Jump Rope Inspiration!

Watch the two videos on jump roping by the Kings Firecrackers, an 8th grade jump group of students, who perform at college games! Simply Amazing! We'll soon be starting our Jump Rope for Heart and would love to have the children develop a love for jump roping! We will be working on developing basic skills and with some students who show an interest, attempt to help them to move on to more difficult jumps. Let's All Get Jumping!

Physical Education has a key role in schools!

Please take a moment to read the article on "Combating Childhood Obesity With Physical Play Opportunities". With all the emphasis on testing and grades in our schools, physical education and recess are often looked at as places to cut education but as this article indicates, the lack of these programs has long term health implications.

We are fortunate that at DY schools, this has remained a priority in our schools and this article provides further support that our schools decision to maintain these programs is right on track with current medical thinking.

Here is an excerpt from this article and it is well worth reading!:

"When considering ’solutions’ for the childhood obesity problem, the basic factors involved in obesity must be considered. These include genetics, emotional stability, hormone levels, and intake-activity relationships. For the majority of people involved with children, the intake-activity relationship is the only factor with which it is possible to engage. And of that factor, only the ’activity’ aspect is within reach. But increasing the physical activity level among children is complicated. Schools, under pressure to increase test scores, are decreasing children’s opportunities to participate in recess and physical education (PE). In fact, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that PE classes are disappearing from schools in the United States, as evidenced by the drop in percentage of schools that have PE programs. In the 1990’s alone, the percentage of schools that offer PE classes dropped from over 40% to around 25%, and that number is still on the decline. As a result, schools are increasing the amount of time children’s bodies remain relatively stationary. Reductions in the amount of physical activity in schools may be leading to serious consequences. Researchers have found that children who were not engaged in a PE program at school gained 1 inch more around the waist and 2 pounds more overall than those who were involved in a PE curriculum."

January Review

In December, we focused on Holiday games emphasizing team play, endurance and sportsmanship. Upon returning back to school in January, our P.E. classes have concentrated on Rope climbing, Cargo net climbing, throwing games and Pillow Polo.
The rope climbing emphasis has introduced the children to a strength activity which requires some agility in climbing the ropes which has challenged the children to take supervised risks. As with the cargo net, their is a degree of supervised risk taking, in which the children have to develop a sense of confidence to attempt climbing the rope/cargo net. Many children have a cautious approach to climbing and heights and so this provides them with an opportunity to explore their capabilities in a safe environment. The children all must make an attempt to climb but the height and degree to which they achieve climbing is dependent upon their comfort level. No one fails in climbing but rather, we focus on accepting a challenge to do their best of their ability and knowing that, with time and practice, that they will do better.
The games focused on large muscle development, game strategy, having fun, and improving their throwing skills for distance and accuracy. Pillow Polo was introduced and the children loved the hockey type game. They learned stick handling skills, aggressive play on the ball, team work, sportsmanship, and offensive and defensive positions.
Grades are being completed and parents are encouraged to talk to their children about why they earned the grade that they received. Within the P.E. class we have discussed the whys of getting certain grades and that the children take the responsibility for their grades. Their perception about their grades is an important element in knowing about their performance and what actions they must change in order to improve their grades. Poor listening, fooling around with friends, lack of effort, and not following directions all contribute to a lower grade.
Should you or your child have questions please do not hesitate to contact us and we will do our best to help your child understand what they have to do to improve.
Their self evaluation about how they are doing and learning how they can achieve better grades is our focus and the real learning point.

Christmas fun!

Cathie and Bob are so talented that we decided to put together our physical education rap for our audience. So hope you enjoy our rap to Jingle Bells!

Click on the rap link to the side!

Merry Christmas
Happy Holidays
Happy Hanukkah!

First term report cards!

In the month of November students received their first report card reflecting their work effort, skill ability and behavior assessments by the P.E. staff. It is important and necessary that each parent sit down with their child to review not only the grade but also the teacher’s comments to better understand any issues that might have affected their grades. A specific grade should not be the sole criteria as to how your child is doing but rather, understanding the written comments and direction of the students grades from term to term. The student’s progress and growth are important considerations when trying to help each student reach their maximum potential. Are they making improvements in the areas that have been identified is our focus as an ongoing process.

This past month the children have been playing games outside as the weather has been so nice. We have played Treasure Island in which the children develop their running endurance and practice their dodging and avoidance skills and team play as their teams attempt to capture treasures while being protected by pirates, a fun cooperation and fitness game. We also have been working with the children to develop their coordination skills using hula hoops, jump ropes and ball dribbling skills. The activities are geared towards a developmental sequence of skill progression and development based on their individual successes. The children can learn at their own pace while learning an important value, that comes with effort and practice as they can learn new skills and to neverto give up trying. During this past week we have also played games with a Thanksgiving theme which the children just love as they act out their roles as "turkeys", Gobble Gobble!

Children are continuing to practice sportsmanship, respectful behavior and a sense of fair play within a game structure.

Best wishes for a wonderful Thanksgiving and hope that you can enjoy this special time for families to come together!

"The Way of Boys" by Dr. Anthony Rao, child psychologist

The need for physical education, within the public school setting, is often related to keeping children healthy as it relates to the problem of childhood obesity. But, as more is learned, books like this one reveal another important contribution by physical education in helping our children to mentally cope with the rigors of lengthier classes and increased academic demands.

This book looks like a must read for all of us who have noticed an increase in ADHD diagnosis.

Quote:
"Rao's troubled by a 4,000 percent increase in ADHD diagnoses over the past 10 years. He also cites a 600 percent increase in prescribing antipsychotic drugs to children, mostly boys, he said.
What's happening? Rao thinks it boils down to school. Kids, he said, are asked to sit longer, indoors, in language intensive environments.

For boys, that can be a recipe for frustration.
“And when they’re frustrated they begin to act out. We label it a disorder,” Rao said. “But the newest area of exciting research is, when putting kids – and this is mostly boys – outdoors for longer periods of time, giving them vigorous exercise, a lot of the symptoms of ADHD seem to go away."

Just being aware that this is a possibility is an important consideration to understanding our children and the "nature of boys" before being so quick to "label" our children as ADHD.

October P.E. Update

The weather is changing and the children are becoming more comfortable in the P.E. Classes. We continue to work on class behavior, peer respect during games and good sportsmanship, as these skills don't always come easily and most often, must be learned during real activity experiences.
This month has focused on finishing our soccer unit and playing games using their imagination and creativity, but all within a game format with rules. The children love to use their imagination and become aliens, blobs, patriots and ghouls!
Our Fall extravaganza includes 12 stations, each station sure to excite the young at heart (and allot of fun for us to create!). The children enjoy a few minutes at each station performing the task at hand and pretend, as an example, that a station might be a rope ride or perhaps a witches broom ride or a rocket ship ride, but regardless, the end result is a broad happy smile across their face! The stations are never long enough!
Make sure to ask your child about the P.E. stations and look forward to our November themes, so stay tuned to find out just where we go from here!
This is such a fun time of year to be outdoors and moving about, so bundle up and enjoy your child , get your mind off of all of the daily stressors and enjoy every minute of this special time in thier lives!