The Best Parts of My Week: 12/12/16--12/16/16

Hi everyone,

    We are so close to the holidays and winter break!  It is probably the most exciting and energetic time of the year!  There are so many wonderful activities and special celebrations going on and they all contribute to the "Best Parts of My Week!"

….As a kindergarten class was working hard on some exercise stations one of the students said:  “I just want to fade!”  I guess she was pretty tired!

…...Fitness Frankie has been having some wonderful adventures in our second grade classrooms with our “Fitness Frankie to Go” program.  This week he came back right on time and I discovered that he went shopping for a Christmas tree!  The student journal entry said it was the best tree ever!  (Every year I seem to have the “best tree ever”!)

….Physical Eddie is being taken care of by a kindergarten class and he came to PE only to find out that one of the animal exercise stations was a Bear Crawl!  I suggested to the students that he is an expert!  They smiled!  :-)

…..We held our monthly Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador meeting this week and the energy of this group never ceases to amaze me!  We came up with our Physical Activity Play for the program and we are going to create an exercise movie for a Fitness Friday activity.  The students brainstormed a list of activities that can be done in the classroom, signed up for an exercise with a partner, and we began to film the video.  It was a busy morning!  The hour long meeting just flew by!  I can’t wait to see how this project turns out!  

…..I commented on a new pair of sneakers that a kindergarten student had on this week.  It is always a bit of a challenge to have students prepared for PE during the winter because they need boots for recess.  When I see a student with sneakers who has not had them on recently I try to make sure that I am reacting very positively to reinforce the behavior.  When I said that the sneakers were really cool he said:  “these are gym shoes!”

…..I have mentioned our connection with a class and a PE colleague in Texas in recent blogs.  We are having such fun!  I have been taking some video clips to share and this week I put it together in a short movie.  I shared the video with 4th grade prior to sharing it with our friends in Texas and I was pleased at their reaction!  They were very proud of it and I even got a few thumbs up from my fourth grade friends!  They are also working on introducing themselves to our friends in Texas by working on a project that will include a drawing, information about what they are good at, what they are trying to get better at, their favorite PE activity, and a question they are wondering about.  I was so impressed with the quality of their work!  I can’t wait to send them!

…..One of my former students is working on his Eagle Scout project which will benefit the PE program and students at North Park.  I have been working with him for awhile and his project has recently been approved and is ready to begin.  I received an email this week from him and suffice it to say that it brought tears to my eyes.  We don’t often know the impact we have on our students and his kind words in this email not only made the list of the Best Parts of My Week, it also made the list of the Best Parts of My Career!

…...Students were working on some Winter-themed activities toward the end of the week and one of these activities was a Snowman building project.  Students were given a variety of equipment and asked to work in small groups and build a snow person.  They were so adorable!  One group named their snow person Lily!  Another one found an extra pair of sneakers that were left behind and used them for feet!  Another group commented that they added "details" which is a credit to our art program as well as our writing program and all of the snow people were creative and cute! What do you think?

…...We held our annual Pageant for Peace this week.  This is always a highlight of the holiday season at my school because it involves giving to those in our own school community who are in need.  Students, staff, and our PTA donate huge amounts of food including turkeys, hams, potatoes, canned goods, and desserts and then we sing holiday songs from many different cultures.  It is an uplifting, solemn, emotional, and wonderful event that has been part of the fabric of our North Park community for many years.   After the event many volunteers box up the food so that it can be distributed.  During the event our principal reminded us that one idea of Peace is making sure that everyone has enough.  We worked hard to make that happen for our very own families and it felt wonderful…..

…..My student teacher finished up this week and so I spent some time on the side as he fully took the reins.  As I was on the side during a class a second grade student came up and gave me a random hug!  It was so nice and she did it so quietly so that the class was not disrupted at all!  As he finished the day the students were sad to see my student teacher leave.  (Me too!)  He made a positive connection with the students and I hope he learned much during his time at North Park.  I had the chance to let the students know that I still remember the school where I student taught and that they should be proud that they have helped Mr. C learn to be a teacher.  I know he will remember us too!  

…..On Fitness Fridays this year I have been going into different classrooms right after the announcements and organizing a quick activity to start the day.  This week I had the chance to visit a kindergarten that I do not have for PE class because they are taught by another PE teacher who is at our school only in the afternoons.  It was wonderful!  I have many of their older brothers and sisters in class but it was a great chance to meet these students.  Their behavior was excellent and we had so much fun doing some Go Noodle!  Later in the day I saw them and they were so cute as they waved hello!

…..Each week I keep notes on the “best parts” and then I use these notes to write this blog.  As I was writing this blog on Sunday night as I usually do, I found myself questioning some of my notes because it seemed impossible that these things happened only last week.  Do you ever have a week that is so full and busy that time passes in an odd way?  Sometimes I get home after a long day and say:  “Is it still Tuesday?”  This week was so full and so much happened that it seems like all of it could not have happened in only one week!  

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.