AI Skills for PE Teachers

PE Lesson Planning with AI

A step-by-step workflow to plan a complete, curriculum-aligned PE lesson in any AI tool — the same six-section method ConnectedPE automates.

What this does

This is a copy-paste workflow for planning a complete, ready-to-teach Physical Education lesson using any AI assistant. You give the AI your class details; it returns a structured lesson in six sections — overview, objectives, materials, warm-up, main activity, and closure — with progressions, differentiation, safety notes, and curriculum alignment baked in.

It works in Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or Microsoft Copilot. No special setup — fill in your class details in the first prompt and paste it. You get a complete lesson in one shot; the later steps are optional polish.

This is the manual version of the method built into the ConnectedPE Planner, where the same six-section lesson is generated automatically and tagged to your curriculum. Here you'll run it by hand so you can see exactly how it works.

Before you start

Have these ready (the more you give the AI, the better the plan):

You don't need all of these — the prompt will ask for anything critical it's missing.

The workflow

Step 1 — Plan the lesson

This is the only prompt you need to get a full lesson. Fill in the angle-bracket placeholders with your class details and paste the whole thing. Delete any line you don't have — the AI will ask if something critical is missing. One paste returns the complete six-section plan.

You are an expert Physical Education teacher and lesson planner. Write me a complete, ready-to-teach PE lesson plan for the class below.

Structure the lesson in exactly these six sections:
1. Overview — 1–2 sentences summarising the lesson.
2. Objectives — 3–4 specific, measurable learning objectives (what students will be able to DO by the end).
3. Materials — the equipment and space the lesson needs, as a short list.
4. Warm-up — a 5–10 minute warm-up that primes both the body and the skill, with the key teaching cues to call out.
5. Main — the core skill-development block: the activities in order, with progressions (how to make each step harder or easier) and differentiation notes.
6. Closure — a cool-down plus a short reflection or exit-ticket question.

Rules:
- Keep every activity realistic for the equipment, space, time and class size I give you.
- Build in safety: note any real risks and how to manage them.
- Use age-appropriate language and expectations for the year level.
- If I name a curriculum framework, align the objectives to it and reference the relevant outcomes.

My class details:
- Topic / focus: <e.g. badminton footwork and the overhead clear>
- Year / grade level: <e.g. Year 7>
- Lesson duration: <e.g. 50 minutes>
- Curriculum framework: <e.g. Australian Curriculum HPE v9.0 / NSW NESA PDHPE / SHAPE America — or "none">
- Learning objective (if you have one): <e.g. students can perform an overhead clear with correct grip and footwork>
- Teaching approach: <e.g. Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) / direct instruction / skill-focused / constraints-led>
- Available equipment: <e.g. 15 racquets, 8 nets, 30 shuttles, cones>
- Class size: <e.g. 28 students, mixed ability>
- Setting: <indoor gym / outdoor court>

If year level, lesson duration, available equipment, or class size is missing, ask me for it first. Otherwise, write the full six-section lesson plan now.

Step 2 — Refine it (optional)

Once you have a draft, paste this to make it classroom-ready: differentiation for every learner, curriculum alignment, and a wet-weather backup.

Now refine the plan:

1. Differentiation — for each main activity, add one adjustment to make it EASIER (for students still developing the skill) and one to EXTEND it (for confident students). Then add one inclusion note for a student with limited mobility that keeps the same learning objective.

2. Curriculum alignment — list which outcomes of the framework I named this lesson addresses, with the outcome codes. If I didn't name a framework, suggest 2–3 outcomes from a common PE/HPE framework I could tag it against.

3. Wet-weather backup — if this lesson is outdoors, give me a one-paragraph indoor alternative that still meets the same objectives with minimal equipment.

Step 3 — Finalise and check

Before you teach it, run this quick human check — the things an AI can get subtly wrong:

Best-practice notes

Why six sections. A consistent structure — overview, objectives, materials, warm-up, main, closure — means every lesson has a clear arc: prime the body and brain, develop the skill with progressions, then consolidate and reflect. It also makes lessons easy to reuse and sequence into a unit.

Objectives drive everything. Write them as observable actions ("students can perform an overhead clear with correct grip"), not topics ("badminton"). Measurable objectives are what let you assess and what you tag to curriculum outcomes.

Differentiation is not optional. Every class is mixed ability. Asking for an easier and an extension version of each activity — plus an inclusion adjustment — turns one lesson into one that reaches the whole room without changing the objective.

Safety is the teacher's call. AI can flag generic risks, but you know your space, your group, and your equipment. Always do the Step 3 safety pass yourself.

Curriculum tagging pays off later. Naming outcomes per lesson lets you see, across a term, which outcomes you've covered and which you've missed. Always verify AI-supplied outcome codes against your actual syllabus.

Worked example

Input: Year 7 · 50 minutes · Australian Curriculum HPE v9.0 · badminton footwork and the overhead clear · TGfU · 15 racquets, 8 nets, 30 shuttles, cones · 28 students, mixed ability · indoor gym.

Overview. A games-based badminton lesson where students develop court footwork and a reliable overhead clear, then apply both in modified rallies.

Objectives. By the end of the lesson students can:

Materials. 8 nets set across the gym; 15 racquets (pairs share and rotate); 30 shuttles; cones for footwork grids and rotation stations.

Warm-up (8 min). Dynamic movement + "shadow footwork": on a cone grid, students mirror the teacher's split-step and chassé to four corners. Cues: stay on the balls of the feet, split-step as the "opponent" hits, recover to the middle.

Main (32 min). (1) Grip + clear technique in pairs, hand-feed then racquet-feed. Progression — easier: feed underarm from close range; extend: feed from the back of the court. (2) Cooperative clear rally across the net, counting consecutive clears. (3) Modified 1v1 "clear-only" mini-games on 8 courts, rotating every 3 minutes. Differentiation woven in throughout; mobility inclusion: seated or reduced-court partner-feed role with the same grip/clear objective.

Closure (10 min). Cool-down mobility + exit ticket: "What's the one footwork cue that most improved your clear today?"

Curriculum alignment (verify against your syllabus). Movement skills and performance, and applying skills/strategy in modified games — e.g. AC9HP8M02-style movement-skill and tactical-application outcomes. Confirm the exact v9.0 codes for your year band.

Wet-weather backup. If the gym is unavailable, run a classroom version: grip and clear technique using rolled-sock shuttles and no nets, footwork patterns in the space between desks, and a tactics analysis of pro clear-and-recover clips — same objectives, no court required.