2026 SHAPE Iowa

Ready to take your elementary PE lessons from good to unforgettable? This high-energy session will explore creative, engaging, and budget-friendly ways to add a little extra pizzazz to your physical education classes. From themed lessons and costumes to music cues, props, classroom transformations, and cross-curricular surprises, you’ll discover easy strategies that captivate young learners and boost participation. You'll explore real examples that inspire student joy, enhance classroom culture, and align with standards—all while keeping your planning realistic and fun. Whether you’re looking to build stronger connections with students or simply want to reignite your own passion for teaching, this session offers practical tips, take-home tools, and a spark of inspiration to help you elevate your everyday lessons. Come join the fun, and leave with a playbook full of “extra” ideas that make a big impact on little learners!

Energize your PE classes with active, cross-curricular learning! In this interactive session, you’ll explore popular tools and resources to blend academics with movement. These activities and strategies support math, reading, spelling, nutrition education, and more while building motor skills, teamwork, and cognitive growth. Ideal for K–12 students. You’ll leave with fun, practical ideas ready to use.

In this interactive session, we will explore innovative strategies for incorporating physical activity into the school day to enhance student learning and well-being. Participants will gain insights into the benefits of a comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) that supports both academic success and healthy development. Through practical examples, attendees will learn how to design and implement movement-based activities that align with curriculum goals, foster student engagement, and improve focus and behavior. We will explore how to build school relationships that foster a movement culture, ensuring that physical activity is a regular and effective part of the school experience. Attendees will explore how physical activity, when thoughtfully woven into the school environment, encourages students to develop lifelong habits of health and wellness. Join me to discover how moving to learn can be the magic that leads to healthier, more motivated students and a more energized, engaged school community!

Ultimate PaddleZlam is an innovate physical education activity that elevates traditional pickleball into a dynamic, team-based learning experience designed to promote physical literacy, skill development, strategic thinkinkin, and lifelong engagement in physical activity.

What happens when we move together—intentionally, rhythmically, and with others in mind? This session explores synchronized movement as a pathway to co-regulation, connection, and community in physical education. Grounded in polyvagal theory and research on rhythm and relational learning, participants will engage in shared movement experiences that highlight how rhythm and coordination can support emotional safety and social connection. Participants will experience how moving in synchrony can shift individual and group regulation in real time. Through movement, reflection, and discussion, we will examine how these experiences can shape classroom environments in which regulation is collectively supported, and students feel a deeper sense of belonging.
Participants will:
• Experience and analyze how synchronized, rhythmic movement supports co-regulation, connection, and community-building
• Interpret and apply key concepts from polyvagal theory using accessible language to inform practice and support advocacy for physical education
• Design or adapt movement experiences that foster emotional safety, belonging, and shared regulation

What does it mean for students to truly become movers? This session explores the intersection of SHAPE America Standard 1 (motor competence), contemporary motor learning research, and the Meaningful Physical Education (MPE) framework. Participants will engage in movement experiences that highlight principles such as representative design, constraint manipulation, and repetition without repetition, while examining how these ideas can deepen students’ sense of competence, agency, and meaningful engagement. Rather than viewing skill development as the replication of a single “ideal” form, this session invites educators to consider how learning emerges through exploration, adaptation, and purposeful design.Participants will:

• Reframe motor competence (SHAPE Standard 1) as adaptive, functional, and context-dependent rather than fixed or form-based
• Explore and apply key motor learning principles (e.g., representative design, constraint manipulation, repetition without repetition, form follows function) through embodied experiences
• Design learning tasks that support autonomy, exploration, and variability while promoting meaningful participation

Mix it up will be presentation from Mic Seifert a 27 year elementary teacher at a title one school focusing on ideas and activities that he has created out of inspiration to increase student engagement, enhance learning opportunities and improve classroom management.

What if the most powerful tools for inclusion in your physical education program weren’t found in a catalog—but in your storage closet, garage, or even your junk drawer?This session is designed for general physical education teachers who serve diverse learners without direct access to adapted PE support. Participants will explore how everyday, low-cost materials—such as PVC pipes, pool noodles, zip ties, wrapping paper, holiday lights, and even leaf blowers—can be transformed into highly effective tools for adapting instruction, increasing engagement, and improving access for students with disabilities.Attendees will leave with practical, easy-to-implement strategies that require minimal preparation and no additional budget.Through real-world examples, visual demonstrations, and classroom-tested ideas, participants will learn how to:Modify equipment and environments using accessible materialsIncrease participation and independence for students with a wide range of abilitiesCreate inclusive learning experiences without relying on specialized equipmentThink differently about the resources they already haveWalk away ready to turn everyday items into game-changing supports—and to confidently say, “I can make this work.”

Need something fresh and new for your program?  Come learn about Archery!  I'll show you how I used Faux Bows with my K-5th students for a fun, new experience.  This new unit is preparing my students for the real thing when they get to middle school and beyond.

There's many ways we can organize a year or a unit. You're invited to learn about how Will uses different structures of play to aid student engagement in his classroom.

This session will have 3 main pieces:
- What are structures of play?
- A lower elementary synchronized activities structures of play unit.
- A upper elementary/middle school units where several structures play are used throughout.