Elementary PE Curriculum Map: A K-5 Scope and Sequence and Yearly Plan
Picture a blank school calendar with 36 weeks to fill. Which units go first? How long does each one get? And how do you keep your kindergartners and your fifth graders moving forward at the same time? That's exactly what an elementary PE curriculum map is for.
A curriculum map turns your program into a plan you can actually follow: which units you'll teach, in what order, and for how long, for every grade band. In this post, I'll walk you through how to build a K-5 PE curriculum map step by step. Then I'll share the sample K-2 and 3-5 scope and sequence I built for the Power PE Curriculum, with three-year rotations you can use as they are or adapt to your own schedule.
After more than 30 years of teaching elementary PE, I know a clear plan makes everything else easier. Let's map out your year.
Quick Answer: An elementary PE curriculum map shows which units you'll teach, in what order, and for how long. Count your classes (36 weeks at two classes a week is 72 lessons), group them into units of about five lessons, plan K-2 and 3-5 separately, and teach each skill before the game that uses it. The Power PE Curriculum includes a ready-made three-year K-2 and 3-5 rotation with 14 units a year.
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What Is an Elementary PE Curriculum Map?
A curriculum map is a big-picture view of your PE year. Instead of planning one lesson at a time, you decide ahead of time what students will learn and when. You'll hear a few related terms, and they all work together:
Scope: What you'll teach. In elementary PE, that means movement skills and concepts, manipulative skills, fitness, and the games and sports that put those skills to work.
Sequence: The order you'll teach it in, so each unit builds on the one before it.
Yearly Plan: The calendar version of your map, showing how many weeks each unit gets and where it lands in the school year.
Your map should also show how your program covers the 2024 SHAPE America National Physical Education Standards over the year. For a refresher on the four standards, check out Understanding the New SHAPE America Physical Education Standards for 2024.
How to Build a K-5 PE Curriculum Map in 6 Steps
Whether you start from scratch or adapt a ready-made plan, these six steps will get your elementary PE curriculum map on paper.
Count Your Classes: Multiply your weeks by your classes per week. A 36-week year at two classes a week gives you 72 lessons. At once a week, you have 36. Then take out the days you already know you'll lose to testing, assemblies, and school events.
Choose a Unit Length: Short, focused units keep students engaged. In the Power PE Curriculum, each unit block is five lessons, or about two and a half weeks at two classes a week. That works out to 14 units in a 36-week year. To lay out each unit, try my editable Physical Education Unit Plan Templates.
Plan K-2 and 3-5 Separately: Younger students need exploration, foundational technique, and tasks where everyone can find success. Older students are ready for skill combinations, more complex progressions, and real game play. Many units can show up in both maps, taught at two different levels.
Teach the Skill, Then the Game: Place each skill unit right before the sport unit that uses it, like Kicking before Soccer. More on this below.
Balance Your Year: Include manipulative skills, sports, specialty units like jump rope and gymnastics, and fitness every year, so no area disappears for months. Teach locomotor and non-locomotor movement early, since everything else builds on them.
Plan Around Your Calendar: Mark holidays, testing windows, and school events first, then slot your units around them. Leave room for seasonal favorites like Thanksgiving PE games and Christmas PE games, plus field day in the spring. My editable PE Year Plan Template gives you a monthly layout to map it all out.
Once your units are in place, check your standards. Over the year, your units should give students practice with all four 2024 SHAPE America standards:
Standard 1: Develops a variety of motor skills.
Standard 2: Applies knowledge related to movement and fitness concepts.
Standard 3: Develops social skills through movement.
Standard 4: Develops personal skills, identifies personal benefits of movement, and chooses to engage in physical activity.
*National Physical Education Standards are used under license from SHAPE America. © 2024, SHAPE America, https://www.shapeamerica.org/. All rights reserved.
Sample K-2 PE Scope and Sequence: A Three-Year Rotation
The Power PE Curriculum has 240 lesson plans for Grades K-2. At two classes a week across a 36-week year, that's about a three-year rotation, so a student can move from kindergarten through second grade without repeating a lesson. Each block below is one five-lesson unit, about two and a half weeks. Click any unit to see it on TPT.
The colors match the four Power PE series: blue for Manipulative Skills, red for Sports Skills & Games, green for Specialty Skills & Movement, and purple for Fitness & Fundamental Movement.
K-2 Year 1: Foundations
Block | Unit | Series |
1 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
2 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
3 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
4 | Manipulative Skills | |
5 | Manipulative Skills | |
6 | Manipulative Skills | |
7 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
8 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
9 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
10 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
11 | Sports Skills & Games | |
12 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
13 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
14 | Specialty Skills & Movement |
K-2 Year 2: Building Control
Block | Unit | Series |
1 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
2 | Manipulative Skills | |
3 | Manipulative Skills | |
4 | Manipulative Skills | |
5 | Manipulative Skills | |
6 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
7 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
8 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
9 | Sports Skills & Games | |
10 | Sports Skills & Games | |
11 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
12 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
13 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
14 | Specialty Skills & Movement |
K-2 Year 3: Applying Skills
Block | Unit | Series |
1 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
2 | Manipulative Skills | |
3 | Manipulative Skills | |
4 | Manipulative Skills | |
5 | Manipulative Skills | |
6 | Manipulative Skills | |
7 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
8 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
9 | Sports Skills & Games | |
10 | Sports Skills & Games | |
11 | Sports Skills & Games | |
12 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
13 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
14 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement |
Year 1 starts with locomotor and non-locomotor movement, balance, and the first object-control skills: tossing, catching, and rolling. Year 2 adds kicking, foot and hand dribbling, and overhand throwing, then puts them to work in soccer and basketball. Year 3 moves into striking, volleying, and throwing a football and a flying disc, with more sport and game play.
Sample 3-5 PE Scope and Sequence: A Three-Year Rotation
The 240 lesson plans for Grades 3-5 make another full three-year rotation. Students who moved through the K-2 map now revisit many of the same units at a higher level, with more complex progressions and real game application.
3-5 Year 1: Refining the Foundations
Block | Unit | Series |
1 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
2 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
3 | Manipulative Skills | |
4 | Manipulative Skills | |
5 | Manipulative Skills | |
6 | Sports Skills & Games | |
7 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
8 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
9 | Manipulative Skills | |
10 | Sports Skills & Games | |
11 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
12 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
13 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
14 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement |
3-5 Year 2: Sport Application
Block | Unit | Series |
1 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
2 | Manipulative Skills | |
3 | Sports Skills & Games | |
4 | Manipulative Skills | |
5 | Sports Skills & Games | |
6 | Sports Skills & Games | |
7 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
8 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
9 | Manipulative Skills | |
10 | Sports Skills & Games | |
11 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
12 | Sports Skills & Games | |
13 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
14 | Specialty Skills & Movement |
3-5 Year 3: Extending & Exploring
Block | Unit | Series |
1 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
2 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
3 | Manipulative Skills | |
4 | Sports Skills & Games | |
5 | Manipulative Skills | |
6 | Sports Skills & Games | |
7 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
8 | Manipulative Skills | |
9 | Sports Skills & Games | |
10 | Sports Skills & Games | |
11 | Fitness & Fundamental Movement | |
12 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
13 | Specialty Skills & Movement | |
14 | Specialty Skills & Movement |
Notice how each skill unit sits right before the sport that uses it. In Year 2, Volleying leads into Volleyball, Long-Handled Striking leads into Floor Hockey and Batting & Fielding, and Throwing a Football leads into Flag Football.
Teach the Skill, Then the Game
If you take one rule from this post, make it this one: teach the skill, then teach the game that uses it. When students practice a skill on its own first, with lots of repetitions and clear cues, they arrive at the game already capable. The game becomes fun instead of frustrating.
Volleying, Then Volleyball: Bumping and setting come first. Then students use them in modified games like these volleyball stations and small group activities.
Kicking and Dribbling with Feet, Then Soccer: Once students can control the ball, small-sided soccer stations give them plenty of touches.
Dribbling with Hands, Then Basketball: Hand dribbling leads straight into basketball stations and small group activities.
Long-Handled Striking, Then Floor Hockey: Students learn to control a stick before they play floor hockey stations and small-sided games.
Throwing a Football, Then Flag Football: A good spiral comes before football games and PE stations.
Flying Disc Throwing, Then Frisbee: Backhand throws and catches come before Frisbee games.
Short-Handled Striking, Then Paddle & Racket Sports: Paddle control comes before rallies and striking stations and games.
This is transfer of learning in action. For more on helping skills carry over from practice to play, read Why Transfer of Learning Matters and How to Teach It in PE.
Planning Your PE Year When You See Students Once a Week
Plenty of PE teachers see each class only once a week. Your map still works. You'll just move through it more slowly.
Use About Half the Blocks: At one class a week, a 36-week year holds about seven five-lesson units. Pick about half the blocks from each year of the rotation and stretch the rotation across four years.
Go Deeper, Not Wider: Another option is to teach fewer units at a deeper pace instead of rushing through all of them.
Keep the Pairs Together: If a sport unit makes your list, keep the skill unit that comes before it.
Keep Every Series in the Mix: Choose at least one unit from each of the four series each year, so skills, sports, specialty units, and fitness all get time.
Small-Space Units for Lost Gym Days
Every PE teacher loses the gym sometimes, whether it's for testing, an assembly, or a school event. Build a few small-space units into your map so you're ready.
Classroom or Confined Space: Yoga & Movement, Non-Locomotor Skills, Cup Stacking, Board Games, Cards & Dice, Flexibility, Balance, Reaction Time, Juggling with scarves, and Beanbag Skills.
Half Gym: Cup Stacking, Beanbags, Juggling, Coordination, and Short Jump Ropes.
Want indoor units ready to go? The Indoor PE Bundle gives you 5 physical education units with 50 rainy day lesson plans.
Equipment matters too. In the Power PE Curriculum, 45 of the 48 units work with standard equipment most gyms already own. Only scooter boards, a parachute, and stacking cups are specialty items. For more small-space ideas, see How to Incorporate Yoga into Physical Education, Cup Stacking in Physical Education, and Juggling Scarves in PE.
The Power PE Curriculum: A Ready-Made Map
If you'd rather not build your map from scratch, the Complete Power PE Curriculum gives you one. It's a K-5 physical education program with 4 series, 48 units, and 480 lesson plans, and every unit in the tables above is part of it.
Every unit includes 10 lesson plans (five for K-2 and five for 3-5), skill cue posters, movement skill activity cards, teacher and peer assessment sheets, and modification notes. All 480 lessons are aligned to the 2024 SHAPE America standards.
The complete bundle is the only place you'll find the full K-2 and 3-5 sample scope and sequence, the space guidance, and the teaching tips. It also includes 12 bonus posters, the PE Teacher Grading Data Workbook, and the Editable Power PE Lesson Plan Template in Canva.
Want to start smaller? Each series is also sold as its own bundle:
Manipulative Skills Series (The Foundation): 12 units on the core object-control skills that show up in nearly every game and sport.
Sports Skills & Games Series (The Application): 12 sport units where students put their skills to work in modified, small-sided games.
Specialty Skills & Movement Series (The Exploration): 12 equipment-based units that build body control, rhythm, and creativity.
Fitness & Fundamental Movement Series (The Understanding): 12 units on health-related and skill-related fitness, plus locomotor and non-locomotor movement.
For a full walkthrough of what goes into a strong program, read Elementary PE Curriculum: How to Design an Engaging K-5 Physical Education Program.
PE Curriculum Map FAQs
What is a scope and sequence in PE?
The scope is what you'll teach, and the sequence is the order you'll teach it in. Together they show how students build skills from unit to unit and from grade to grade.
How many units should I plan for an elementary PE year?
At two classes a week, five-lesson units fill about 14 blocks in a 36-week year. At once a week, plan for about seven.
Do I have to teach the units in the order shown?
No. The sample maps are recommendations based on how skills build, not requirements. Every Power PE unit stands on its own, so you can move units around to fit your calendar, your space, and your equipment.
Should K-2 and 3-5 have different curriculum maps?
Yes. K-2 focuses on exploration, foundational technique, and success-oriented tasks. Grades 3-5 add skill combinations, more complex progressions, and real game application. Many units appear in both maps, taught at two different levels.
How do I track student progress across the year?
Use the same simple assessments in every unit, like a teacher observation checklist and a quick exit slip, so scores are easy to compare. The PE Teacher Grading Data Workbook tracks scores across all 48 Power PE units. For more ideas, see Harnessing the Power of Assessment in Physical Education.
Final Thoughts
A curriculum map won't teach your classes for you, but it takes the guesswork out of every week. Count your classes, choose your unit length, teach skills before games, and plan around your calendar. Then adjust as you go.
Part of being prepared was always on me. I planned fresh, interesting lessons instead of repeating the same game every class. A clear map for the year makes that much easier.
Your students deserve a PE program that builds from one year to the next. Now you have a map to make it happen.
A Cool Free Resource!
Want a head start on skill-based activities for your PE yearly plan? Here's a free set to help! Each task sheet includes 6 manipulative skill-based challenges, covering beanbags, balloons, hula hoops, jump ropes, playground balls, and juggling scarves, with progressively increasing difficulty so students are always working toward something.
Fill in the form below to download your FREE Super Challenges - PE Skills: Visual Card Set, 6 task cards designed specifically for developing manipulative skills in PE class or as a brain break or movement energizer in the classroom. These visuals work across a wide range of ages and ability levels, making them an easy addition to just about any lesson.
Need a Large Collection of Skill-Based Activity Visuals?
If one free resource has you wanting more, check out Cap'n Pete's ultimate skill-based collection, the PE Activity: Super Challenge Series - PE Skills Edition. This full packet includes 26 individual challenge visuals, one for each letter of the alphabet, giving you a complete A-Z library of manipulative skill progressions to pull from all year long.
Each task sheet includes 6 progressively challenging manipulative skill activities that students can tackle on their own, with a partner, or in small groups. The Super Hero theme makes them instantly kid-friendly, and the set comes complete with a detailed activity plan and optional incentive tickets to keep motivation high. The challenges cover a wide range of equipment, beanbags, hula hoops, jump ropes, balloons, juggling scarves, paddles, rackets, and playground balls, so there's always something new to work with.
You can grab the full set on Teachers Pay Teachers:
About Pete Charrette
Pete Charrette is a National Board Certified physical education teacher and former Georgia PE Teacher of the Year with more than 30 years of experience teaching elementary PE. He is the creator of Cap'n Pete's Power PE and has developed more than 1,000 PE and health resources used by teachers around the world. Pete loves helping PE teachers build programs their students enjoy.
