All Activities
Physical Education

Set Your Goal

Overview

Students identify a personal physical goal, make it specific and measurable, and plan the steps to reach it.

Learning Objective
Students set a specific, realistic physical improvement goal and create a simple plan to achieve it.

Resources needed

  • Paper and pencil (optional)

Lesson stages

0 / 7 done
  1. 1 Discuss: what is the difference between a wish and a goal?
  2. 2 Introduce SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.
  3. 3 Bad example: 'I want to get fitter.' Good example: 'I will run for 5 minutes without stopping in 4 weeks.'
  4. 4 Each student writes or says their SMART goal.
  5. 5 Partners check each other's goal against the SMART criteria.
  6. 6 Students identify two actions they will take each week toward their goal.
  7. 7 Share one goal with the class — peer support and accountability.

Tap a step to mark it as done.

Variations

  • Revisit goals after 2 weeks — what progress has been made?
  • Group goal instead of individual.
  • Link to a specific skill tested in fitness testing week.
More information

Teach: goal, specific, measure, achieve, plan, improve, week. The acronym SMART works in most languages with simple translation.

Provide a goal template with sentence starters: 'In __ weeks, I will be able to...' and 'To do this I will...'

Is the goal specific and measurable? Has the student identified realistic steps to achieve it?

Goals can be spoken rather than written. The discussion and thinking process is the core of the activity.

Students set goals that are too vague or too ambitious. Use paired checking to improve goal quality — a partner often spots problems the writer cannot see.

Goal setting is a transferable life skill used in sport, education, and careers. Research consistently shows that written, specific goals are far more likely to be achieved.

Activity details
Secondary Easy 20 minutes no prep Solo, Pairs, Whole Class Indoor & Outdoor
Topics
Goal Setting Self-improvement Motivation