The Best Parts of My Week - 6/20/16--6/23/16

Hi everyone,

     It’s hard to believe but the end of the school year is here!  Each year flies by more quickly than the last and as I get closer to the reality that retirement is a possibility in the relatively near future, I seem to pay more and more attention to the moments that make up the “Best Parts of My Week”…..

…..Monday was the last day of specials because the rest of the week included celebrations and half days.  One of our fourth grade teachers thought that specials were canceled Monday as well and when the class did not show up for PE (they are always on time) I went to the class to see if they were coming to PE.  The teacher was surprised but was happy to have the students go to the gymnasium with me.  The students were so excited and exclaimed:  “Yay!  PE!”  We had a great last day of PE! 

…..Second grade students work on a year-long PE Portfolio and this past weekend I spent time putting them together for each student.  They created a cover with their favorite PE activity.  They were so cute!  As I looked at the work of each student,  I reflected on this year and how much they have grown and learned.  I hope their parents are as proud as I am of all of their hard work and achievements! 

…..On Monday afternoon an ice cream social was held to celebrate the hard work of our kindergarten students this year.  Proud parents and grandparents gathered and enjoyed ice cream and smiles as students came to the realization that kindergarten was just about over!

…..On Tuesday morning we held our first ever Courage Card celebration.  Students have been working hard to earn Courage Cards for showing the courage to do the right thing.  Our principal treated students to an Italian ice treat and student names were entered into a raffle for a terrific prize.  Students were proud to put their courage card into the raffle and were very thankful for the treat!

…..Our PTA is so very generous and spends countless hours preparing for 5^th grade celebrations like the 5^th grade breakfast and Moving Up Day.  I had the chance to go into the breakfast and take some pictures and it was great to see all of the students enjoying not only breakfast, but also the social interaction and celebration. 

…..5^th graders are allowed some time during the last week of school to go around the building and ask teachers to sign their yearbooks.  I am always happy to sign the yearbooks but it is always sad to be saying good-bye.  The students were so happy as they talked about the teachers and staff that they had asked to sign their yearbooks.  They talked about their kindergarten teachers, office staff, former teachers, special area teachers, and of course, our principal.  We reminisced a bit together and I reminded them to come back and visit!

…..Our Moving Up Day ceremony was held on Wednesday morning and students looked so grown up as they processed into the ceremony!  They were dressed up and ready for the occasion!   There were smiles and tears from their proud family members as students received awards and accolades.  The students always sing a wonderful song during the ceremony and it was a performance to remember as students’ voices filled the area with beautiful music! 

…..Thursday morning we held our second annual “Canstruction Wheel” project.  We built a wheel using cones and elastic jump bands and each grade level was assigned to a spoke of the wheel.  Students were asked to bring in donations of canned food to help local families in need for the summer and then they placed the cans along the spokes of the wheel.  Each spoke also represented a road on the Healthy Highway and students were asked to name their class road.  The roads that students came up with truly represented the focus of our Healthy Highway program this year and students came up with great names.  Some were names that we had used this year like Leadership Lane, and others were new like Generosity Way and Teamwork Turnpike!  It was a short and sweet assembly and we collected six full boxes of food! 

 

…..Thursday was also the last day of school and we always have quite a send-off event for our students.  We play music out by the busses, and we use ribbon wands and other streamers to wave goodbye to students.  Cameras were clicking away as students hugged adults goodbye; some with tears in their eyes.  I must admit, while I am ready for summer vacation, I got a bit misty eyed as we sent our students off for the summer…..

I hope you enjoyed the "Best Parts of My Week"!  I will be back in September!  In the meantime, visit my website:  North Park Physical Education to find out more about our Physical Education program.  

Follow me on Twitter!  @mrobPE

The Best Parts of My Week - 6/13/16--6/17/16

Hi everyone,

    This week was all about being thankful……..  It was an incredibly busy week with Field Days and other events, but it was an extremely gratifying week as well!

…..The week began with Field Day for 3rd and 4th graders along with a second grade class that joined in due to a scheduling glitch.  The students were so excited!  We had a wonderful morning filled with comments like:  “Best Day Ever!”, and “You did good with this Mrs. Robelee!”  Our parent and staff helpers were fantastic and we even had some grandparents and other family members who wanted to watch the fun!

…..When I make teams for Field Day I randomly mix students so that there are some students from every grade and class on a team.  It usually works out pretty well.  Somehow this year I created a team that had a fourth grade brother and second grade sister on the same team.  Now, you might think that this would not have been the best combination, but when I noticed it I went over to the team and found brother and sister playing along!  When I mentioned that it was completely random, they told me how excited they were to be on the same team.  I was touched that they are so close!  I related this story to another teacher (a former student) and she remembered her Field Day and how she was so happy to be on the same team as her cousin!

…..3rd and 4th Grade Field Day includes an indoor obstacle course that I set up the night before Field Day.  It is a lot of work to put it together and so I sometimes have my afternoon classes enjoy it after Field Day is over for the morning.  A first class walked into the gym and one student said:  “What is this?” and another said:  “This is Awesomeness!”  Needless to say they enjoyed using the obstacle course during their PE class!

…..Tuesday was even busier as we had Field Day for grades K-2 in the morning, a school barbecue for lunch, and 5th grade Field Day in the afternoon!  It was also a great Field Day!  The students were so well behaved and once again we had so many parent volunteers!  Our staff is tremendous as well and are always available to help and play at the stations.  My principal told me that she overheard the kindergarten students coming into the school after Field Day talking about how much fun they had!  Since this was their first experience for Field Day I wanted it to be special.   Many students thanked me for the day!

…..One of our parent volunteers was a team leader for one of the teams and his job was to take students as a team from station to station and help out where needed.  At the end of each station he had his team thank the adults in charge of the station.  What a nice way to show gratitude!

…..I tried something new with my fifth grade students for Field Day this year.  I have been experimenting quite a bit with student choice this year and it has been going well.  I decided to make the 5th grade Field Day a “backyard games” type of day and give students “freedom with responsibility” (a term I learned some years back at a conference).  Students could choose their own groups of about four people and then decide which games they wanted to play.  They had ten choices which included tennis, badminton, can jam, spikeball, four square, triangle ball, lacrosse, and more!  It was so nice to watch students play fair, take turns, and move from station to station independently with little or no adult intervention.  I admired how well they played and I even got to play a few games with them myself!  They had two hours of Field Day and when I gave them a ten minute warning and said that soon it would be time to end Field Day they said:  “wait…..what???”  The time flew by and they had so much fun!   

…..I wear a Fitbit to log my steps and for Monday and Tuesday I had logged almost 60,000 steps!  I was tired, but elated that our Field Days were successful!

…..Some of our parent volunteers were my former students and we had fun reminiscing about the fun that they had during their Field Days!

…..I was outside with a class a bit later in the week and when I came back into the gym I found a beautiful thank you note written and signed by a third grade class.  They had so much fun during Field Day that they wanted to thank me for my hard work!  I went right down to the class to thank them and told them that my heart was smiling…….

…..Fitness Frankie wrapped up his time in second grade this week and two of the students returned him and his backpack.  I thanked them and as they were leaving they said:  “We enjoyed him!”

…..A second grade class wrote a reflection about their Field Day experience.  They drew a picture and wrote about which station was their favorite, what part of Field Day was challenging, and why they were proud of their effort.  The teacher was kind enough to give me copies.  They were amazing and I enjoyed reading each one!

…..A before school day-care program uses our gym sometimes and this week I received a nice thank you poster from the group!  Each student signed it and said thank you!

…..The school year is winding down and I had some students for the last time this year.  Some fifth grade students asked me to move on to middle school with them!  I appreciated the compliment but told them I have responsibilities here.  I invited them to visit and they thought that would be a good idea!  There were hugs all around as they left the gym after their last PE class……..

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.  

Follow me on Twitter!  @mrobPE

The Best Parts of My Week - 6/6/10--6/10/16

Hi everyone,

     The final countdown to the end of the school year has begun!  Excitement is in the air and talk of Field Day has taken over all parts of the school.  In reality, I have been planning for months, but now the students are acutely aware that Field Days are next week!

…..Our primary students continued practicing Yoga this week.  I have a variety of resources such as DVD’s, apps, and such.  At the end of a first grade class one of my students asked me where I got the DVD that we were using.  I told him that I had bought it quite some time ago and could not quite remember where I got it.  I asked him why he wanted to know.  He told me that his family is not that active and he thought that Yoga would be a great way to get the family moving!  How great is that?  I am proud his courage to take this message of the need for healthy choices and physical activity home to his family.

…..A first grade teacher told me that when her students were wondering if they were going outside for PE or if they were going to do Yoga, she asked them which they would prefer.  Yoga won!

…..The saying:  “Necessity is the mother of invention” was never truer this week.  I had intended to continue our Yoga practice with another resource that I have when my computer decided not to work.  It was the beginning of a kindergarten class and it had been working just moments before.  After a few frustrating moments I decided to get my iPad and hook it up.  My colleague had been searching for Yoga resources the day before and came across Cosmic Kids Yoga.  I decided to try it and my students loved it!  I remarked more than once in the next day or two that if you had told me thirty years ago that we would have the technology to play videos from YouTube on a large screen while students practiced Yoga with enthusiasm I would have never believed it!

…..We held our last Fuel Up To Play 60 Student Ambassador meeting this week and we wrapped up the year with smoothies and some raffle prizes, which were generously donated by FUTP60 and the American Dairy Council.  It was a great year and we had so much fun with this group!  Our Let'sDance Fitness Friday, Veggie Taste Test Day, and Bike Rodeo and Safety Clinic were very successful and it was a pleasure working with this group of students.  We made smoothies with yogurt, milk, frozen fruit, and bananas and they were delicious.  It was a great way to start the day!

…..Our older students have been learning how to throw and catch Frisbees using different targets and games.  We have been having lots of fun outside and the students are getting quite good at the skills!  I learned a warm-up from my colleague that we have been using for this unit.  It involves a “Frisbee Flip”.  Students pair up and flip the Frisbee in the air.  One student calls heads or tails and if the Frisbee lands face up it is heads and face down it is tails.  If the student caller is correct, he/she gets to pick a warm-up exercise and if not, the other student picks the exercise.  Students take turns flipping the Frisbee and completing exercises.  It is a fun and simple warm-up that students have been enjoying.  This week one of our third grade students told me that she asked her cheerleading coach if they could do the Frisbee Flip warm-up at practice and the coach said yes!  It was fun to have her make a connection and share something she enjoyed outside of PE class! 

…..Friday after school I began to set up an obstacle course in preparation for Field Day.  I always enjoy being creative with this obstacle course and I added something this year based on something I saw a student do with a Frisbee target.  It was very windy this week and I wanted to create a target that students could throw a Frisbee through.  I ended up using floor tape to tape two flexible jumps stick to a large hoop and then I stuck the ends of the sticks in two cones.  I noticed one student aimed for the target, threw the Frisbee accurately through it, and then retrieved the Frisbee by climbing through the hoop!  Now, it wasn’t exactly the correct thing to do but it worked and seemed to be great fun!  I took that idea and made a few more that were lower to the ground for the Field Day obstacle course!  Stay tuned next week for pictures!

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.  

Follow me on Twitter!  @mrobPE

The Best Parts of My Week - 5/30/16--6/3/16

Hi everyone,
    The week began with a beautiful Memorial Day spent with family and friends.......Then it was time to get back to school and BAM.....all of a sudden it was June!  While many of you may already be out of school for the summer, we spend most of June in school and there are many, many end of the year events and this month tends to whiz by!

.....As Operation Healthy North Park came to a close at the end of the month of May it was time to count the "Coop Cars".  I was getting ready to wrap up the project when I received an envelope in the school mail full of "Coop Cars".  One of the things I love about this project is when students participate from outside of our school and the collaboration that makes that possible.  A health teacher at our middle school always promotes this project with her students and this envelope contained "Coop Cars" from middle school health students, many of whom were my former students!  One even contained a note asking me if I remembered her.......of course I do!  It was great to see all of the names and activities that students participated in to stay healthy!  By the way, we collected 3,466 "Coop Cars" which equals at least 69,320 minutes of exercise!

.....I have been teaching for many years and have many events that I have repeated for a number of years but once in awhile I try a new event.  This year our new event was a Bike Rodeo and Safety Clinic.  This was a project that our Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador group has been planning all year and we held it this week.  Since this was a new event, I was not quite sure how it would be received and how successful it would be.  I must say that the success of this event far exceeded my expectations!  We had a wonderful turnout, fantastic parent, teacher, and administrative volunteers, and a amazing partnership with the Dutchess County Transportation Safety Board!  Our Student Ambassadors were excited and everyone had a great time!  Most important of all, students learned to ride their bicycles safely!  These were some of the comments I received about the event:

          .....When I asked a student if he had a good time he said: "Oh yeah...If I didn't come I          would not have learned how to ride!"

          ......One mom said that this event was an incentive to her child to learn how to ride.

          .....Another parent said that the event helped her child gain confidence in riding.

          .....One family experienced the joy of seeing their child take off his training wheels and           ride successfully without them for the first time!

        Fitness Frankie finally got his helmet!  Just in time for the rodeo!

  .....My principal and I rode our bicycles too and we experienced cheers from our students when we went through the stations.  Some of the stations were challenging but our students were really supportive!  We also had a healthy snack station where students made bicycles out of vegetables!

Veggie Bicycles!

                                    

.....At some point during the week we were outside playing Triangle Ball and enjoying being outdoors.  When I asked students to let nature be (they were interested in bugs and flowers) One kindergarten student said:  "Nature makes me happy!"

.....The object of Triangle Ball is to hit a ball off of a tee and run the bases as many times as possible before the fielders get the ball in a bucket.   I witnessed a third grade student convince another student to slow down so that a classmate could score....he noticed that this student had not had a chance to score yet.  The nicest thing about it was that he was doing it out of the goodness of his heart and did it in a quiet and unassuming way.  If I had not been right there to witness it quietly I would not have even known it had occurred and that was the way this student preferred it to happen!  

.....At the end of the week my primary students began a few lessons in Yoga.  When students arrived to the gym to see the yoga mats out they were so excited!  Many of them said:  "Yay!  Yoga!" and "I Love Yoga!"  When I asked students to think about the benefits of Yoga they had some great responses.  One student said:  "If you are stressed it helps you relax."  Another said:  "It helps you stretch."  A third student said:  "It helps you calm down"
 I think those are all great reasons to love Yoga!

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.  

Follow me on Twitter!  @mrobPE