The week began with the Columbus Day holiday and beautiful weather to
enjoy the prime colors of fall! So
while it was a short week, the "Best Parts" we're not hard to find!
......My upper elementary students are enjoying a unit on flag football skills that my student teacher is facilitating. This week they were concentrating on
throwing techniques using a peer coaching model. Since I am not teaching the unit I have the luxury of
observing and watching the interactions from a different perspective. This is the first time my students have
been introduced to flag football due to a generous donation of equipment from
Fuel Up To Play 60 so they are quite excited! As I was watching students throw
and catch, I was impressed by how they were enjoying their
responsibilities as coaches and players.
Some were pretending to be professional football players, others were
pretending to be announcers that were commenting as if they were watching a pro
football game and still others were talking about how they could continue the
fun at recess! It was so great to
hear the positive comments by the peer coaches, the excitement, and the plans
to continue the fun later on!
.....Fitness Frankie to Go came back from his weekend adventures
safe and sound! I am always glad
when the first round goes well so that the rest of the students benefit from a
great first example. Fitness
Frankie went bicycling, traveled to New York City, jumped on a trampoline and
came back with terrific additions to his journal! I can't wait to see what adventures he had this weekend!
......My primary students are continuing some fun stations to
reinforce the concepts of high, medium, and low levels. One of the stations involves using
different forces to launch a bean bag turtle in the air using a foot stomper
board. I was watching a
kindergarten student launch the
turtle high into the air and commented on his success. He responded by telling me that his
success was due to the fact that he was wearing his lucky sweatshirt!
......Our teacher's union participates in an "Adopt a
Highway" program in our town.
During the year we spend time after school cleaning up a stretch of the
road that we adopted by picking up the garbage that is on the side of the
road. It is disappointing to see
how much trash gets thrown on the ground, but it feels good to participate in
community service. It is a busy
stretch of road and very often people that we know pass by during the clean up. The next day one of my students told me
that he saw me picking up the garbage.
I asked him if he waved and he said yes! I was glad because I
think it is important to set the example for the next generation. I turned this
into a teachable moment by explaining to the class what I was doing when my student saw me and by asking the rest of students to raise their hand if they ever picked up
trash when they found it on the ground.
It was great to see all of the hands go up!
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.
