PE in September

We have been very busy in class this month. As most of you know, this year was the year of the Olympics and Paralympics. Our 5th - 8th graders got to experience how it feels to play volleyball sitting down. It was very challenging. A lot of students had trouble serving the ball. We used scooters to move around the floor to play Volleyball. In the Paralympics, the athletes slid around on the floor while playing. We have a carpet floor so sliding wasn’t possible. The reason they slid around on the floor is because they had a disability of some sort, like missing a limb. The students said this was one of the hardest things they have done in PE. It takes a lot of upper body strength to serve and hit the ball over the net when you don’t have use of your legs. It opened up their eyes a little to see what it was like to have a disability.

Our PreK and Kinder classes had a ball day this month. They had some freedom to choose how to play using a ball. We had some working on their tossing and catching skills. Some sat with a friend and rolled the ball back and forth. We had several bouncing and catching. And everyone at some point was working on shooting their ball into the basketball goal.

In October we will have our first Fitness check of the year. Pictured below are some of our middle schoolers working on their leg lifts. Our students have become really good at sit ups, but weak on their lower abs so we are introducing new exercises to strengthen their core. Our game this day was exercise tag. Another great tool to work on strengthening our muscles and work on our endurance.

Pictured below are some of our Kinders playing Lion King Tag. This is a fun little game where the students are running away from the taggers, trying not to get frozen. When tagged, they freeze and hold up their thumbs so the Lion King can see them. The Lion King then runs over and taps them with a wand to unfreeze them. This game works the students muscles by running and works on developing the students spatial awareness. Spatial awareness is the ability to understand the relationship between your body and the space around you, and how objects and your body move in relation to each other. Spatial awareness helps children develop hand-eye coordination, balance, and motor skills.