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.
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