The first two weeks...

...are always very interesting for everyone involved: teachers, supporting staff, parents, and the kids. In the specials' world, we take these weeks to put solid procedures in place much like they do in the classroom. Here's a fly-on-the-wall view of what the PE/Health classes have looked like:

We teach teamwork and problem solving from day one. Here, two students show us one way to solve a dispute in PE/H (or at recess!) while playing a game that gets them up and moving, Rock, Paper, Scissors Tag.

Another teamwork activity! Students are encouraged to cheer for ALL their classmates, not just the students on their team. 

Unless you know what you're looking for, this one might not look like much. All students are learning about boundaries this year with the help of our new floor. We are using the line where the orangey-brownish part (don't tell Ms. Bomba that I made up color names) meets the black part of the floor as our boundary line. This gives the students a solid visual reminder of the safe areas of play. At the beginning of class, I asked the students help me set up our boundaries using cones as a check for understanding. The might be a little clumped together, but they got it!

We don't get to sit down in PE/ Health too often, and when we do it's for quick instruction so we can get up and move again. Here students are showing our "two whistle huddle." The students know when the hear the whistle blow two times, they come into our huddle. This allows me to give instruction or clarification very quickly. We can also use this format to reflect on how things are going, make connections to other classes, or practice "turn and talk" questions.

The 2nd-3rd graders played the Cooperation Cleanup game that reinforced the importance of working as a team and proper use of the equipment. 

And finally, every once in a while, a teacher has a moment where all she can do is turn on the camera and laugh along. Enjoy!

Widgets for Health

Can you find the newest addition to the blog? Look right! -------->

The Fitness Calculator lets you measure how many calories you burn in a given activity. Try it out! This calculator is great for all you anti-treadmill people out there (not that treadmill caloric expenditure calculators are all that accurate). The extensive variety of fitness activity options is quite impressive as well.

I found this widget on Wolfram Alpha. I highly suggest that you explore. It's like a google search engine plus an extremely accurate wikipedia article plus an expert on any subject you desire to learn about plus a technology geek. The site is excellent for finding the nutritional value of food, ex. an apple.

Here's to health and technology!