Dance along with a few of these videos or dance to three of your favorite songs.

I Get Loose Don't Sit Down A Very Simply Dance MILK A Moose-Ta-Cha Pop See Ko Poppin' Bubbles Snow Ninjas Ski Chase I Want to Build a Snowman Penguin Dance The Freeze Game

• • Video Demonstration

  • Students will need

    • Inflated Balloons

    • Plastic Mini Cones (Dollar Tree)

  • Directions

    • Inflate a balloon just enough to rest in the cone.

    • You hold a traffic cone like an ice cream cone (bottom side up), and rest a balloon on it.

    • Toss the balloon towards another player!

    • The other player must try to catch the balloon. If they don’t, that’s okay! They can pick up the balloon and rest it on their cone, and toss it to you.

    • One person can also just catch the balloon with their hands and toss it back to the person with the cone.

Balance, being able to hold your body in a position without fall over, is an important skill for your child to develop. Good balance will help students be able to sit in chairs, move about with less injuries, participate more successfully in various activities, and have better control of their bodies. Some studies even suggest that balance activities may help with cognitive function.

We try to incorporate balance activities into our daily PE routines. Videos to watch and do are below.

Here are some ways to encourage balance practice:

• Walk up and down stairs or curbs – each time you take a step you are balancing on one foot.

• Ride a bicycle – this task requires postural control and balance

• Ride a scooter – obviously three wheeled scooters are easier than two wheeled scooters

• Walk on uneven terrain – walk on grass, rocks or dirt.

  • • Wet, thick, mud is a big challenge.

    • Walk on uneven terrain with no shoes on for a bigger challenge (Soft sand at the beach).

• Play a game of kickball or soccer. You need to stand on one foot to kick the ball.

• Play follow the leader practicing walking fast, slow, backwards and sideways.

• Pretend to be a tight rope walker – Walk heel to toe along any line, try on your toes or your heels.

• Try putting on your pants while standing – this is a real balance challenge to stand on one foot while putting the other leg in pants. Want to make it harder? Try putting socks on in standing without falling.

• Walk along curbs or balance beams at the park.

• Go on a hike searching out some logs or big rocks to climb.

Balance Activities

• This video challenges students to balance in different poses for 30 seconds. If the student loses balance or needs to put a foot down, just get back in the pose again and try to hold it longer.

Body Part Balances

• This video works through different balancing challenges using different body parts. After the video, let the student challenge his or her family to balance in different ways.

Parents can read the text below to their children to begin a conversation about hand washing.

You can also watch this quick video about handwashing.

You can print out the handwashing handouts or simply view them on your computer.

Hand Washing

Introduction:

Start with the handouts: When We Wash Our Hands Before and When We Wash Our Hands After. Ask students to circle the pictures that reflect a time when we should wash our hands before and after these incidents. Follow up with asking students to tell you -when do we need to wash our hands? (before: we prepare or eat food, before we treat a cut or wound, before we help someone who is sick) (after: we go to the bathroom, handle uncooked food, blow your nose, cough or sneeze, touch a pet, touch garbage, care for someone who is sick). Today’s lesson will focus on how and why we was our hands throughout the day.

Parent Read Aloud:

We wash our hands to prevent the spread of germs. Germs are small microorganisms that we cannot see with our eyes, only a microscope. Some germs are helpful to our bodies but most can make us sick and we want to avoid contact with those germs. The best way to prevent the spread of germs is to wash your hands throughout the day. Germs are spread when people do not wash their hands after the sneeze or cough or after going to the bathroom. Germs can be spread if we cough or sneeze on one another. They can also be spread by shaking hands. Germs can live on our skin but they can also live on objects around us like door handles, desks, pencils, and lots of other surfaces so it is important to wash our hands regularly, especially before we eat and after we go to the bathroom, handle trash, or touch pets and animals. It is important to wash our hands properly to make sure we get rid of all of the germs living on our skin.

Parents can demonstrate - How to wash our hands:

1. Wet your hands

2. Apply soap

3. Wash all surfaces on your hands thoroughly, including wrist, palms, back of the hands, and under fingernails.

4. Rub hands together for at least 20 seconds (cue the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday twice).

5. Dry hands with a clean cloth or paper towel.

6. Turn the faucet off using the paper towel you used to dry your hands.

Closure:

You now know when and how to wash your hands. Make sure you follow the steps for hand washing before eating, preparing food, treating a cut or scrape, or touching someone who could be sick. Make sure you wash you hands after going to the bathroom, sneezing or coughing, after handling trash, and after petting an animal.

• • Click here to see the April calendar.

  • These are ideas to get you and your family moving.

  • Set a goal for how many of these can you do this month.

How to tie your shoe

Learning how to tie a shoe gives students confidence, independence,

and more time to participate in PE and other activities.

Click here for five different shoe tying methods. The first way is the traditional way

and will work with the most laces and the most shoes.

Help your student chose the one that works best for them and then practice at least four times a day.