As Fall begins and the weather becomes cooler, we are settling in to a nice routine at school. The beginning of the year is always exciting but I also enjoy the familiar routines and rhythm of the year when we are in full swing!
.....My student teacher and I began the week putting the class contracts together for grades 3-5. This process takes time and energy but I am always impressed with the final result. Creating the contract involves taking the completed hands and arranging them as a border on a large piece of poster paper and then writing the student-generated class rules and expectations in the middle. The hands that students made as their signatures were colorful and many had healthy messages on them. One hand was even designed to look like an apple and another said: "PE Rocks!" The rules and expectations that students came up with were thoughtful and relevant and I noticed that these rules and expectations reflect my passion for PE and the need for students to make healthy choices. The concentrated effort that our school has made during the last 6-7 years to include character education, nutrition education, and place more of an emphasis on lifetime fitness and physical activity showed up as a guideline in each and every contract. In fact, ten years ago these contracts did not include rules such as "Eat healthy food", "Stay hydrated", and "Play 60". As I looked at the finished product I was struck by the uniqueness of each and I was proud of the efforts of my students!
.....Fourth grade students were asked to do some PE homework and return that homework to school this week. As a school, we make it a priority to teach students how to set goals. I asked my fourth grade students to set a goal for PE this year. I started the sentence: "I want to improve my....." and students were asked to complete the sentence as their goal for this school year. The homework was returned on time and with quality in most cases. As I read the goals I was impressed! Students wrote that they wanted to improve their stamina, strength, push-ups, running, quickness, jump roping, and endurance to name a few. These are great goals indeed and I am looking forward to helping them this year to meet their goals!
.....We held our first Healthy Highway assembly this week and it was so much fun! This assembly reminds students of the importance of making healthy choices and we always begin our year traveling down "Courage Crossroads". Students are taught that if you have the courage to do the right thing, even when no one is watching, you will be able to make the right choice no matter what road you are on. I also shared my summer adventure story with my students. Each summer I take Fitness Frankie on a summer adventure and chronicle this adventure by self-publishing a book describing the healthy choices we made along the way. This year Muscle Missy joined us and we had a great time! We traveled 913, 327 steps, rode bicycles, lifted weights, walked, went to a yogurt factory, kayaked, played golf, went to the National PE Institute in North Carolina, and even had some time to relax! I always enjoy sharing our story. Not only is it fun but it also gives me the opportunity to be a good role model for my students by showing them the healthy choices that I am making and asking them to make as well.
.....Students in grades 3-5 are learning about the use and care of pedometers. One of the activities we do involves using gel boards to record steps and add partner steps together at the end of PE class. I call it "Gel Board Math" and I tell students that Math is everywhere! While some students groan occasionally because Math is not their favorite subject, others get excited and enjoy it. This week one student called out: "I love Math!" I responded that I love Math too!
.....Students in grades K-2 are learning how to move safely in our gymnasium and this week we were reading and acting out the story: "Ziny's Driving School" which was written by my friend and PE teacher Lynn Hefele. In the story, Ziny learns how to drive her "Quasar", or space ship, safely at a variety of speeds. One of the activities involves taking a Solar System Field Trip where students travel on the Inter-space Highway using hula hoops as their Quasars. The idea is to travel to different planets and move in different ways when they arrive. Students wanted to travel to Neptune, Mercury, Mars, and Pluto. One student commented that Pluto wasn't a planet but wanted to travel there anyway! As we were getting started, a student came over to me and said: "Oh man! I forgot my Quasar key! Do you have an extra?" I responded that I had an extra and I gave it to him. He smiled, thanked me, started up his Quasar and went on his merry way! It was so cute! A few minutes later he came over to me again and said: "Oh man! I just got hit by a meteor!" I asked him where it came from and he pointed it out to me. After checking to make sure he was ok, I sent him back to the solar system. What great fun we can have when students play along and use their imagination!
.....One of our fourth grade classes participate in "Fun Food Friday" once a month. During this activity students learn how to create their own healthy snack and then they take the recipe home to their families. Each month the teacher creates the snack using the time of year as a theme. This past Friday they made Apple Quesadilla's and brought me the recipe at the end of the day. What a great way to incorporate healthy snacks and help families to make healthy choices too! I was so glad that they thought to share it with me!
.....I received a gift this week from a student that was so unbelievably thoughtful and generous and it was truly a gift from her heart. This student brought me a stuffed animal to be added to our Fitness Bear collection. The students know that I love stuffed animals and we have quite a few that travel around the building, with me, with students, and even our building principal. This particular stuffed animal is a dog with a Mets' hoodie. She named him "Baseball Brad"! Almost all of our animals have alliterative names such as Fitness Frankie, Muscle Missy, Cardio Cal, Exercise Ernie, Healthy Hannah, and this student decided to continue the theme! I can't wait to add him to our collection and get him started on some healthy adventures of his own! Isn't he adorable!
I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week"! Visit my website: North Park Physical Education to find out more about our Physical Education program.
