The Best Parts of My Week - 5/26/15--5/29/15

Hi everyone,
     I celebrated Memorial Day on Monday and enjoyed a wonderful day with family and friends.  The work week began on Tuesday and despite the shorter week, my notes pages for "Best Parts" were overflowing!

.....We are continuing with our Gymnastics unit and began the week using the bars to hang and strengthen using a "possum hang".  Students were asked to wrap their legs around a single bar and use their arms to pull-up and travel along the bar.  Students were so excited to use the bar this way and one student said:  "This is SO Cool!".  One of my students remarked that possums actually use their tail to hang!  I learned something new and thanked the student for the information!

.....My Fitness Frankie to Go project finished up for the year this week as all my second grade students have had a turn to take him home.  He had a great Memorial Day adventure going to Karate class and fishing on Lake Ontario!  Sometimes he travels more than I do!

.....As the week continued students were introduced to the high balance beam.  Even though I know that this is a highlight of our gymnastics unit, it is always so great to feel the excitement in the air!  While many students are indeed excited, others are a bit scared of the height.  I am always available to hold students' hands while they walk on the beam (sometimes both hands) but some students are still a bit reluctant to climb aboard.  I promise students that I will not let them fall but I always allow them to choose whether or not they want to take a turn.  It always amazes me that some students have no fear at all and others hold on to me so tight that I can barely feel my hand when they are finished!  One student commented:  "That wasn't so bad!" and another said:  "That was scary and fun at the same time!"  I always feel so happy that students trust me to keep them safe......

.....As we continue to travel down Kindness Way I continue to notice random acts of kindness.  A first grade student this week was kind enough to notice a piece of gymnastic equipment at another station that was in need of adjustment.  He quietly went over to the area, fixed the equipment, and returned to his group (who was kind enough to let him back in his spot) without drawing any kind of attention to himself or his act of kindness.......

.....I was lucky enough to have some visitors this week!  On Wednesday a PE teacher from another district came to visit our program.  I had the pleasure and privilege of visiting her wonderful program last year!  It was great to introduce her to my students and explain that adults are interested in learning too!  My students were happy to meet her and it was wonderful to have her jump right in during our warm-up and interact with my students in such a positive way!  I love the collaboration that comes from visiting other programs.  As a profession, we are made stronger by our willingness to share our successes and learn from others!  Later in the week a student who will be my student teacher in the Fall of 2015 came to visit and learn a bit about the program.  I love the energy that student teachers bring to our building!  When I introduced her as a new student teacher to a group of students they exclaimed "YAY!"  It was great to meet her and I think I am as excited as she is to get started together!

.....Speaking of collaboration, I learned about how to use sentence starters from a colleague this year and this week I decided to try it out with students during the gymnastics unit.  Simple statements such as:  "I noticed that.......  You are doing really well with...... and I have a suggestion to help you with......"  were placed on cards at various stations.  Students were asked to work with a good learning partner and help each other using one, two, or three of the sentence starters.  At the end of each station, I randomly picked a student to share what they said or what they heard.  What a powerful tool!  The conversations that were created were amazing and when I asked students if a particular suggestion helped, it very often did!

......Once in awhile I hear about something that makes the list of "Best Parts" even though it did not happen during PE class.  This week our principal came down to the gymnasium after school to ask me about purchasing soccer goals.  I helped her out with some catalogs and choices and asked her about the reason for the purchase.  She told me that third grade students were learning to write persuasive letters and they had written to her about the need for soccer goals at recess to increase activity time and decrease arguments and lost soccer balls.  They were so persuasive she found a way to make it happen!

.....I used a warm-up this week called Deal or No Deal.  It is played in a variety of ways but basically an exercise is chosen and students pick a card to determine the number of each exercise to do for the warm-up.  When a student picks a card he/she can decide Deal or No Deal.  If the deal is taken, the class uses that number to perform the exercise.  If the student decides No Deal, another card is picked and that number is used.  Sometimes the number ends up higher, and sometimes the number ends up lower.  During one class a student did not take the deal when the card was a low number for an exercise called mountain climbers.  The next card was higher and the student was happy about it.  Another student asked why he did not take the deal for the lower number.  He responded:  "Because I LOVE mountain climbers!"  I smiled and so did he!

 I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week"!  To find out more about the PE program at North Park, visit my website:  North Park Physical Education.

The Best Parts of My Week - 5/18/15--5/22/15

Hi everyone,
     Even though it feels like summer, and some of my friends across the country are already on summer vacation, here in the Northeast we still have another 5 weeks of school!   I guess that means there are many more opportunities for "The Best Parts of My Week!"

.....The week began with the task of counting our "Coop Car" total for our Operation Healthy North Park project.  I count the cars halfway through the project to encourage students and families to continue to exercise and participate in the project.  I have improved my counting system over the years ("work smarter - not harder") but I do actually count each and every car.  Our halfway total is 2,176 "Coop Cars"!  That's impressive!  Another impressive fact is that one class turned in 378 "Coop Cars" all by themselves!

.....As we continue traveling down our Healthy Highway road of Kindness Way more and more students are sharing their random acts of kindness.  This week some first grade students came down to the gym specifically to tell me that they had done five a random acts of kindness that day alone!  They are certainly traveling down Kindness Way!

.....Our Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassadors were hard at work this week conducting a vegetable taste test!  We have been organizing and planning this project for a few months and students were excited when the day arrived to actually taste the vegetables.  Ambassadors organized three kinds of vegetables into bags for student tasting; pea pods, turnip, and leaf lettuce.  In addition, students had created a survey for students to indicate whether they liked a particular vegetable, disliked it, or were not sure.  Survey results were transferred to a parent letter encouraging families to try these vegetables at home and finally, students collected the data.  It was quite a project and I was so proud of how our ambassadors conducted themselves!

.....After the students had a chance to try the vegetables from our taste test this week, one of the classroom guinea pigs got into the act too!  "Truffle" the guinea pig tried each of the vegetables and liked leaf lettuce the best!

.....In addition to our vegetable taste test, our Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassadors had a chance to submit a video for a Milk Challenge contest this week.  We had a great time filming the segments and students were excited to be a part of it!  I will let you know how it turns out!

.....One of my students has been medically excused from PE for awhile and this student has been quite a trooper but it has been hard not participating in Gymnastics especially.  This week the student was cleared for PE and arrived at the gym doors to say:  "I can PLAY!"  We both smiled at the news!

.....Another student had a birthday this week and it happen to fall on a PE day.  When I saw her early in the day she said:  "I'm so glad I have PE on my birthday!"  More smiles for both of us!

.....Once in awhile I have some time to greet students as they enter the building in the morning.  I enjoy saying good morning and seeing the excited faces of students as the arrive to school.  One morning this week I was doing just that and a student handed me a drawing that she did that was all about healthy choices!

.....I love it when students share their healthy food choices with me.  Sometimes they are walking down the hall on the way to or from lunch and show me carrots, apples, or other healthy foods and other times I am in the classroom and students share what they have brought in for snack that day.  This week I was in a classroom talking to the teacher about a project when a student came up to me to show me the fruit salad that she was going to eat for snack that day!  She was so proud of her healthy choice and knew I would be too!

.....During our Gymnastics unit I stretch with students at the end of our class.  I use a technique I call "Share Count Stretching".  Basically, I count one and the students count two, and so on.  I love to do the stretching this way because I think it slows down the stretch so that it is more effective, and students seem to enjoy it, especially when I throw in a few twists and turns!  For example, this week I started counting in Spanish and students followed right along!  Next, I taught them how to count to ten in French, and some students offered to teach the rest of us how to count in other languages as well.  I can't wait until this week to see what languages we are going to learn!

I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week"!  To find out more about the PE program at North Park, visit my website:  North Park Physical Education.

The Best Parts of My Week - 5/11/15--5/15/15

Hi everyone,
     As we begin to travel down "Kindness Way" as our Healthy Highway road, our principal challenged us all to perform random acts of kindness.  I saw many of those acts of kindness this week and it was inspiring!

.....We began our gymnastics unit this week and it is always so exciting!  While it is a tremendous amount of work to set up the equipment, it is worth it when students appreciate the opportunity!  So many students arrived at the gymnasium doors with excitement and energy that was hard to contain!  One student asked me if it took a long time to set up.  I responded that it did indeed take a great deal of time to set up.  She nodded in acknowledgement as well as appreciation.  By the way, this was a first grader!

.....During our gymnastics unit, students take off their shoes and participate in socks.  We are so fortunate to have a full gymnastics floor and enough mats to cover most of the gym floor so students have plenty of safe space to use.  As a result, students must untie and tie shoes in a timely manner so that no activity time is lost.  While most students can do this efficiently, there are many younger students who need help.  I was pleased to see kindness in action as students jumped at the opportunity to help others tie their shoes.

.....Many of the adults in the building are equally impressed at the gymnastics equipment we are fortunate to have.  A teacher who brought her students to PE stopped in to look at the set up and told me that in their classroom they had had a discussion about "noteworthy" people and events.  I smiled when she told me that many students mentioned PE because they were grateful for all of the opportunities!

.....Operation Healthy North Park is in full swing and I noticed a random act of kindness when an adult donated her "Coop Car" slips to other classroom totals!

.....As some students were dropping of their "Coop Cars" for Operation Healthy North Park this week they had Physical Eddie in tow.  They were proud to drop off their Coop Cars for exercise and I was happy to see Physical Eddie as well.  I told them that I missed him and asked if I could give Physical Eddie a hug.  They readily gave him to me and smiled when I gave him a big hug and sent him on his way back to his first grade adventure!

.....Our school concert was held this week and students perform in the building as a rehearsal.  Students are always so excited and eager to perform for siblings, teachers, cousins, and guests.  I am always so proud of their efforts and impressed with their talent.  The orchestra, concert band, and choruses all performed and they did not disappoint!  I had a class immediately after the concert and many of the students had been in the performing groups.  I told them how much I enjoyed it and that I knew what it took to perform because I had played the flute and sang in my elementary chorus when I was growing up.  When I told them how proud I was of their performance they all smiled and thanked me.  It was a heartwarming moment for sure!

.....One of the students in the chorus was not feeling well and at the end of the concert several friends escorted her to the nurse's office.  As students arrived to PE class they mentioned that this student was with the nurse and that they had taken care of her......another act of kindness.....they were truly concerned........

.....As students begin our gymnastics unit they learn about the importance of landing on their feet safely.  I told my students this week that their knees are like the shock absorbers on a car and that these "shock absorbers" help you make a smooth landing.  One student made a connection and said that his baseball coach told him that his elbows are like shock absorbers when catching a baseball!  Great connection!

.....While Operation Healthy North Park was started as a school-wide activity it has grown into a community-wide activity.  This week I received more than 100 "Coop Cars" from our high school Crew team!  Many of the names on the "Coop Cars" were from former students!  I also received "Coop Cars" from our Superintendent of Schools, our Assistant Superintendent, and many employees from our district office!  I am so fortunate to have the support of so many!

.....During a warm-up this week a student told me that she was so proud of her ability to do more push-ups.  As a result of our Fitness Challenge she had been practicing her push-ups at home and can now do more than before!

.....I wear a Fit Bit pedometer and regularly share my step counts with my students so that they can see that adults exercise too.  This week a fifth grade student showed me his new pedometer.  He was so proud of his step counts and was excited to see how many he achieved each day!

.....A first grade student told me this week that he was playing golf at a local golf course (not mini golf either......) with his friends after school that day.......He is so mature that I have a hard time remembering that he is actually in first grade!

I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week" and the updated look of this blog!  To find out more about the PE program at North Park, visit my website:  North Park Physical Education.

The Best Parts of My Week - 5/4/15--5/8/15

Hi everyone,
    It was Teacher Appreciation this week and I felt so very much appreciated!  Thank you to everyone who made me feel that way!  It was a great week!

.....The week began with a breakfast sponsored by our wonderful PTA!  There were so many goodies and great breakfast choices including some healthy ones like fruit and yogurt!

.....Fitness Frankie to Go came back on Monday morning after a weekend of healthy choices!  He went to our district art show and another student actually commented that she saw him there!  His journal is coming together so nicely!  I am looking forward to sharing the journal with the entire class when everyone has had a chance to take him home.

.....I received a Teacher Appreciation gift from a student this week.  It was a banana with a happy face drawn on it!  It was cute AND delicious!

.....As I was saying hi to a student in the hallway early this week he replied with:  "I worked out!"  I love it when students want to share their healthy choices with me!

.....A student was sharing her birthday excitement with me this week and showed me a present that she received:  baseball and baseball bat earrings!

.....During one day of Teacher Appreciation Week students were encouraged to bring a flower in to show their appreciation to their teachers.  I received enough flowers to make a beautiful vase full of flowers!

.....As National Physical Education and Sport Week kicked off we participated in Project ACES.  It was, as usual, a fun event and we spent some time outside dancing and enjoying some exercise as a school together.  This year our Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassadors helped out by being great student leaders!

.....In celebration of National Physical Fitness and Sports Month we are participating in Operation Healthy North Park.  This was the first full week and so many Coop Cars came in with great activities!  While it is not a competition, some classes have taken on a challenge to bring in more Coop Cars than the other classes.  It's always great to see families working together to exercise and students taking on a challenge!

.....One of my students has embraced the PE Password so enthusiastically that he goes out of his way to let me know that he knows the PE Password.  This week he popped his head into the gym to tell me the PE Password.  I went into the hallway and said in reply:  "You know that you make me smile every time you tell me the PE Password?"  He smiled in reply!

.....It was quite hot near the end of the week and while we do not want to complain after the long winter we had here in the Northeast, students (and adults) are not used to the heat just yet.  As a result, we all had some difficulty adjusting to the increase in temperature.  One student commented that she wished that they made ice pack hats! That's actually not a bad idea......

.....Teacher Appreciation Week continued with a delicious luncheon organized by our PTA.  It was certainly delicious, but more importantly, we all felt more than appreciated!

......At the end of the week PE classes were held outside and my upper elementary classes were working on learning how to throw a Frisbee.  Students were working in partnerships to throw and catch successfully.  After a short time I called students back in and said I was going to add something to the activity.  One of my fifth grade students said:  "I love it when you add to an activity!"

I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week" and the updated look of this blog!  To find out more about the PE program at North Park, visit my website:  North Park Physical Education.

The Best Parts of My Week - 4/27/15--5/1/15

Hi everyone,
     Each week I take notes when special things happen so that I can put them all together in this blog on Sunday.  I have tried relying on my memory but I am not always successful in remembering everything that I want to include in this blog.  With that in mind, I started using a small notebook in the gymnasium that is easy to access during PE class.  Usually, I use one page of notes for each week's blog.  This week I ran out of room!  There were so many great things that happened this week! 

.....On Monday morning I went to the fifth grade classrooms to remind teachers about a PE vocabulary test that was scheduled for this week.  I visited each classroom as students were arriving and getting settled in for the day.  After I spoke to the teachers, students were eager to share their weekend adventures with me!  One student had gone to a softball tournament and was happy to have had the opportunity to meet Jenny Finch and get her autograph!  Another student shared his soccer game play by play and still others shared their opportunities to dance and exercise!

.....I was proud of the hard work and dedication that my fifth grade students showed while taking the PE vocabulary test this week!  

.....As students were warming up this week using jump ropes one student asked me to count how many jumps she could do in a row.  I counted 52!

.....Fourth grade students have an opportunity to take home pedometers using a program I created called PE Packs to Go!  I was collecting the PE Packs on Monday morning and one student was very proud to have completed over 10,000 steps - the daily goal!

.....At the end of class students complete exit tickets.  There are 30 different exit tickets and students randomly choose one to complete while lining up.  Examples include "Show a friend how to take your pulse", "Name two food groups", "Tell a friend why PE is important", "Tell a friend what you learned today", "Give a friend a compliment," and so on.  When students are lined up, I ask a few students what their exit ticket was and how they completed it.  One of my students had the "Give a friend a compliment" exit ticket.  When I asked her what compliment she gave she said that she told a friend "You have a kind heart."  I smiled inside and out!

.....My primary students are learning about Yoga in a variety of ways.  I am always surprised by just how much they enjoy it.  When they saw the Yoga mats on the floor this week as they entered the gymnasium there were many shouts of joy and smiles all around!  At the end of class one student said that she was going to teach her friend all of the Yoga poses that she learned that day!  

.....Physical Eddie is enjoying an adventure in a first grade class and the students brought him to PE this week.  One student was in charge of his care and made sure that he had his own Yoga mat and positioned him in every Yoga pose possible!  It was adorable to watch!  

.....Fitness Frankie had a terrific adventure this week as well!  He went to the Culinary Institute of America with a fifth grade class that was going there on a field trip.  One of the fifth graders was in charge of his care and said that they all had a great time!  I can't wait to see some pictures and hear about the details of the adventure!  

.....One of my first grade students said to me this week during class:  "Are you trying to tire us out?"  He had a big smile on his face and I said in reply: "Yes, how am I doing?"  He answered "Good!"

.....I love it when students share their exciting moments with me.  This week a student had a birthday and shared all of her birthday adventures with me!  

.....I love technology and had the chance to use some iPad apps in PE class for warm-ups and activities.  At the end of class one of my kindergarten students asked:  "Is this app free?"  He has his own iPad and wanted to get it for himself!  

.....After using our iPad minis for a warm-up activity I had the chance to explain to students that one of the things I love about using this kind of technology for PE class is that I can show students that technology is good for more than just video games and that it can be used to improve fitness.  I hope that message is received and remembered as they grow up........


I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week" and the updated look of this blog!  To find out more about the PE program at North Park, visit my website:  North Park Physical Education