This week, most upper elementary classes are finishing the fall/winter fitness testing (pre-test). Each class needs something different, or may already be finished, with all of our fitness testing items. Click the FitnessGram graphic below or
this link to access more information about our fitness testing. Why is the schedule so different for each class? If there are days off from school, or if I'm away from the building, testing has to wait. Especially with Thanksgiving, testing was a little delayed for some classes. When testing is finished for most of the class, we celebrate with a Pins and Baskets game day.
Lower elementary classes explored with playground balls! These lessons improve manipulative skills, ball control, and visual tracking. Crossing the midline is also encouraged during these activities, which helps the left and right brain hemispheres communicate better with each other. Lessons are adapted from
Ready to Use PE Activities for Grades K-2 by Landy and Landy
. Tasks included:
Intro:
- Hold your ball high with both hands, low, far away from you, near to you, behind you, in front of you, to the side, to the other side. Watch the ball while you do this!
- Keep your hands near each other, pass the ball from one hand to the other hand. Pass the ball with hands high, medium level, low.
- Put your ball on the floor and make a bridge over the ball. Be careful not to smush the ball with your body - the ball isn't a pillow or bed to lay on -- this can ruin our equipment!
- Pick up your ball and hold it in both hands. Sit criss-cross-applesauce. Stand up without using your hands to help you, keeping hold of the ball. Sit back down criss-cross-applesauce still holding the ball in both hands.
- Find a partner. Explore different ways to hold the ball between the two of you without using hands or arms. Can you move while holding the ball like this?
Rolling:
- Sit criss cross applesauce. Roll the ball around your body. Switch directions.
- Stand up, roll the ball around your feet. Switch directions.
- Stand with feed wide, roll the ball around your feet, switch directions.
- Roll the ball in a figure 8 around your feet.
- Sit with legs in front of you, knees slightly bent. Roll the ball behind your body, then lift your legs (like a drawbridge) as you roll the ball underneath your legs. Don't forget to switch directions!
- Go to your letter, take three steps from the wall, and roll the ball to the wall. Use two hands, one hand, the other hand to roll the ball. No bounces makes a perfect roll!
- In partners, students rolled the ball back and forth with a partner -- sitting, standing, even backwards.
- Keep it Rolling: Everyone in the class has a ball. The challenge is to keep your ball rolling the entire time -- no stopping! Watching personal space and safety first, bending your knees, keep the ball rolling the entire time.
- Guard the pin: Students in a circle around one pin in the center. One player guards the pin. One ball per circle. Edge players roll the ball into the center, trying to knock over the pin. If an edge player knocks over the pin, they switch places with the pin guard.
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| Second graders partner rolling |
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| Second graders hold the ball between partners |
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| First graders: Guard the Pin |
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| First graders: Guard the Pin |
In first grade health classes, we learned more about fire safety. Some highlights of what we discussed include:
- In a fire emergency: Get out! Get help! Get out FIRST, and then get help.
- Stay calm.
- Stay low and crawl if in a smoky area.
- DO NOT HIDE.
- If clothes are on fire, STOP, DROP, and ROLL.
Coming up next week in health, we'll talk about the 3 Ds of telling: Dangerous, Destructive, or Disturbing. If a situation is any of these three Ds, we need to tell an adult right away.
