A 20-Euro Training Kit: Choose and Test

With a pretend budget of 20 euros and a catalog of real prices, each group decides what low-cost equipment they would buy to train at home all year. Then they test the most popular items in stations and rate how versatile, durable and safe they are.

How to play

1. Hand out the catalog: jump rope (5 €), mat (8 €), ball (6 €), reused jug (0 €), homemade sandbag (3 €), doorway pull-up bar (15 €), foam roller (10 €) and more, each with one line on its use (2 min).
2. In groups of four, students choose their 20-euro kit and justify it: which fitness qualities it covers (strength, endurance, mobility) and how many exercises each item allows (7 min).
3. Test stations with the most chosen items: jump rope, mat, ball and jug. At each one, the group invents and tries three exercises in 3 minutes (14 min).
4. Each group rates every item from 1 to 5 for versatility, safety and space needed, and reviews whether they would change their purchase (4 min).
5. Share-out: the class's most versatile kit and which things aren't worth buying (3 min).

Rules

• The budget can't be exceeded, and homemade items count too, even at zero cost.
• At the jump rope station, everyone has their own space and jumps away from others.
• Invented exercises are checked with the teacher before doing many reps.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: rates equipment with wheelchair training in mind and tests the ball and jug seated.
• Blind or low vision: gets the catalog in an accessible format or read aloud by a partner, and does rope-less jumps instead of the jump rope.
• Autism: uses a decision template with columns for price, use and score.

Learning goals

• Choose training equipment based on usefulness, safety and cost.
• Design a variety of exercises with one simple object.
• Develop a critical attitude toward buying sports products.

Equipment for a class of 25

• catalog sheets: 8
• jump ropes: 8
• balls: 8
• mats: 8
• water jugs: 8
• timer: 1

Teacher tip

Update catalog prices with a quick search before class. You can close by asking students to snap a photo of things they already have at home that could be used to train.

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