Well, I did warn you. Now I am coming for you! June 17th is the Second Annual Mary Jeffery Field Day. This is a whole day event and I will need many volunteers. The morning session is for primary students and the afternoon is for intermediate. Kids might get wet...maybe volunteers, too. A BBQ lunch will be happening and will cost a small amount. This day is tons of fun so please sign up in the front hallway soon. Feel free to contact me with any questions. Thanks!

Sport Stacking with Speed Stacks

We recently began practicing cup stacking. The students are REALLY excited about this awesome sport. It is fantastic for working both sides of the brain and the body. Eye-hand coordination and focus is also greatly improved by this sport. Many of the students have asked me where to purchase the cups. The company, Speed Stacks, no longer sells the sets in retail stores but I am considering placing a group order at reduced prices. Pricing brochures will arrive at school soon, so look for this (and a newsletter!) to come home next week. Here is a link to the web site- http://www.speedstacks.com/  I feel pretty good about supporting this company after watching the video on the Teacher Central page of their web site. Let me know what you think. If you decide to order from this site, go to the shop link and choose group orders and click on the students and parents section. The more that our group orders, the more money goes into the pot for me to order from. I am thinking seriously about adding a Sport Stacking club next year and taking students to the local competetion in March.

I also found a fun keyboarding activity that uses the cup stack idea. http://www.primarygames.com/langarts/cupstacking/index.htm

Pedometers

We have also been practicing fitness using pedometers in PE. The students really enjoyed watching their numbers go up as they played! Here is an interesting write up about what the number of steps you take each day means in the grand scheme of things.

"Based on the best evidence as of the end of 2003, Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke recommends the following:
Classification of pedometer-determined physical activity in healthy adults:
1) Under 5000 steps/day may be used as a "sedentary lifestyle index"
2) 5,000-7,499 steps/day is typical of daily activity excluding sports/exercise and might be considered "low active."
3) 7,500-9,999 likely includes some exercise or walking (and/or a job that requires more walking) and might be considered "somewhat active."
4) 10,000 steps/day indicates the point that should be used to classify individuals as "active".
5) Individuals who take more than 12,500 steps/day are likely to be classified as "highly active"."

Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke