Over the past decade, the Balance It mobile app has been transforming physical education in classrooms around the world. With over a million downloads and countless positive testimonials, this innovative app has become an invaluable tool for PE teachers and students alike.
To celebrate 10 years of Balance It, we’ve added 20+ hours of complete lesson plan content directly inside the app — giving you everything you need to teach engaging, structured gymnastics units.
A Decade of Impact
When Balance It first launched in 2013, the goal was simple: give PE teachers a quick, visual way to teach gymnastic balancing skills without spending hours creating task cards by hand. What happened next exceeded all expectations:
- 1,000,000+ downloads across iOS and Android
- Used in PE classrooms in 80+ countries
- Featured in PE teacher conferences and workshops worldwide
- Consistently rated as one of the top PE teaching apps
The app’s success comes down to its simplicity — over 60 hand-drawn balance poses, progressively increasing in difficulty, that students can understand at a glance. No lengthy instructions needed. Just display, attempt, and progress.
What’s New: 20+ Hours of Lesson Plans
The biggest update in Balance It’s history adds complete, ready-to-teach lesson plans that incorporate the app’s task cards into structured learning sequences. Here’s what’s included:
- Individual balance lessons — progressive skill building from beginner to advanced poses
- Partner balance units — counterbalance techniques and cooperative challenges
- Group formation lessons — teamwork-focused activities for 3-6 students
- Complete gymnastics units — multi-week plans with clear learning progressions
- Assessment rubrics — criteria for evaluating balance quality, transitions, and creativity
Each lesson plan includes learning objectives, equipment lists, warm-up activities, main tasks, cool-down activities, and assessment criteria. Everything a PE teacher needs to walk into the gym and deliver an engaging gymnastics lesson.
Sample Lesson Structure
Here’s an example of how a typical Balance It lesson flows:
- Warm-up (5 min): Students hold 3 random individual balances for 10 seconds each, displayed on the screen.
- Skill introduction (10 min): Teach the focus balance for the lesson. Break down body position, base of support, and alignment.
- Practice stations (15 min): Set up 4-6 stations with tablets showing different balance challenges at varying difficulty levels.
- Sequence building (10 min): Students create a sequence linking 3 balances with smooth transitions.
- Performance & feedback (5 min): Pairs demonstrate their sequences. Use video feedback for self-assessment.
- Cool-down (5 min): Gentle stretching with final balance hold challenge.
Why Teachers Love Balance It
After 10 years of feedback from PE teachers around the world, here’s what they consistently highlight:
- “It saves me hours of preparation” — no more creating task cards from scratch
- “Students are more engaged” — the visual format and randomise feature keep things fresh
- “It works for all levels” — from kindergarten to high school, the progressive difficulty scales naturally
- “The lesson plans are a game-changer” — complete units ready to teach on day one
Get Started with Balance It
Download Balance It for free and start using it in your next gymnastics unit. The lesson plans are available as an in-app purchase.
Looking for more PE teaching tools? Balance It is part of a growing suite of apps designed for PE teachers. Explore ConnectedPE for AI lesson planning, fitness testing, video feedback tools, and a library of ready-to-use resources.