Hi everyone,
After the feeling of being “overbooked” for the last few weeks before
vacation, it was nice to have a relatively quiet but enjoyable week!
…..Students in grades 3-5 are working on the Fitness Gram
Physical Fitness Test. I actually
call them “challenges” because of the reaction that I get from students when I
say the word “test”. Early in the
week several classes were completing the PACER running challenge. It was wonderful to see and hear all of
the compliments to classmates after their hard work. Students score for a partner and I ask that they are very
quiet so that the runners can hear the beeps. I know that students want to cheer each other on and, while
that is terrific, students can’t hear the beep that tells them when to
run. I encourage students to save
all of those kind words and actions until after the group has finished. Students understand this and inevitably
a round of clapping and cheering ensues when the last runner finishes. This week I saw lots of high fives to
partners and fellow runners and one fourth grader said to another: “That was amazing!”
…..I am always looking for new ideas. I guess I just can’t help myself! This week I was creating a warm-up for my primary students
using a math activity that a Kindergarten teacher shared with me. It involves dog picture puzzles and
numbers and as a fourth grade class was entering the gym one day I was cutting
out the dog pictures. One of the
students asked what I was doing and when I told him he said: “ Awwwwwww…….that’s so cute!” Later in the week I saw this same class
again and the same student asked me how it went! I told him I’m still working on it but would definitely let
him know how it turns out!
.....Some other new activities I tried this week......
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Students worked on underhand and overhand throwing and used the flags as targets. |
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My version of a "low tech" sport wall.......Students threw underhand and overhand and collected points based on the targets that were hit. |
…..My primary students finished up some yoga activities early in the week using a Cosmic Kids Yoga story about an octopus that was nervous about performing a dance in front of her sea creature friends. I asked classes to pay attention to the important message of this story because I would be asking them to share what they thought at the end of class. The message, of course, was about having courage and relying on your friends to support you when you feel nervous or anxious about something. In one particular class there was a second grade student who had read the morning announcements for the school that very morning. It was his first time doing it and he immediately raised his hand to share what he thought the message of the yoga story was. I asked him to share his thoughts and he was absolutely correct about the message. I told him what a great job he did reading the morning announcements and asked him how he felt before he started. He admitted that he was nervous but was glad he did it. It was a great teachable moment!
…..Our monthly Fuel Up to Play 60 Student Ambassador meeting
was held this week and on the agenda was logging into the student dashboard to
enter the details of our Veggie Taste Test Day event.
Students were so proud (as were we) of how many points they have earned! It has been a great year with our
ambassadors. We planned our next
(and last) event of the year, which is a Bike Rodeo and Safety Clinic. We discussed how this year we are going
to have a “Food Art” station as the healthy snack station and we brainstormed a
list of different kinds of fruit to be used to create some food art. I am excited to see the student
creations! Finally, we worked on
the School Wellness Investigation and while students knew most of the answers
in terms of PE and our school culture of wellness, they were eager to find out
the answers needed from our cafeteria manager. While there is always room for improvement, the
investigation showed that we do pretty well when it comes to physical activity,
nutrition, and family/community involvement!
…..One of my second graders was excited to tell me: ”I did Cosmic Kids Yoga at home!” Isn’t that the best when activities we
do at school transfer to home???
.....Since May is just around the corner I worked on getting the Operation Healthy North Park bulletin board ready to go this week. As I was getting it ready during an afternoon when students had already been dismissed it generated quite a bit of interest from our staff who are excited to begin the project!
…...I had decided earlier in the year that I would wait to
announce my retirement to my students until after Spring Break. This was the week…….I knew that it
would be emotional but I did not realize that the discussions would be so
interesting! I started by asking
students how many knew what the word retirement meant. Most of the older students knew and one
said that retirement is when you can’t do your job anymore because it is too
hard for you or your tired! I
assured the students that this is not the case with me but it is time to move
on to something else. A fifth
grader added that when you retire some people get a pension. It surprised me that he even knew what
a pension was! Next, I asked
students if they knew that several adults at North Park are retiring this year
and most everyone knew that.
Finally, I asked if they knew that I was retiring at the end of this
year. There were a wide variety of
responses to this question for sure.
Some knew, others were surprised, and some were absolutely shocked! Then the questions began: “Do you have to retire?....Who will be
our PE teacher? Will we still do
Student Ambassadors? Will you come back to visit?” After the first few classes I anticipated these questions
and answered them before they were asked which seemed to help the
discussion. Since our fifth grade
class is moving on to the middle school next year I commented that in fact we
are all leaving and there was a cute non-verbal reaction to this
statement. One student drew his
hand across his forehead in a silent “WHEW!”
I also mentioned to students that I have been teaching at North
Park for a really long time and remarked that some of their parents were my
students when they were in elementary school. The quizzical looks on some of their faces were adorable as
they tried to fathom this in their brains! When I asked a second grade class how long they thought I
have been at North Park one student raised her hand and responded: “Since my DAD was here!” I smiled and agreed that yes, I was her
dad’s PE teacher. A fourth grade
student said: “You have been here
for generations!” I never thought
of it that way but I guess I have!
People often say the phrase:
“It seems like yesterday” but in this case it really does!
…..The week wrapped up on Friday with a Fitness Friday surprise
visit to a 3rd grade class. This
class is hosting Basketball Betty and with all of the events of the last few
weeks I have not seen her very much.
She was happy to participate on the desk of a third grade friend as we
did some Go Noodle activities. Despite
some technical difficulties with a slow connection, students had fun and earned
their Fitness Friday mile. They
were so patient! I saw this same
class later in the morning for PE class and they were excited to learn that
because they attended PE on Fitness Friday as well they earned a second
mile! Basketball Betty had fun with Uno Fitness during PE!
…..A comment that ended my week with a smile: ”I’m glad we are in PE today. It’s my favorite special because it’s
the only special where you get to relax!”
This particular student is always incredibly motivated and excited to
participate and I am so glad that he realizes the benefits of physical
activity!
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.
