The Best Parts of My Week! 4/23/12--4/27/12

Hi everyone,
     We had some wonderful special events this week and Fitness Frankie and Exercise Ernie were busy as well!

.....We started off the week with "Miss Kathleen"!  She brought a special Yoga program to North Park which was funded by a grade level grant from our generous PTA!   Miss Kathleen told us a story and then we acted out the story by doing Yoga poses!  "Mr. Zoobles" was back and Fitness Frankie and Exercise Ernie were in attendance as well!  The students and adults had a terrific time!

.....Early in the week I was putting up a bulletin board in the hallway which is a part of our upcoming Operation Healthy North Park event.  This event begins May 1st and it was great to see the interest that the bulletin board generated!

.....Our "PE People Project" continues to grow and this week I observed one student looking through all of the PE People on her grade level line to see if hers was there......it was!

.....At the conclusion of a kindergarten class, one of the students remarked:  "I want to have PE everyday!"

.....My student teacher wanted to show a badminton video to students in grades 3-5 to excite them about the sport.  We found a video of the 2011 World Badminton Championship and show some clips to the students.  They were so interested that you could have heard a pin drop!  It was an exciting match!

.....We have been celebrating National Poetry Month during April by listening to poems being read by various students and adults.  Our librarian organized this celebration and found a book of sports poems for us to read to our students.  It is wonderful to be able to collaborate!  Fitness Frankie wanted to get into the act too and I found a poem called "The Green Flag" by Joey Dille.  Fitness Frankie loves race cars and Healthy Highway so of course it was about race cars!  I read it for him on Friday morning and everyone else loved it too!

.....Fitness Frankie and Exercise Ernie had a new adventure this week!  They spent the week in the Health Office with our school nurse.  We called it "The Body Shop" to continue with our Healthy Highway theme and it was so much fun to see them in there all week!  Our school nurse had some terrific ideas about what to teach them and we had a terrific time taking pictures of their adventure!  A journal entry will be posted soon on their blog!  Thanks Mrs. J!

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!

The Best Parts of My Week! 4/16/12--4/20/12

Hi everyone,
   Well, it's that time of year when special events happen!  We had a few of them this week!

.....I was greeted with a smile and a hug from a student who is receiving a special PE award next month!  She received the letter announcing the award and both she and her family are so proud! (I am proud too!)

.....Once in a while I am in the main lobby when the buses arrive in the morning.  This week I was greeted by many happy children entering school and ready for their day!  I also had the pleasure of chatting with some students as they were walking to class.  They had so much to tell me!

.....One of our fifth grade classes completed an "Exit Ramp" slip at the end of PE class which required them to write down a healthy choice that they had already made that day or were planning to make later in the day.  I was so proud of their responses!  You can check out some of the responses by clicking Exit Ramp Responses!

.....During a primary activity students were asked to use lollipop paddles to move balloons into the "barn", which was a series of mats shaped to look like a barn.  Students were to pretend that these balloons were sheep that were being put to bed for the night.  One student was having a difficult time with one of the sheep and she said:  "The sheep are not listening!"  This was a great activity that was created by my student teacher!

.....As a kindergarten student entered the gymnasium he said:  "This place is awesome!"

.....Fifth grade students were taking home PE Packs to GO! this week.  They were very excited!  Click on PE Packs to GO! to find out more!

.....Exercise Ernie and Fitness Frankie had a wonderful time at kindergarten screening last week!  One of our PTA moms shared a story about an interaction with one of our incoming students.  He was very excited to meet them!  We have such a wonderful and supportive PTA!

.....I had the chance to play a game using a balloon and a lollipop paddle with one of my first grade students.  All of a sudden she said:  "This is just like Tennis!  How fun of a day is this!"

.....At the end of the week we celebrated the success of our Jump Rope for Heart event with our annual Student/Teacher Jump Show.  It is always such a fun event!  Students have the opportunity to show the skills they have learned and many adults in our building jump for our students!  Some of our adults learned new skills to show off too!  I am so thankful to be a part of this wonderful school community and it is events like these that remind me of that fact!  Check out the Jump Show!

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!

The Best Parts of My Week - 4/9/12--4/13/12

Hi everyone,
     Due to the mild winter, Monday and Tuesday this week were "snow days" so it was a short, but fun week!

.....It has been fun to have a student teacher working with me at North Park!  As time goes by she is teaching more and more!  The students are getting to know her and it has been wonderful not only to be able to share my experience and knowledge with her but also to learn new ideas from her as well!

.....Exercise Ernie spent Spring Break with one of our secretaries who vacationed in Tennessee!  She made an AMAZING Book about his adventure!  She and her family took great care of him!  Pictures  of his adventure are posted on the North Park PE website !

.....This week students who will be entering kindergarten in the Fall came to school for some screening and information.  Our wonderful PTA moms helped out and they asked if Fitness Frankie and Exercise Ernie could be there to greet the new students and their families!  What a great idea!  They mentioned to me at the end of the week that everyone loved them!

.....We began a striking unit this week and our primary students were using lollipop paddles and balloons to work on their eye-hand coordination and striking skills.  Balloons are always a big hit and we were encouraging the students to keep track of the number of times in a row that they could hit a balloon.  As we were interacting with students in various parts of the gymnasium, I heard one of our kindergarten students counting in Spanish!

.....As we continued to add to the striking unit activities, one of our kindergarten students commented:  "This is such a challenge!"

.....One of my upper elementary students asked me:  "Do you eat cake sometimes?"  I replied that of course I do eat cake sometimes and that treats are fine once in awhile.  He went on to tell me that his uncle had a birthday recently and they enjoyed his birthday cake!  We recently finished some lessons on nutrition to celebrate National Nutrition Month.  Our school is a Healthy Highway school and as a result, we are constantly encouraging students to make healthy choices.  I guess he thought he should check with me!

.....On Friday morning I spoke with a parent who was holding two large bags of apples!  She told me that her daughter insisted on bringing in apples for her birthday treat to share with her class!  That was AWESOME!

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!

The Best Parts of My Week! - 3/26/12--3/30/12

Hi everyone,
     It was a great week as we awaited the beginning of Spring Break!  While many of the "best parts" happened during PE class, some took place in some other wonderful areas of our school day!  Thanks for visiting!

.....Even though we have finished our Jump Rope for Heart event, we were completing some jump rope activities at the beginning of this week.  During a fourth grade class, one student remarked:  "These are really cool!"  He was talking about a "jump stick" which is basically a jump rope on a stick.  We have some great equipment and it was terrific that others noticed too!

.....At the beginning of this week I hung up this year's Jump Rope for Heart banner.  It always reminds me of the hard work by students, staff, and families to make our event special.  This year we raised $2,519.00!  The students immediately noticed the banner and they were proud too!

.....Every once in a while, I allow students "Freedom with responsibility" during a culminating activity for a particular unit.  This week students were allowed that freedom and showed their responsibility by playing safely, and being respectful of the equipment and others.  I was proud of how respectful and responsible our students were!

.....I smiled as a third grade boy was so excited that he learned to jump in a long turning rope while it was in motion.  He exclaimed:  "I jumped in!  I jumped in!"

....I hung up our "Bears" this week that students created during Jump Rope for Heart.  Students used bear cutouts and "fed" the bears by placing a sticker of a healthy food on the bear's (Fitness Frankie or Exercise Ernie) tummy and then created a face for the bear.  They were adorable!  The students smiled as they noticed the bears hung up in the hallway!  Click here to see some pictures!

.....As March drew to a close, we shifted the focus in PE class to nutrition as we celebrated National Nutrition Month.  Classes in grades K-5 participated in a variety of lessons that highlighted various foods and food groups.  Since we are a Healthy Highway school, we categorize foods as "Green Light - GO! foods", "Yellow Light - Slow down and think about it foods", and "Red Light - Stop and think about it foods".  One of the lessons involves balancing out food intake with exercise.  Students choose food cards and based on the type of food, green light = 5, yellow light = 10, and red light = 25, students exercised.  When one student chose a red light food he said:  "Oh man!  A red light food!"  He knew that red light foods require more exercise to balance out the intake of calories.  It was great to see him make the connection!

.....Our drama club performed their Spring play at the end of this week.  This year's production was Pinocchio and it did not disappoint!  I am always in awe of the talent of the director, set designers, costume designers, and of course the actors and actresses!  I had the privilege to watch both the school performance and opening night, and take some pictures for our school website.  It was a wonderful performance and it was clear that everyone worked so hard for so many months to create this wonderful play.  Bravo!

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!