Physical Education in December

This has been such a fun month, with so many exciting events scheduled for the children. The focus this month in our P.E classes has been the assessment and skill development of teaching hula hoop skills. The ability to rotate and jump through a hula hoop repetitively, while learning how to integrate the 2 bounce hop in-between jumps is an important coordination skill. While many of the children have difficulty with learning this skill, it is amazing and rewarding personally, to observe their growth in performing this complicated lead up skill. The importance of learning this basic skill is that it reinforces their skill of practicing to learn something hard and to learn that with a practice “attitude” of patience that they can improve which, they so need in learning anything that is difficult. The basic 2 bounce skill is also important in learning to coordinate and control your body in space while using other body parts in a coordinated manner and also for advanced jump roping skills later on as we introduce jump roping later on in Jan and Feb. They also had opportunities for hula hoop exploration to practice other fun hoop movements. We also play tag games related to the hula hoop use which all of the children found to be fun and everyone could find a level of success in playing their “game strategy”. Towards the end of the month we got to play some holiday theme games and please ask your child about ice skating on Baker Pond and the “snowball fight” that we had, and just sit back and observe the smile that is on their face as they tell you about it and you will get a small sense of their joy that they had when they were actually throwing those snowballs. Happy holidays Mr. Fantaroni Mr. Raudonaitis

Executive Functions In PE?

The latest link (look to left on page) helps to explain the importance of this process in learning new motor patterns and thus hopefully helps in academics. Let's talk more about this important process and how we can maximize the opportunities for children to learn and grow. I know some things about this and can learn from a sharing of ideas, so lets talk! Give a call to the P.E staff and together we can help our kids develop this important cognitive skill. People suffering Brain injuries sustain a significant deficit in this area and it becomes more obvious as to just how important this cognitive process is to lead a normal and productive life.

November Excitement @ Baker P.E. Program!

What’s happening in Physical Education in November? This month is going by quickly and we are in our football unit and will be through the month of November. The children have been introduced to the skills of: football grip and throwing techniques along with accurately throwing to a receiver for a short distance; how to place kick with proper kicking approach and techniques to kick straight with some height; punting a ball demonstrating proper punting techniques; three point stance and how to hold a football while running and having some fun in simulating diving over a bar to for a goal line touchdown dive. The laughter and smiles and thrill of scoring a touchdown without fumbling is just very thrilling for the kids and the smiles say it all!!!!!! The tag games introduced are fun and have also been designed to incorporate some aspects of football skills to reinforce learning. Introducing the children to these skills is seen as a part of a learning curve with the understanding that we are setting a baseline of knowledge upon which children can grow and improve their skills so that by the time they enter 4th grade, that they will have a good foundation for these skills. Many of the skills in this unit are common to other sports as well and so there is a commonality of skill learning that will transfer to other sports.

Measuring Physical Education against DRA scores

Physical Education at the elementary grade level has always been a difficult task to measure the benefits of growth. Sure we all know that: physical Education is important for good health, kids needing active time to play and be physically engaged and to learn good social skill developement. But how do you track it to monitor growth over a school year? To really know if physical education classes are keeping pace on a growth curve over the whole school year. At EHB we have developed a system of monitoring children's growth in Physical Edcuation over the course of the school year by tracking specific performance standards keyed to monitoring children's growth in P.E. We use the schools accepted educational standard of DRA scores to look at academic growth and will compare the academic growth with the data we accummulate to look at growth in physical education. If the DRA standard of children reaching their benchmark level is presently at 65% and their goal is to reach 80% by the end of the school year, then should we not expect the children receiving physical edcuation to also show comparable growth over the year in P.E.? So, this year will be our first year to measure the relationship and to assess children to ensure that children are demonstrating growth in P.E to ensure that children have a balance in their development....growth in the academic and physical aspects of their lives. Initial testing of this has noticed that 60% of the children who score high or low also score within those same parameters on our P.E. testing! The children who do not fall within the 60% have been looked at and some obvious opinions come forth: EEI students who have difficulty with language and score low on DRA can find success in their physical skills and thus score high, a discrepancy noted. Other children who score high on the DRA but low on our P.E. Test are children that do not appear to engage in much physical activity outside of school and who might have more arts/music interst and the factor of obesity, appears to be noted by the eyeball test (no specific data to support). But we, in P.E., can measure growth over the course of the year and so regardless of where students score in their fall P.E testing baseline, we should be able to motivate them to improve minimally by 25% in their performance over the course of a school year. You don't have to be an athlete to improve, just need students to work hard, have the understanding of the why and desire to improve and to have teacher support to guide students to try.! If you would like to know more, contact the P.E staff at the Ezra Baker School for more details and the implications for your child. Physical Education is important, and now we are making those connections that show just how important it is for children's success in order for academic performance to improve and make them successful.

Here are two images that show the path of the possible locations of the Baker Bear Path!

Walking Path Help!

At the Baker School, we are trying to build a tarred walking path for our families and community to use, in our efforts to promote a healthy lifestyle. The current field behind our school is a grass field used for softball games. The grass surface is wet and full of goose droppings and is messy for our kids to be walking on prior to school. So, it is our desire to build a walking path made of some material that would provide for a nice walking path for our community. The walking path would go around the outside perimeter of the softball field, so as to not interfere with the games played there in the spring. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. You may call the Baker School at 508 398-7690 and ask for the P.E. staff.

Physical Education Challenge

Well another year has started and we are into our first year as an Innovation school. For grades K and grade1 they have Physical Education 4X/week. It is our belief that we can demonstrate an improvement in their fitness and skill level. We have begun to accumulate base line data and have some information from last year to see how a more typical school schedule of 2X/week compares with the new schedule. You may contact us at the Baker School should you have questions about our approach and goals. We have also completed the first Physical Education DVD video of our Physical Education Program at the Baker School and we feel it to be a valuable tool in helping to share what it is that we do with the Community and Parents. We are always available to discuss what it is we do and our belief that the more one is active the more brain connections are established in which academic learning can be enhanced. Looking forward to an exciting year, especially with our new climbing wall that was purchased by our parent PTAC association. So far, the children love climbing and challenging themselves, their smiles just say it all!

Back to School....Soon!

School is soon approaching and will be here before you know it! Now is the time to start thinking about your fitness level! Here are some things for you to think about now: Check your BMI level, so that you get an idea where you are now and then during the school year we will have you check yourself again! Remember this is only one tool for you to use and along with other check points, it will give you a picture of your health. Use the links on this blog site to help you! Next, remember the 5-2-1 program and you should check yourself to see if you are eating 5 fruits/vegetables daily, 2 hrs or less of TV/Computer time and 1 hr. of daily physical activity! Start looking now for sales on good running sneakers that give your feet good support! Get physical now so that your body can get ready for running, sweating and conditioning those muscles! Don't wait to start moving in our physical education class because you will find it hard to play many of the games and learn many of the new skills that you will be learning. So, enjoy the summer and make a comment on this blog site should you need any help or advice, I'll be checking this blog for questions! Also, walking daily, as a family unit, does a "body good" and builds those emotional bonds that you will always remember and get that warm fuzzy feeling inside of you! So walk daily and strive for 30 minutes a day of moderate walking, which is at least 3 mph. Until we meet again, enjoy the summer!

Backyard Game Night @ Ezra Baker Elementary School

Friday night, June 1, 2012, we had our first Backyard Game Night for the families of children who attend our school. We had 10 stations plus a Country line dance event going on all at the same time for families to choose from to participate. The stations were all arranged to be self directed and families could move about at will to play at any station and even adapt the station to meet their interest. Over 100 people attended and the event felt like an an old neighborhood party in which children played and families got to talk amongst friends and make new friendships. It was purposefully designed so that children and parents could move about freely and socially interact. It was truely a fun night in which many children and friends all enjoyed one another!

Jump Rope For Heart Totals-2012

Thanks to all of the children and families of the Ezra Baker School community, we raised $3200 this year for the American Heart Association!!! The Jump Rope For Heart week at our school consisted of each class participating during their normal gym class. The gym was set up with 12 fun stations all with a different focus of jumping or movement and the children would rotate stations. The children received their gifts this week from the AHA for their hard work in fundraising. Lindsay Peitro, who is the AHA representative for our geographical area also had a special plaque created to acknowledge all of the family members honored that the children Jumped for during this event. The plaque now is on the wall of our gym for all to see and it is quite heartwarming for the families to see their loved family member listed on the plaque and on our school gym wall. Thanks to all who participated and who helped to make this such a special event.

Jump Rope For Heart

We have 14 stations to celebrate Jump Rope For Heart week at the Baker School. Each physical edcuation class participates in 7 stations per gym class and each station offers a challenge and is FUN! Here are some pictues of our stations and we will add up our totals next week!!!

Basketball Unit

We just completed our basketball unit. Students were introduced to many basic skills such as dribbling while in place and moving in different directions and pathways. Students learned how to hold the basketball with the appropriate grip when shooting baskets along with the proper force needed to reach the basket from different distances. Passing was another skill students worked on. They practiced the chest pass and bounce pass both individually against a wall and with a partner. These skills were then utilized in games such as dribble tag, shooters and timers, snatch dribble shoot, etc. Students were encouraged to practice these skills outside of class as well, as the more we practice the better we become. We concluded our unit with a quick assessment to measure student learning.