Jumpin', Stompin', and Shakein' St. Mary's

Colorful Creation:
On this visit to St. Mary’s school my group and I were involved in the Special Projects Group. This entitled us to redecorate the gymnasiums bulletin board. In our creation we included a variety of sports suitable for the upcoming season, it gives the visual idea the other sports that can be played to stay active and healthy.

Throwing and Catching:

We had to observe the students playing games that focused on them throwing and catching. There was a variety of skills levels seen. Some students were seen having more components of the throw down than others. We even saw a student who was able to throw effectively with both their right and left hand. The game played was very fun for the students, and the TA's looked like they were having fun as well! Students were in the initial, elementary, and a couple could be considered mature in their fundamental throwing skill.

There was a very high level of participating today. Lots of creative games were being played by the other groups; it engaged the students and kept them involved and active throughout the day.

After creating the board we interacted with other students in the gymnasium. My group members and I were involved in various activities, first we played a little catch with the football, then had a soccer trick contest with some of the older boys, I was very impressed with how skilled they were in the sport. I saw successful trapping skills from the students, controlled dribbling, and even juggling the ball by popping it off the ground first!

Afterwards a girl student brought over the long jump rope. This was an exciting activity that mixed older students and younger together. It was fun playing with the students because we were able to learn a new jump rope song taught to us by one of the younger students

Teddy bear jump rope:

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn around.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, ‘touch the ground.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, tie your shoe.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, that will do.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, go upstairs.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say your prayers.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn off the light.
Teddy bear, teddy bear, say goodnight!

Then the rope turners proceeded to count the following number of jumps the student was successful in completing over the rope.

We were even practicing running into the rope and jumping in while it was already moving and had multiple people jumping together at the same time!

After that activity I noticed some students off to the side on a mat sitting and humming. I realized they were practicing meditating and we ended up playing a little made up game that created lots of smiles. The students had to remain in their meditation pose while crazy things were going on around them such as "earthquakes" the mat would slide around, or using string to have them "getting caught by a giant spider.

Towards the end we played rock paper scissors tag which was fun to play with the pre-k and older students. The student teachers assisted with the younger players so they could be involved in the game too.

Afterwards we met in the middle and sang a song. The students though it was a very funny song and there was lots of laughter all around.

Then to conclude our day we thanks St. Mary’s with a fun and loud cheer. The students got to stomp as loud as they could and shake their whole bodies in the cheer stop and shake it.

Lab 4

Debate Day

The Debate held in class was to figure out which curriculum plan was best to include in the schools program. The challengers of the days debate are the Sticks in Sports & PE Enthusiasts, Fitness Education Fanatics, and Skills theme Advocates

The sticks in sports group was the first to present to the board. They had an argument which entailed the use of sticks in their lesson plans to develop the use of these sticks in sports as the child matures and the game played matures. It creates a plan to have the children develop using stick equipment in various sports that can be transferred to learning other stick sports as well.

Next to present was the Skill theme Advocates. Their presentation emphasized the importance of learning the individual developmental skills that make up the play of the sport. By working on games that enhance skills in game play it better transfers from practice to the game time performance.

           

Finally to present was my group the Fitness education fanatics. Our presentation focused on the importance of lifetime sports. We wanted this to be included with the schools program because of the health benefits starting at childhood all the way throughout life by learning lifetime sports. By participating in these activities it allows the student to be active and healthy in creating their own plans to stay fit and healthy in their lifestyles. The creation of our presentation went very smoothly. Everybody was involved in the project and each had a point to advance our cause.

After all the presentations were complete it was time for questions and rebuttals. This was an intense time in the classroom. Each group was pointing out holes in the plans of other groups. Even though the heat was on in the questioning the rebuttals were clear and had good answered from all of the groups.

The board had time to deliberate and reach the decision of dividing the curriculum between lifetime sports and the fundamental skills of sports. It was a successful ending for our group and a fun day of debate.

Preschool Play

    It was a very exciting day returning to St Mary’s school. The theme of the day was sports and many student teachers were getting into the theme wearing their favorite team jerseys to show the students.

My group followed theme as well in the preschool room. Lauren, a group member of mine, brought a craft for the preschoolers to do. It was coloring pages and constructing an “Olympic Medal” all of their own. The preschoolers colored each medal cut out, once finished coloring the students brought their cut out to one of the student teachers in the room to have a ribbon attached to the cut out so it can be worn around the wrist. The preschoolers seemed to enjoy that they could wear their creations and show them off to their friends around the room.

Following the craft activity was story time. I was privileged to read to the preschools during that time. We read the book “Flip and Flop.” This was appropriate because there had been so much snowfall recently and it included a lot of snow activities in the book. The story is about two penguin siblings who play in the snow together a game they created and then was able to share with friends. It was very exciting and the group of students listening to the story got to join in with the story themselves. They liked the reading so much they wanted to hear the story again! I had a lot of fun reading to them.

We got to go into the gym and play a few games next. MK, my group member, started a game that included Jump ropes. This was an activity where the jump ropes were stretched across the floor parallel to each other and had some space between them. The preschoolers were active in participating in this activity because it allowed them to run and jump over objects. Following that was the game Bridges. The preschoolers were confused at first about the game but go the hang of it and enjoyed when the music stopped so they could be caught in the bridge. 

After these activities some time was spent with the preschoolers leading the activities. Hula hoops were grabbed and they started some games of their own. Each of my group members and I participated in these activities. Some were playing tag, being chased, or playing hopscotch. It was a fun time and a very successful day.

Lab 3

BAN BANNING GAMES!

Some of the games on that Hall of Shame games for PE are some of my favorite games. They are involvement games. Not everybody is fantastic at “this” sport or “that” skill. Being involved in fun group games gets rid of that self-consciousness of “how am I performing in front of my peers” anxiety. There is a criteria for banning games because it embarrasses some students. Well taking away these games do the same thing! Taking away games of fun and involvement that kids enjoy playing, forces the kids to play other games that they lack interest in, therefore lacking skill in, then boom! The kids STILL end up embarrassed in front of their peers.

I say we keep the classic games, if there is a problem fix it! It takes creativity and imagination. All that needs to be done is a little modification. Who knows how many times the game that is banned has been modified before to get to that point! The focus in my class is having good safe fun. Its simple and classic. Of course I would not involve a game that has safety hazards in it, but I would include a game VERY similar if not the same with a few modern tweaks. If a ball is too hard, make it a softer one, if the game has too many collisions, have the children speed walk or focus on another skill, if the game has children get out have them do something when out in order to get back in! Quick simple easy alterations. I get it, one size does not fit all, but getting rid of it all together.. now that’s a little extreme. Make the change, make the game, modofy, who knows ti could even turn out better than the original!

In order to physically educate someone they have to have interest in it or else it is a lost cause. We can’t force anybody to like something or to change their ways. We can only encourage them that it is for the best. I believe that the games on the banned list definitely have a way of encouragement. Group involvement is something special, especially for those who do not fit in large groups well. It is an excellent excuse to interact with others.

Some of these games are gateway games! As in the skills learned from one of these banned games can be transitioned and applied to other games and ever related to skills and sports. Example: Dodge ball it is a way for students to work on their throwing, catching, aim, agility, strategizing, team communication, and more! These skills can be transitioned between many sports such as handball or baseball. The ball might not be being throw “At” that person but its being thrown “TO” that person. A criticism of this game was that people are targets and that lies the problem. Well what’s the name of the game.. DODGE ball.. if you don’t want to be a target.. MOVE!

 Physical education/movement/skills... All of this can be accomplished with fun. Students like to be creative, they like to be destructive, it is a grey area definitely to satisfy everybody. But I think we can continue good, safe, fun with a little creativity so that these games can remain in action for fun for everyone!!

Challenging 2012

My new year’s resolution is to challenge myself everyday in a way that will benefit my living.

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Lab Day 2

We arrived at St. Mary’s prepared and ready to go, so we thought… Previous students are right, you never know what to expect when arriving at the school. That day was beautiful, so naturally the older kids want to go out run and play to enjoy the day. While outside my group and I partook in an intense game of tag with some of the older boys on the playground. Everybody was running around and having a fun time. My entire group member and I had expected to be inside and play the games we had prepared for the day. Since we were outside and the kids just wanted to enjoy their chance to monkey around, we decided it would be better to wait on the games until we were back inside.

 One of our group members had the opportunity to try out their game on the group of boys. It was a Valentine’s Day themed game and they were not enthused about playing. Regardless when they did decide to join in the game everybody was laughing and smiling. That is what I aim for when with these students, I want them to enjoy their time there and have fun. So when I arrive at the school next lab I hope to make a great impression on the students so they know we are all here to have a good time.

Working with the students is tricky at times because at the time when we want to work on developing their skills they want to go off and do something else. I know we are not going to always get everybody to participate but we are here to help and to try to have everybody get a fun learning experience and build up a few skills along the way. Early on in the day we observed some of the student’s skills such as running, hopping, and galloping. We focused on what they were doing in their movements and compared it to the proper technique needed for that skill. The skill level varies with age and grade. Sometime the skill was completely obsolete because the students were so enthralled with the game they were just having fun participating in it. I think that is completely understandable, we encourage learning, but never losing site that we also encourage fun!

                                        

Lab2 writeup & assessment

Predator Problem

Over the last couple of days in class we have had the experience of being educated with the rising problems of child predators. Adults’ sexually abusing children is wrong and it traumatically affects the life of the child and their families. This is a serious problem with very negative consequences. There are ways to prevent it. The main prevention method is recognition of the warning signs. We always want to protect the children, keep them in a safe environment. This environment should always be supervised, and a child should never be alone with an adult at any time. There is to much opportunity for predators to strike when children go unsupervised.

If there are suspicions of a potential predator do not hesitate. When there is delay there is more opportunity for that predator to harm the child. We learned the necessary steps during one of these situations, such as calling a hot-line specified for this problem. Here there will be people to guide the necessary steps that must be taken. I appreciate the fact that time was taken to educate us about this growing problem and I would highly recommend that is continues to get the message out there to keep the children safe.