Working Hard in PE

We've had a real variety of weather the past two weeks. It was nice to get the students outdoors last week to begin to train our running legs for their upcoming fitness tests. This week we've been indoors, doing the typical April activities. Read below to find out the specifics for your child's grade.

Senior Kindergarten
Last week we finish up our work on overhand throwing with our assessments. Most of the children are looking pretty good on their execution of the overhand throw. This skill will be worked on through the Lower School, so once the weather gets nice, get out in the yard and practice throwing and catching with your child. A little practice will pay big dividends down the road and your child will love the time you spend together!!
This week we started off the week doing station activities that revolved around differentiating between overhand and underhand throws. Students would check out the station card to let them know which type of throw to use. This was a good chance to assess the children's throwing in a fun bunch of throwing stations. Our other focus this past week was integrating the alphabet into our activities. We worked on listening to sounds to identify letters that words began with and followed with creating words using some of the word families the children have been using in their classroom. Integrating classroom concepts in the gym allow for the children to practice on their academic skills in a fun and playful manner. Hopefully the children will be bringing home their recording papers for you to see their work.

1st and 2nd Grades
Last week's PE focus was on Fitness and the students looked at the Physical Activity Pyramid. We learned the four levels 1)Everyday Activities (like walking to PE, climbing stairs, doing chores, working in the yard) 2)We called this level the CARDIO level - 30 minutes or more everyday where the heart is really pumping. Student learned that this level could have rests built in during those thirty minutes. 3)Muscular and Flexibility level. We learned all sorts of different stretching and muscular activities that should be done 3 - 5 days a week. and 4) Sedentary level - like playing video games, watching TV or using the computer.
These activities are fun, however they should be limited. The remainder of the week the children participated in lots of fun and active fitness activities and games to understand and practice the the various fitness levels from the pyramid.

This week the focus has been on chase/flee and dodge. Children discussed each of these three words and have practiced each of these actions in a multitude of chasing and fleeing games better known as tag. Our warm ups this week have focused on fitness drawing on the information we learned the previous week.

3rd and 4th Grades
The past two weeks have been dedicated to jump rope. In the 3rd grade our focus is to work on buiding our stamina as we work on the challenge of 50 or 75 consecutive basic jumps in a row. In addition the students are challenged to learn and perform a variety of jump rope patterns. Wow - are these kids good! As a student feels ready to perform a skill, they have a classmate observe their skill as the jumper performs the skill ten to fifteen times in a row without a miss. This give the children a chance to do some peer assessments and work on developing patterns (the brain loves this!) In addition to doing all this jumping, the children have been recording their pedometer steps for our half hour PE class. Some of the students are topping 3000+ step counts on their pedometers - GREAT (the heart loves this!!)

The fourth graders are taking the jump rope skills and refining them and then selecting the skills they can perform well and creating a jump rope routine that they will be performing for me. I am hoping to video some of these and being able to post them on an upcoming blog. As like the third graders the fourth graders are working on their cardio by trying to jump 40, 80 and 100 consecutive jumps without a miss.
Next week the 3rd grade will start work on long jump rope and perfecting entering and exiting a turning rope and of course jumping once they have entered. The 4th graders will be performing their routines and doing some partner skills which are lots of fun. Fourth graders, time allowing will also try jump bands or Chinese jump rope, a fun alternative to jumping rope.