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Increasing Creativity, Confidence, Muscular Strength and Endurance, Flexibility and Cooperative Skills

K -5^th grade students are working with our awesome Whittle equipment apparatus during their Educational Gymnastics unit which runs to the first week of Feb.

What is Educational Gymnastics?

Our gymnasium has been transformed into a huge “jungle gym” environment filled with A frames, ladders, parallel bars, single bars, pommel horses, benches, planks at different heights, hanging ropes, the cargo net, balance beam, the bridge and of course, the great climbing wall. All pieces are assembled on top of mats to help keep our students safe.

Students work at their own age-appropriate level making great choices about spacing and using the equipment in a safe manner. Students are presented with movement problems which are called “challenges” and then allowed to explore the apparatus as they discover different ways to solve the problem. This may be as simple as “How many different ways can you travel under pieces of equipment?” where Kindergarten students explore changing levels, directions, speeds and pathways as they explore the word under. At a higher grade level the challenge might be: “Perform a still support on a piece of equipment for 10 seconds and then gracefully move to a hang in the same place without touching the ground. Hold your hang for 10 seconds”. Students are thus presented with a framework within to work in and they, as the artist, must complete the painting with their creativity and imagination, all the while increasing their body awareness, muscular strength, balance and flexibility among other components of fitness. Teamwork is incorporated into some lessons, where students “coach” each other on the quality of their work or cooperate together to solve team challenges.

We also engage in fun games to reinforce what is learned. Ask your child about SHARK! One of our favorite games in which the gym is transformed into an ocean and students are the “fish”. When the Shark enters the gym the students have a few seconds to get “out of the water” and up onto the equipment. With the theme song to JAWS playing in the background, students try to remain still and strong (so the Shark won’t see them). Any students who are touching the water or wiggling a fin become “Sharkbait!” Sometimes the students must be in a Wide, Narrow, Twisted or Curled shape, other times they need to be at a Low, Medium of High level, and sometime they need to make Body Letters with their bodies while using the equipment (“make the first letter of your last name”).

PE News/Update:

“Teaching the foundational skills and concepts needed for ADVENTURES in life!”

We’re off to an awesome start in Physical Education! We are excited to give our students a fun and challenging year in Phys. Ed! Periodically, we will use the Buzz to keep you informed on what is happening in our program.

3^rd, 4^th and 5^th grade are weaving cardiovascular fitness into our game-like activities as we work hard to prepare for the CT Physical Fitness test which takes place in October. This test includes push-ups, curl-ups, the sit and reach stretch, and running a mile. Students learn about and improve the 4 components of fitness: muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness in a variety of ways. We emphasize improvement over time and “competing against oneself” as opposed to one’s peers. The effort and determination to improve demonstrated by our students has been outstanding thus far!

The 6 minute Cardio-Challenge: We work toward the mile run by giving our 3-5^th graders this challenge: How many laps can you run in 6 minutes? Students start with a baseline # of laps, discuss and choose a “game plan” to improve next time, and record their strategies in their Fitness Folder. The goal is to run at least one more lap during the next attempt. We also rock some fun tunes to help motivate our runners. In this way, students can experiment with and try different strategies like pacing, “emptying the tank at the end”, running with strong arms, etc… so that by the time we run a full mile – we are ready!

Our 4^th – 5^th graders also playing the ultimate team strategy game called Hoopla! Think 4 team capture the flag where the only way be successful is to work together with your own teammates or even collaborate with another team.

Our K-2 grade students will spend the next weeks working with body management including locomotor skills, pathways, directions, speeds, levels, matching and mirroring shapes as well as activities that involve cooperation, team work and listening. Soon these students will begin working with manipulatives (like balloons, hula hoops and colorful scarves) as we explore ways to control objects. 2^nd grade is also weaving in some soccer dribbling. Finally, we are reviewing how to play the recess favorite “Ga-ga” game so students have one more fun choice to do physical activity during their recess break.