What an amazing week! As you read you will see that our annual Jump Rope for Heart event dominates the "Best Parts of My Week"!
.....During this week, I was surprised and pleased to accept many Jump Rope for Heart posters from my students! They drew these posters to advertise the event!
.....Some of our students decided to raise money for the American Heart Association using the team approach. They stopped by to update me on their progress this week! They were so proud! Me too!
.....One of my students told me that he was surprised because while jump roping was difficult for him during PE class, he was able to jump ten times in a row during Jump Rope for Heart!
.....I added a new activity to our Jump Rope for Heart event this year. Our bears - Fitness Frankie and Exercise Ernie are so popular that I created cutouts of them using construction paper and asked students to decorate the bears and "feed them healthy snacks" by putting a sticker of a healthy food choice on their tummy! They did a great job and the bears are adorable! I can't wait to hang them up for everyone to see!
.....It was so wonderful to see our kindergarten students participate in Jump Rope for Heart! Since it was their first time they were not quite sure what to expect. They were excited, of course, but as soon as they realized how much fun the event was going to be the excitement could not be contained!
......Exercise Ernie and Fitness Frankie participated in Jump Rope for Heart too! Each class that was hosting a bear brought him to the gym and they were so proud of their participation! In fact, one of the classes was having so much fun with Exercise Ernie this week that they brought him to a PARP (Parents as Reading Partners) assembly on Friday! Of course, the bears are so photogenic so pictures abound and can be seen on the North Park PE site!
.....Our Jump Rope for Heart Youth Market Director arrived during our event to support us and to deliver this year's banner. I display each year's banner on the gymnasium wall and I tell my students that I am so proud each day when I see the banners that represent so much hard work and generosity! When this year's banner arrived, the students were so proud! The "ooh's and aah's" were wonderful to hear!
.....Each year I tell my students that our purpose for doing Jump Rope for Heart is two-fold. I teach students that we do Jump Rope for Heart so that we all learn more about our own heart health and make healthy choices in terms of exercise and nutrition. In addition, I remind students that we do Jump Rope for Heart so that we can help others who might not have as healthy a heart as we do and that the money we raise goes to help others. At North Park, we make a point of emphasizing the participation, not how much money each child and family can or can not donate. In fact, each child participates in the event regardless of the ability to donate. Yet, every year the generosity of our community overwhelms me.......while we are still accepting donations, it is clear that our seven year cumulative event total will exceed $23,000.00. Every child and family can, and do make a difference.....and I am proud to be a part of that.
Thanks for reading about the "Best Parts of My Week!"
Visit the North Park PE website if you would like more information about the PE program at North Park!
