Week of 4/11: Flickerball & Directions/Levels/Pathways

Warm Up:  All grades
Continuous Jog
To prepare for upcoming mile run testing (grades 2-5), all grades complete a continuous jog warm-up.  Since we don't have an integrated scoreboard in our Haisley gym, we use a projector to put one onto the wall.  This shows students exactly how long we have left to jog/speedwalk/run.  Students are encouraged to try to jog/run the whole time, taking speedwalking breaks as needed during the activity.  The length of time depends on the class length and age level.

Mile run testing will begin in the next couple of weeks, weather and sidewalk track conditions permitting!  Please have your student dressed appropriately for outside time each day - particularly morning classes.  Thank you!!

Fifth graders:  continuous jog warm-up

Kindergarteners warming up

Grades 3-5:  
Flickerball is a game usually played with a football (3rd and 4th use a foam sphere ball, 5th uses a foam football), with scoring at the two main basketball hoops.  We play with the same setup as Ultimate (Frisbee), so this is great follow-up game!  Students have enjoyed this game, and the competition.  We mix up the teams each time, so it's a new game/competition each class period.  Teams accrue points each time they play, playing a different opponent each game during the class.

Flickerball Rules

Depending on how the game is going, we sometimes modify one rule:  dropped/incomplete pass --> turnover.  In classes having difficulty completing passes, we modify to this:  if the intended receiver touches the ball in any way, it's that receiver's ball.  If they totally miss it, it's a turnover.  This allows teams having difficulty completing passes to still progress and enjoy the game, while maintaining safety (preventing the loose ball from being chased by all players).  This is more common in third grade games, but can happen in fourth and fifth grade, too.

Game order - keeps teams playing new opponents.  Each game is 2-3 minutes long.  Teams are new each class, so it's never a repeated game or matchup.

Fourth Graders

Fifth graders

Fifth graders

Fifth graders

Third and fourth graders

Grades Y5, K, 1, & 2:  
Directions, levels, and pathways is the basis of movement and space awareness.

• Directions:  Forward, backward, and sideways.  This is the direction of your body, not the direction your body is going (east, west, north, south, counter/clockwise, right, left).  
• Levels:  Standing = high level, knees bent = medium level, on the floor = low level.  
• Pathways:  Imagine walking through a surface covered with snow.  Your footprints are the pathway you took.  Pathways can be any shape, anything!!  

We began talking about directions, and then students explored with movement in different directions on different body parts.  For example, prompts included: "Try moving forward only on your hands and feet.  Try moving backward on your belly/front.  Move sideways on three body parts only."  After exploring these directional movements, students then made up their own "directions story".  They created a story with a beginning, middle, and end -- with a movement and direction for each part.  Volunteers shared their story with the class.  We then extended these exploratory movements and movement stories to include pathways, and then levels.  

Kindergarteners: exploring directions and pathways

Young Fives: exploring forward movement on their front

Second graders:  exploring backward movements

Second graders:  exploring sideways movements

Week of October 12, 2015: Y5-2

Bean Bags!!  Young Fives, Kindergarten, first, and second grades worked with bean bags this week.  Similar to our hula hoop lessons, activities focus on movement and space awareness, eye-hand coordination/tracking, and having fun.  We call our beanbags "Beanie".  Activities included many of the following prompts:  

• How many different parts of your body can you balance Beanie?  (Head, forehead, shoulder, fingers, elbow, tummy, back, knee, foot...)
• Stand with Beanie balanced on your head - lower to knees, and then sitting, trying not to let Beanie fall off, without touching it with hands.  
• Take Beanie for a walk on your arm/shoulder/head/back of your hand.  
• Put Beanie on your spot.  stand in front, behind, to the side, on the other side.  Jump forward/backward over Beanie.  Jump side to side over Beanie.  Hop on one foot around Beanie.  
• Build a bridge over Beanie.  Four parts, three parts.  
• Statue:  Move around the room to the music.  When the music stops, put your foot on the closest Beanie and make a statue.  (Gallop, skip, hop on one foot, jump on two feet, sideways slide-step).  
• Beanbag Freeze:  Balance Beanie on your head.  Walk around the playing area without touching Beanie, being careful to not let it slide off.  If Beanie falls, you're frozen.  Others still balancing their Beanie can carefully bend down to pick up your Beanie and hand it to you.  Say Thank you! when someone helps you, and be a helper to others!  
• Beanbag Signals:  My voice signals different activities with Beanie.  
• "Toss and walk":  Toss beanie up and catch, while walking around the playing area.  Gallop, skip, sideways slide-step can also be substituted for walk.  
• "Freeze!"  Let Beanie fall to the floor and make a statue on it. 
• "Leap!"  Leave your Beanie, leaping over as many other Beanies as you can. 
• "Jump!"  Jump side to side over your Beanie. 
• "Hop!"  Hop in a circle around your Beanie. 
• "Bridge!"  Make a bridge over your Beanie. 
• Toss and catching tasks: 
• Toss and catch, using your favorite hand, catching with two hands. 
• Use your other hand, catch with two hands. 
• Toss with one hand, catch with the same hand.  Other hand. 
• Toss with one hand, catch with the other hand.  ("Rainbow tossing")
• Toss Beanie up, clap once, then catch it.  Can you clap twice before catching Beanie? 
• Can you toss Beanie, touch your shoulders, then catch it? 

Activities adapted from Landy and Landy, Ready to Use PE Activities for Grades K-2, 1992.  

Week of October 5, 2015

Here's a brief recap of the week of October 5, 2015.

Y5-5th grade PE:  Hula Hoops!!  We continued exploring with Hula Hoops.  Younger students continued exploration tasks and challenges with the hoops, and some classes had some partner time to try rolling the hoop to a partner.  Older students had more advanced tasks with the hoops, including partner rolling and backspin hoop tasks.

5th graders roll the hoop to partners

5th graders have choice time at squad seats

Strong Soldiers:  One of our warm up exercises we use throughout the year for all grade levels is ABC Strong Soldiers.  For this exercise, students go into high plank (hands and toes on the floor, push-up position).  Then, students pick up one hand and touch the opposite elbow or chest with that hand.  Then do the same with the other hand, alternating.  The ABC part is how we often count - students say one letter of the alphabet with each touch of their hand, ending on Z.  This exercise help build core muscles, along with upper body strength.  It is a lead-up to push-ups.  If a student struggles with holding high plank, they can walk their feet in closer to their hands (allowing legs to help support the body).  

Kindergarteners working on Strong Soldiers

1st grade Health:  We concluded our Social and Emotional health unit with discussion of a decision making model, WIN.  This model uses a step-by-step approach to making decisions.  We went over some basic decision-making scenarios as a group using the model.  

W:  What happened, or what is the situation.  Think about what is going on.  

I:  Ideas to choose from (options for what to do).  Consider options that are safe, realistic, and match your values.  

N:  Now, Act!   Choose the best option for you and take action.  

Our next health unit will be physical activity and nutrition!  

K-1 PE, and 2-4: Hula Hoops!!

In Young Fives, K, and 1st grade PE, we have started our Hula Hoop fun!

1.  Warm up!  Ship to shore, or around the circles warm-ups, and our stretches routine.
2.  Learned/reviewed "badda-boom, badda bing".  These words are a signal to stop playing with the equipment (hula hoops in this case, but we will use this phrase with bean bags, and other equipment too!), sit down, hands in your lap.
3.  Each student gets a hula hoop.  When they return to their seat, they work on balancing the hoop on different body parts (head, back, arm, elbow, fingers, upper thigh, and more!).
4.  Exploratory movement with the hula hoops:  students are encouraged to try:

• standing inside the hoop, outside, to the front, right side, left side
• jumping into and out of the hoop
• hopping in and out of the hoop (also trying their non-dominant foot)
• hopping around the outside of the hoop (also trying their non-dominant foot)
• make a balance over your hoop or part of it
• make a balance with 2 parts, 3 parts, 4 parts, 5 parts of your body touching the floor
• lay on the floor and balance your hoop on your feet and hands, rock it back and forth
• make different body shapes with your hoop on the floor (narrow, curled up, wide, stretched, etc.)
• spin the hoop:  clockwise, counter clockwise, dominant hand, non dominant hand
• spin the hoop and run around it, trying to catch it before it falls to the floor

All of these exploratory movements with the hoop are suggested and demonstrated for students, and they have opportunity to try them.  They have so much fun with this!  And, during this fun lesson, students are working on many movement and spatial awareness concepts.  

Grades 2-4 also started Hula Hoops, in their second lesson of the week (first lesson for grades 2-4 was the half or full mile pre test -- and fifth grade only has PE once per week).  Grades 2-4 do the above activities more quickly than Y5, K, and 1st grade -- and they do some more advanced activities with spinning the hula hoops.  A favorite is spinning the hoop at their seat, leaving it spinning and running to touch one or more walls in the gym.  Then, returning to the (hopefully) still spinning hoop to scoop it up before it falls to the floor.  

4th graders:  spin - touch a wall - try to catch the hoop before it falls to the floor

Hula hoop activities adapted from Landy and Landy, Ready to Use PE Activities for Grades K-2, 1992.