The Best Parts of My Week....2/21-2/25

Hi everyone,

The excitement about our Jump Rope for Heart event is growing! We are gearing up by practicing jump roping and jumping skills! I hope you enjoy the best parts of my week as much as I did!

.....My kindergarten students are often somewhat apprehensive when I tell them that we are going to begin to get ready for Jump Rope for Heart by learning how to jump and jump rope. Many of them have not had much experience jumping rope and worry that they will not be able to do it. I LOVE the looks of happiness and joy on their faces when they jump rope for the first time in our long turning ropes while I turn for them. They are so surprised and proud of themselves! Many of them start counting for each other to see how many jumps they can do!

.....After our Jump Rope for Heart event, we celebrate with a Teacher/Student Jump Show. It is a really fun event that started with our principal and myself offering to jump after our very first Jump Rope for Heart. Well, one thing led to another and now we have an annual show where we showcase jumpers from kindergarten to fifth grade and end with our faculty and staff jumping for students! This week some students began showing me their jump tricks in the hopes of being in the show!

.....Fitness Frankie spent the week in a primary class this week. I had the pleasure of seeing how well they took care of him! They brought him to PE each day and treated him with care and respect!

.....This week I taught a new warm-up that I learned at my conference last week. It is a warm-up that has been around for awhile, but not one that I have ever tried. It is called "Ship to Shore". The idea is that the students are sailors and I am the captain. I give directions to the sailors such as Ship (go to the ship), Shore (go to the shore), Swab the deck (mop the floor), Sharks (swim like a shark), and Treasure Chest (act like a treasure chest). When I gave the direction of "Open Sesame" when students were Treasure Chests, they spontaneously made music like trumpets or harps as if a real treasure chest full of treasures opened and golden rays of sunshine emanated from the chest! It was delightful! Both the students and I loved the warm-up!

.....I was finishing up snowshoeing activities with my upper elementary classes this week. The weather was beautiful and for many classes it was the second experience outside with the snowshoes. One of my students said: "The first day it took so long to put on the snowshoes, but this time I put them on and said: I'm done already?" We had a nice discussion about perseverance and how sticking with something helps you get better at it!

I hope you enjoyed reading about "The Best Parts of My Week"!

Visit the North Park PE website to learn more about our program!

E-mail me with comments or questions at: northparkpe@yahoo.com