rather than an activity. The PE activity generator here returns one idea; this returns the lesson — a short entry activity, a station carousel that takes the largest share of the time because every child is active in it at once, one whole-class game, and a plenary. The carousel has a station for each group of about five, a different activity at every station, and a rotation in which each group works at each station once. The group split is computed from your class size, so twenty-three children in five groups comes out as 5/5/5/4/4 rather than 'about four and a half each'.

How to use this tool

1. Set the lesson length and the number of children in the class.
2. Tick what is genuinely in the cupboard — balls, cones, bibs, hoops, mats.
3. Press build for a lesson from entry activity to plenary.
4. Swap any block, or any single station, that will not work in your space; the timings stay.
5. Print the plan, or copy it, with every station and the order the groups reach it.

Understanding the controls

Lesson length

Four blocks totalling exactly this, so the plan fits the timetable rather than the timetable absorbing the overrun. The plenary is protected as its own block rather than being whatever is left at the end. It also limits the carousel: every group visits every station and a visit is never shorter than three minutes, so a short station block has fewer stations and larger groups, and a note says so.

Class size

Decides how many stations the carousel has — one for each group of about five — and which whole-class games are possible. It also feeds the group split shown on each block, which always adds back up to your class — nobody is left out of the arithmetic. Seven children or fewer are one group, and the station block is then a single activity.

Equipment

A hard filter on every activity. Without bibs the tag and capture games go; without hoops the nest game goes. Anything unticked simply never appears, which is the point when you are covering a lesson in somebody else's hall. Every station is a different activity, so the cupboard also caps the carousel: seven station activities exist, and with only cones ticked one of them fits, which is one activity set out once per group and a note saying why.

Seed

Reproduces the same lesson — useful for teaching the same plan to two classes in one day — unless the generator has changed since.

Swap this station

One beside every station of the carousel. It replaces that station's activity with one not already in the lesson and leaves the other stations, the groups and the timing alone. When every station activity your cupboard allows is already set out, it says there is nothing to swap to. The other three blocks each have Swap this block.

Print the plan

Prints the lesson alone, without the controls or the rest of the page: the four blocks, and under the carousel each station with its activity, what to look for and the order the groups arrive in.

Worked examples

50 minutes, 30 children, full cupboard

9 entry activity, 21 stations, 14 whole-class game, 6 plenary — 50 exactly. The 21 minutes are six stations for six groups of five, moving on every 3m 30s.

23 children in five groups

Groups of 5, 5, 5, 4, 4 — adding back up to 23 rather than rounding — at five stations. In a 50-minute lesson that is a move every 4 minutes, with 1 minute over to set up and explain.

No bibs

Tag with a twist, capture the cones, benchball and the four-goal game all need bibs and stop being offered. The whole-class game becomes the continuous relay or rob the nest, and nothing on the page lists what was filtered out.

A 30-minute lesson

The same four blocks, proportionally shorter: 5 entry activity, 13 stations, 8 game, 4 plenary. Thirteen minutes hold four visits of three minutes or more, so a class of thirty gets four stations of 8, 8, 7 and 7 moving on every 3m 15s, and a note says the groups are larger. The caps on the entry activity and plenary only bite in lessons of 70 minutes or more.

Common use cases

• Planning a primary PE lesson for a full class
• Picking up a cover lesson at short notice with unfamiliar equipment
• Running a lesson in a small hall where a whole-class game needs care
• Building a half-term of lessons that do not repeat the same activities
• Handing a written plan to a sports coach or teaching assistant

How this generator works

The PE template runs warm-up, stations, a whole-class game and a cool-down, with 42% of the time going to the station block by design. That block is a carousel. The class is split into groups of about five, the same number of station activities is drawn, all different, and group one starts at station one, group two at station two and so on. Visits are equal, a whole number of quarter minutes, as long as the block allows; at each change every group moves to the next station number and the last station's group walks round to the first, so after as many visits as there are stations every group has worked at every one and no two groups have ever shared. Time left over after the visits is shown as setting-up time. Three things can reduce the number of stations below one per five children — fewer station activities that fit the equipment, a block too short for that many three-minute visits, or a class of seven or fewer — and each is stated in a note under the plan. Activities that will not work with your class size or equipment are removed before minutes are shared out, then whole minutes are apportioned by largest remainder so the lesson totals exactly. The class is split into working groups using the same whole-number method, so the group sizes differ by at most one and always sum to the class. Interval-style activities fit whole work-and-rest sets inside their block and report the change-over time.

Randomness and fairness

The draw picks which eligible activity fills each block and each station of the carousel. The number of stations, the rotation, the lesson shape, the minute split and the group sizes are all derived rather than drawn. A seed makes the activity choice reproducible through a documented non-cryptographic generator.

For how randomness is produced across the whole site, see how Generate Random works.

Assumptions this tool makes

• A usable indoor or outdoor space is available for the whole lesson.
• The class size given is the number who will be taking part rather than the number on the register.

Limitations and good to know

• It has no knowledge of your curriculum, scheme of work or the age group's prior learning, and does not write learning objectives.
• Space is not modelled — a whole-class game that works in a sports hall may not work in a classroom-sized space, and you have to judge that.
• It cannot know about individual pupils' needs, medical conditions or access requirements; every activity needs adapting for the class in front of you.
• The lesson is not saved, so copy or print it before leaving the page — a seed will rebuild the same one.

Common mistakes

Sending the whole class round the stations together

The carousel exists to stop queueing. Every group starts at its own station and all of them move at the same moment; one line of thirty children at one station means most of them standing still for most of the lesson.

Leaving the plenary to whatever time remains

It has its own block for a reason — it is the part of the lesson most often lost, and the part that makes the rest of it stick.

Ticking equipment that is shared with another class

Tick only what you will definitely have in your hands. A station you cannot set up is worse than one fewer station.

Practical tips

• Set the stations out before the class arrives, in number order round the hall so that moving to the next number needs no explaining — it is the block most often eaten by setting up.
• Use the number-groups warm-up to form the station groups without picking teams.
• Print the plan and leave each station's entry at that station, so you are not repeating the instructions five times.

Privacy and your data

Nothing you enter leaves your browser. No pupil names are collected here, and the lesson length, class size, equipment and seed are never uploaded, stored or written into the page address. Analytics records only that the tool ran and how many blocks it produced.

Frequently asked questions

How is this different from the PE activity generator?

That gives you one activity. This gives you the lesson: four timed blocks that fit your timetable slot, a carousel with a station for every group, and a plenary that does not get squeezed out.

Why does my carousel have fewer stations than groups of five would give?

Because every station is a different activity and every group visits all of them. If the equipment ticked allows only three station activities, there are three stations; if the station block is nine minutes, it holds three visits of at least three minutes. Either way the groups are larger, the note under the plan says which limit applied, and ticking more equipment or lengthening the lesson brings the number back up.

Why do the groups come out uneven?

Because classes rarely divide exactly. Twenty-three in five groups is 5/5/5/4/4 — the sizes always differ by at most one and always add back up to your class, which is more useful than an average.

Can I use it for secondary PE?

The structure transfers, but the activities are written for a general school context rather than for a specific sport at a specific key stage. Treat them as a starting point and adapt.

Does it include learning objectives?

No. Objectives belong to your scheme of work and your class, and a generated one would be filler. This plans the time and the activities; the objective is yours.