WELCOME BACK!

After a wonderful summer I am excited to be back at school with my students. I am looking forward to a fantastic year. 

Last week students participated in parachute activities in order to review our six rules. They had a blast going on an imaginary hiking trip where they built a mushroom, a mountain and a tent. They also popped popcorn (yarn balls) over the campfire. Grades 3-5 also participated in an icebreaker activity involving various fun handshakes. Ask your child to share their favorite with you. 

Don't forget to remind your child to wear play clothes and sneakers on their Physical Education day. Hanover County Public school has highly recommended that students do not wear flip flops to school at all this year. I encourage students to wear sneakers everyday so they can engage in safe play at recess. 

Moving with Math Field Day

Each year in collaboration with my mom (a fellow Physical Educator, lucky me) I pick a theme for Field Day. I usually pick something that is current or can be tied into SOLs. This year I did a Math theme and the kids really enjoyed it.

I set up about 25 centers around the track for half of the classes to rotate through. At these centers each class visits an event and divides into 3 teams. The students are divided into six colors using wrist bands and each color is paired up with another color at each event to form 3 teams. This cuts down on wait time without taking away the competition aspect. Also, each student gets a chance to team up with every student in their class.  These stations were all themed around math.

The other half of the school participated in Grade Level competitions with more traditional Field Day events.  Each class competes against all the other classes in their grade. The wait time is longer but the students love the grade level competitions. See below for this years grade level events and directions.

This year I utilized class coaches. Each teacher was asked to recruit a parent volunteer to help read directions and lead the events. I found that this gave parents the opportunity to help while still being able to watch their child participate in all the events.

I recruited the help of my fabulous 5^th graders to set up and take down each event. I just put out the station signs and the start cones. I assigned a small group of students to each station. They were given a map of the track and a diagram of how to set up the equipment.

Hanover High School's Practical Nursing Program sent students to run our First Aid table. It was great seeing them interact with the students. 

Check out the following resources to help organize your own "Moving with Math" Field Day. 

  

ABBY'S RACE FOR HOPE 5K

This is a 5K fundraiser and public awareness event that benefits a 7 year old student at Cool Springs Elementary School, Abby Van Meter. 

The race is a benefit for Abby's special needs trust, and also donates a portion of the proceeds to national foundations that support vaccine research for CMV (cytomegalovirus), the virus which severely affected Abby. CMV is a threat to all pregnant mothers, and is thought to affect 1 in every 150 children, yet is little known.

Please visit: http://www.racerpal.com/races/AbbysRaceForHope.html for registration and race details. 

If you attend the event bring in a picture to Ms. Beazley for a small prize. Thanks for supporting one of our very own Dolphins. 

Teacher Tip: Guidelines for Organizing a Succesfull APE Group Class

Teacher Tip: Guidelines for Organizing a Successful APE Group Class

My school is home to 3 Autism classrooms and 1 Multi-needs classroom.  All of these students attend their General Physical Education class with their peers but I feel like they could benefit from some extra practice. Over the last few years I have been able to use some of my planning periods to provide 25 minute Adapted PE classes.

When planning a group APE class here are some things to keep in mind.

1. Routine Establishing a routine is very important in order for the students to feel comfortable and safe in their environment. They should enter the same way and the class should start the same way each week. I start with circle time. Each time the students enter they find a dot place around the circle in the center of the gym. Then we perform the “Where are you?” song with movements. At the beginning of the year students may need help with hand over hand assistance to perform movements. By the end of the year many of my students can do it all on their own.

I know, I know. Boring. It seems redundant but trust me, IT WORKS! The students love knowing what to expect and you will really see improvements this way. 

I used to have this song on a CD from college but can't seem to get my hands on it these days. In my class the teachers help sing it without music. It goes like this: 

Where are you? (Hide your face with hands)

Here I am? (Uncover your face)

Are you ready?

You bet! (thumbs up)

How you doing?

Better and better. (raise hands up)

Give yourself a hand. (clap)

Head, shoulders, knees, toes. 

Legs, waste, chin, nose

Head, shoulders, knees, toes. 

Legs, waste, chin, nose

Then you FREEZE. Clap, clap, clap.

We repeat this slow, regular and then fast. 

2. Goals After warm-up we do our goal focused lesson. For many of my students with autism their goal is inclusion with their home base class.  For these students we often provide extra practice opportunities to work on the skill they have been learning in class. For my students with more severe physical disabilities we usually focus on their specific APE goal such as grasping or rolling. All of my students participate in the Special Olympics Little Feet Meet so a portion of the class is spent practicing those three events which include running, throwing and jumping.

3. Rewards This time is usually followed up by rewarding good behavior during our goal portion of the class with scooter time. Most of my students LOVE scooters and will do anything to get a chance to ride.  They look forward to this time.  I like to keep this less structured and more of an opportunity for free time. For students who are not a fan of scooters they are rewarded with whatever their preferred PE equipment is. For some it’s the bouncy ball and others love rolling on the mats. Find what works best to motivate your students.

4. Choices My students love to have a choice. Be flexible. Let them choose what color ball they want. Perhaps allow them to choose what order they want to work on their goals in.  Choosing their reward is also a big motivator. For example, when working on kicking have a variety of balls that are different in size, shape and color. 

 

5. Closure  Most students love being in the gym so when it comes time to leave they may put up a fight.  Practicing a consistent closure routine helps the students understand that it is time to leave.  We always end with the parachute.  I let the students shake it and freeze.  Then we practice name identification and direction following by running under the parachute when your name is called.

 

Good luck starting your APE group classes! I hope you will find some of these tips useful. 

   

The 2014 Dolphin Dash is only 10 days away! Sign up today at 

https://runsignup.com/Race/VA/Mechanicsville/DolphinDash

Congratulations to Cool Spring Elementary students for raising for $24,000 for the

American Heart Association. 

February Family Fitness Challenge

The students have been jumping away over the month of February. This month's Family Fitness Challenge has to do with jumping rope. The students have been learning about their heart's function and how to keep it healthy by exercising 60 minutes a day. Jumping rope is a great way to increase your heart rate! 

Complete the challenge below and send in a picture. Each child that brings in a picture will be entered in a drawing for a prize. I will extend the deadline to March 11th since we got a late start with the snow. 

This challenge can be done as a group or against each other as a race. The object is to get all six tasks completed.

a die

a jump rope

a copy of the roll and jump task card

You will start by rolling the die and doing the corresponding activity. For example, if you roll a 3, you will do 10 basic jumps backward. Once you complete the task put a check next to the number. You will continue rolling the die and completing the corresponding activities until all the numbers have been checked off. The catch is, if you roll a number more than once you have to repeat the exercise each time you roll the number until you have rolled all six.

Have fun!

Also, don't forget to visit www.heart.org/jump to join the Cool Spring Elementary fundraising team. Students have already raised over 10,000 dollars which will go directly to the American Heart Association. WOW!!!