Swimming inspired activities to support your children’s lockdown learning

If your kids are missing the pool and you want to use their love of swimming to motivate them while you are homeschooling, we have created some activities for you. You can also find lots of activity sheets from Swim England here.

Literacy Activities

Key Stage 1

• Match the Words
• Name the Colour

Key Stage 2

• Anagram Challenge

Write a water safety story

If you need any ideas, use a scenario from the Swim England water safety worksheets below and expand the story.

Equipment needed:

• Swim England – Boat capsized worksheet
• Swim England – Spot the dangers worksheet
• Swim England – Avoid the dangers worksheet
• Swim England – How would you help? worksheet
• Swim Safe activity sheet
• Pencil/pen
• Paper

Write a swimming inspired poem

This could be about your swimming lessons, swimming with school, or swimming with your family on holiday.

Equipment needed:

• Pencil/pen
• Paper

Numeracy Activities

Key Stage 1:

• Swimming pool shapes
• Reading a timetable
• Swimming price list
• How many do you see?

Key Stage 2:

• Swimming Pool Dimensions

Science Activities

Sink or float experiment

1. Select different items which are suitable to put in water.
2. Put them into two piles, 1 labelled ‘Floating’ and the other ‘ Sinking’
3. One item at a time drop into the water and see if you were right or wrong?
4. Discuss why you think it floated or sunk.

Equipment needed:

• Range of items for putting in the water
• Bowl or sink half full of water

Fight the germs experiment

1. Put some water in a bowl
2. Sprinkle pepper in the water to represent the germs
3. Place your finger into the water and see if any germs stick to your finger
4. Put a blob of soap onto your finger and place into the water. What happened to the germs? Did you get any germs on your finger?

Equipment needed:

• Bowl
• Pepper
• Soap

Creative activities

• Design a swimming hat design – download templates
• Design a swimsuit/shorts – download templates
• Draw your dream swimming pool
• Build your dream swimming pool design – Using the drawing of your dream swimming pool, build the same design using LEGO, recycling, or similar
• Build a 3D model of a new waterslide – Using empty home items (e.g. empty toilet rolls), colouring pens
• Build your own paper boat using this guide – Put them in the bath and see if you can blow or push them along. Is your boat strong enough to carry a toy character?
• Olympic Rings – Make your own version of the Olympic Rings using different colours and materials. You could cut coloured paper into strips and loop them together.
• Country Flag – Design your own flag to display at the opening ceremony when you become an Olympian!