Rewilding the PET Period

YouCAN Education
Nov 14
2 min read

00:00 to 05:00 Arrive and Sense

Before warming up the body, awaken awareness. Invite students to step onto the ground barefoot if possible. Ask them to stand still, close their eyes, and listen What sounds can you hear? What can you feel beneath your feet? Notice the wind, the sunlight, the breath. This is not stillness. It’s sensing. It’s the body remembering where it belongs.

05:00 to 15:00 Warm Up with the World

Turn the warm-up into a conversation with place. Run around the boundary of the ground, but pause to notice — a bird’s nest, an ant path, a weed growing through a crack. Stretch facing the trees or the sky. When you breathe in, name something the earth gives you. When you breathe out, name something you give back. Movement becomes gratitude.

15:00 to 30:00 Play in Patterns

Choose a simple activity throw, catch, balance, or relay but redesign it around natural patterns:

A “flock game”: students move like birds, in self-organising groups, without one leader.
A “web game”: form a circle with strings or hands to pass a ball, keeping the web intact.
A “roots game”: one student moves, others adapt learning flexibility and connection.

Let them invent their own rules.Let play become ecology.

30:00 to 35:00 Rest and Reflect

Sit on the ground in a circle.

Ask:

What did you notice about the space today?
How did the ground feel?
What did we learn from how we moved together? No need for right answers, only reflections. Stillness is part of fitness too.

35:00 to 40:00: Close with Care

End the session with a short ritual of thanks to the ground, the air, the body, the team. Invite one student to pick up a leaf, a pebble, or a fallen twig a small symbol of the place that hosted their play. That object can stay in the classroom as a reminder that movement is also belonging.

What changed?

The goal shifted: from competition to connection.
The field became a teacher: not just a space to use.
Every child could join: no equipment needed, only presence.
Fitness met awareness: the body, mind, and land moved together.

Rewilded Thought

A rewilded PET period is not about producing athletes. It’s about nurturing humans who can move with the rhythm of the earth.