The Best Parts of My Week....4/11/11-4/15/11

Hi Everyone,

It was a fun-filled week as we looked forward to our Spring Break! I hope you enjoy the "Best Parts of My Week"!

.....I was fortunate to be able to obtain a grade-level grant from our PTA to bring in a local Yoga instructor this week. "Miss Kathleen" arrived on Monday to teach some Yoga activities to many of our primary classes. She introduced the students to "Mr. Zoobles" and "Mr. Twisty" who helped us all with our breathing and our Yoga poses. After the first group, Miss Kathleen asked where Fitness Frankie was! I did not know that Miss Kathleen even knew about Fitness Frankie but she had seen him on our website! I immediately went down to the class that was taking care of him this week and borrowed him! He took part in Yoga with all of us! You can see the pictures of our Yoga experience by visiting the North Park PE website.

.....Fitness Frankie has a new sleeping bag! One of the student in his "host" class made him a colorful paper sleeping bag to rest in during his nights at North Park! It was so thoughtful and he looked very comfortable in it!

.....My upper grade classes have been enjoying some basketball activities this past week. I always encourage my students to cheer for their teammates, but also for their classmates who may not be on their team for a particular PE activity. I was thrilled this week to hear all kinds of cheering for teammates and classmates during a variety of basketball activities!

.....As a follow-up to a Skype session that I did with some of my students and students in another district school recently, I asked my third graders to each write down a question that they wanted to ask during our next Skype session with the same class. I was impressed with the questions! One of my students wants to know if the goals for their PE classes are the same as ours! Now that's a great question!

.....On Friday I was encouraging my students to enjoy Spring vacation by going out to play and exercising during our week off. I told them that Fitness Frankie was going to enjoy his week at school with our office staff who offered to take care of him. One student raised her hand and said "How come Fitness Frankie doesn't get a vacation?"

.....Our school has a drama club run by our very talented Speech Therapist. This year's production was Charlotte's Web. There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into the production by students, parents, and staff and I am always in awe of the final product! I attended the opening performance of the play this week and the performance did not disappoint! Fitness Frankie attended as well and the students were happy to see him!

.....Our office staff are wonderful ladies who work very hard to keep our school running smoothly. They generously offered to take care of Fitness Frankie during our vacation as they are still working in the office. They were so excited when I delivered him on Friday afternoon! I can't wait to hear about their week!

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

The Best Parts of My Week....4/4-4/8

Hi everyone,

Spring has finally arrived! (well, sort of anyway....) We had a great week here at North Park! Hope you enjoy the "Best Parts of My Week!"

.....Fitness Frankie spent the week in a 5th grade class. They were so excited when I delivered him on Monday!

.....At the end of a kindergarten class, a student noticed that I was wearing my jacket with one sleeve rolled up and the other down. She commented on it and I said that I guess I just didn't notice it. When she left PE class she had rolled one pant leg up and the other was down! I think she was trying to be like me! I was flattered!

.....As one of my second grade classes arrived for PE class this week they brought a present. They worked very hard to write about Jump Rope for Heart and created a book of their work with the cover illustrated by one of the students! I was so touched! They were so excited to give it to me and I was more than excited to receive it! I read the stories that night, which included pictures of Jump Rope for Heart. They were terrific and one of the things that I was impressed with was that the students expressed clearly why Jump Rope for Heart is so important!

.....Just like all teachers, from time to time I need to be out of school and need a substitute. I was fortunate this week to have a former student with a college degree in Physical Education sub for me! He did a great job!

.....A colleague of mine and I are doing a project this year to learn about and find a use for Skype technology. Skype uses video technology to allow real time conversations using a computer and web cam. This week we used Skype with our third grade classes. My colleague and I teach in different schools in the same district. We each have rock walls, but there are some differences and similarities in how we use them. We decided to conduct a Skype session with one of our third grade classes using our respective rock walls, and follow-up with a question and answer session with the students. It was amazing! Each group showed the other how the rock wall is used. Our students were terrific and impressed with the technology! I can't wait for the follow-up session so that I can hear the questions and answers!

.....We ended the week with our annual Student/Teacher Jump Show. This show began six years ago as a celebration of our hard work to make our first Jump Rope for Heart a success. It began with a commitment from our principal and myself to jump rope for students. Well, one thing led to another and many other adults in our building volunteered to jump for the students too! As the years went by we expanded the show to showcase the skills that students learned to get ready for Jump Rope for Heart. Not only do we have students in grades K-5 jump in a variety of ways, but also many adults in our school embrace this show and participate to jump for the students! This year was a wonderful success! We raised more than $2500.00 for the American Heart Association during our Jump Rope for Heart event and for the past six years of the JRFH events we have raised more than $21,000.00! The tremendous generosity of our school community is one of the many reasons we celebrate with our Jump Show! We all agree that our jump rope skills have improved! Our future goal is to someday master the Double-Dutch Jump Rope!

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

The Best Parts of My Week....3/28-4/1

Hi everyone,

The year seems to be flying by! It's usually around this time of year that I realize how much the students have grown and that another year is going faster than the last! I hope you enjoy the "Best Parts of My Week"!

.....I delivered Fitness Frankie to his "host" class. They were so excited (including the classroom teacher) that they asked me if I could hear them cheer from the office when their class was announced!

.....My primary students were participating in a Healthy Highway Race Car Warm-up. One of the students came up with a great idea! She suggested using arms as blinkers so that other students would know when students were entering and exiting the track! Why didn't I think of that????

.....My fifth grade students were playing a game called "Nutrition Concentration". I play a song during the game called "Superpower Vegetables" by Jump with Jill. I was asking the students about strategies that they used to find matches or pairs of vegetable cards. One of the fifth graders said that when he sang along with the song and said "Superpower Vegetables", he always found a match! He said that saying those words gave him "super powers"!

.....I had taken a picture of Fitness Frankie in his new spring hat (there is a picture on his blog). I was showing the picture to some of the students this week and as soon as they saw his picture they smiled and said "Awwwwwww, he's so cute!"

.....My fourth graders were allowed to take home our "PE Packs to Go!" this week. It was their first time using the packs which have a pedometer and log card to use at home. I challenge each group sharing a pack to get as many steps as possible and I announce those packs with more than 10,0000 steps. They were so excited to take the packs home!

.....Recently, I had the opportunity to contribute to an article that Wendy Cooper, founder of Healthy Highway, was writing for PE Links 4U Website. I was asked to write a portion of the article about how our school had implemented Healthy Highway. I was grateful for the opportunity and this week it was published! If you would like to view the article, visit the PE Links 4U Website and click on the Healthy Highway article!

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