Welcome to the last week of April!
This week we will feature skill assessments for all three groups (Kindergarten - 1st Grade, 2nd - 3rd Grade, and 4th - 5th Grade). The skills will focus on the soccer skill of dribbling and passing the ball. See the videos below for help with guiding you through the skills assessment.
In my younger classes (K - 1) we worked on kicking a ball that was stationary and also one that was rolled to us. We then transitioned to learning how to run the bases in a kickball game. My 2nd and 3rd graders reviewed kicking a ball and how to be a good pitcher of the ball with rolling it toward the kicker and not having it too bouncy. We then played different versions of kickball games. There are lots of variations of kickball games that are out there and you tube has a ton of them. I will post a few videos of the ones that we tried and the students really seemed to enjoy them.
My 4th and 5th grade classes continued to work on their track meet events watching videos on relays and high jump. I will share those videos below and then we played a relay game called catch up. To play catch up, you set up boundaries that you are going to run around. You could play this with your family in your yard if you set up an oval shaped space. Start with teams on opposite sides of the oval from one another. The teams will have one person at a time run one loop around the boundaries. When you get back to your team hand off a baton to the next runner. (An easy homemade baton can be a paper towel tube.) The other team is doing the same thing taking turns with it's players racing around the boundaries and handing the baton off to the next person in line. To score a point, you need to pass the player from the opposite team. This often takes several turns to accomplish this and is a great way to practice hand offs of the baton while moving in order to continue to close the gap on the other team.
High jump may be a difficult event for you to practice at your home safely but is one of the favorite events of our students. The videos below will give them a better understanding of the different ways that have been used to get over the bar such as the scissors kick, western roll, and one we use now called the fosbury flop.
Finally I will have a video introducing the field event of a shot put throw. Again this may be more difficult for you to practice at home, but you could use a softball or tennis ball as a substitution. Safety is always a big thing with this event as we are pushing a 6 lb. ball into the air. Please check with your parents to make sure your version of the shot put is safe and that they are okay with you attempting it in your yard.