Physical Literacy, Health Education, and Wellness

Website created by Kimberly Gilhespy

PHE Teacher Specialist, Clemens Mill Public School, Cambridge, Ontario.

Course Director, Ontario Educational Leadership Centre, Orillia, Ontario

Twitter: @GilhespyKim Instagram: kimgilhespy Gmail: kimberly_gilhespy@wrdsb.ca

Passionate about the outdoors, fun active games, as well as teaching and learning with kids of all ages!

New learning = this website! I appreciate your considerate feedback and positive suggestions for improvement. Thank you in advance.

We are back to school!

Hooray! We are back to school! Is it like the "old" normal? Of course not. How can it be when we are living through this little inconvenience called a global pandemic?! I can promise you however, that I am doing the best I can to create a "new" normal that is engaging, dynamic, and fun!

In the Physical Education program this year at Clemens Mill, students will participate in a variety of unexplored units including Gridlock (games and activities in a 2X2 square), orienteering, foot golf (like frisbee golf but kicking a ball), human fooseball, and board game fitness fun. These non-traditional sports and activities use minimal or no equipment and allow for social distancing. I continue to strive to put more recreational activities in the PE program to not only give variety but to offer students the opportunity to experience recreational opportunities that can last throughout their lifetime, such as hiking, geocaching, and other outdoor pursuits. As well, even more emphasis will be placed on understanding the benefits of Physical Literacy and SEL (Social Emotional Learning).

I am extremely excited for this school year to begin and to learn and play with my students as we navigate through these challenging times. In the spirit of sport and activity, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN"!

Why this website?

Now more than ever, there is a larger importance placed on Physical Activity, Health, and Wellness. Social distancing has us inside our houses or on our own property, away from our family, friends, peers, and society.

The goal of this website is to provide you with resources that will increase your physical activity, aid in a healthy lifestyle, and give tools to help manage your personal wellness.

Daily Physical Activity

OPHEA has a daily live stream "Word of the Day" with resources to accommodate at home movement on their OPHEA Facebook page or visit them directly at https://www.ophea.net/ . I am completing this #dpaEveryday challenge myself and posting on my Twitter and Instagram. Check them out!

PALS/Recess Guardians is proud to unveil active8 Your Home, a free daily video service that will bring our celebrated recess program directly to you at home. Simply subscribe at https://www.recessguardians.org/daily-activity-newsletter and they will send a video every weekday with a new game idea, as well as a challenge. These games are simple, good for all ages, and most importantly, fun!

PHE and Physical Literacy

OPHEA stands for Ontario Physical and Health Education Association. Check out the "activities" section for great, active, cross-curricular activities. Here is a link to "Resources to Support Parents and Caregivers with Health and Physical Education at Home". https://www.ophea.net/node/7476

PHE Canada (Physical and Health Education Canada) is our nation's leading organization with a vision of "A future wherein all children and youth in Canada live healthy, physically active lives." Take a look at their website for a variety of programs and activities. https://phecanada.ca/.

ParticipACTION is a long standing organization that has physical activity programs that you can pick and choose from, as well as a participACTION app that you may want to download and use as a family. https://www.participaction.com/en-ca

Ever Active Schools is an organization that was created with the initiative of building healthy schools and communities. They have built a partnership with OPHEA (and PHE Canada) and will be continuing the #dpaEveryday challenges. There website is https://everactive.org/.

Also, stay up to the minute with all of these organizations by following them on Twitter.

Games, Games, and more Games

CIRA Ontario's motto is "FUN, ACTIVE PARTICIPATION FOR ALL". They have so many fun, active games for all to participate in. Many of the warm up games and activities used in our physical education program have come from this charitable organization. Check out their website at https://www.ciraontario.com/. As a side note, I am currently writing a team building resource for them.

Active for Life is another amazing organization. They have a variety of articles and hundreds of activities for all ages. Click on this link to go to their website https://activeforlife.com/.

Wellness

Your well-being is so very important! Be sure you are practicing physical, mental, social, and emotional wellness as best you can, and striving for a balance between them. Try giving a theme to each day of the week. For example, Meditation Monday, Try something new Tuesday, Walking Wednesday, Thoughtful Thursday, FaceTime Friday.

School Mental Health Organization - https://smho-smso.ca/about-us/newsroom/news-and-updates/

Kids Help Phone - 1-800-668-6868 or www.kidshelpphone.ca