Playing Together!

Teaching young children is so wonderful!  I am one of their first exposures to being physically active!  I hope to instill a love for movement!  During all of the lessons I teach I also encourage making connections.  This means helping the children to get along and play together well!  Being able to get along can take a child far!  It is awesome to see students learn to look at a friend and know how to react to them in a positive way!  We deal with feelings as well as movement in the gym.  The social-emotional aspect of a child (person) is so important!

Last week we worked on throwing with a partner.  The idea of being connected and successful with a friend is wonderful!  For some of my classes I choose the partner for them.  In other classes the students are ready to create their own peer partners!  I say to the children, “hold a partner’s hand and come get your equipment together”. Watching them work through this task is amazing for the preK age! They learn independence and are so proud to walk over to me for their equipment.

Every class has a warm up obstacle course.  During this course some stations are for two children to connect and try a skill together!  At times I am standing nearby and encouraging…”Johnny is waiting for a friend to try a V-sit with you.”  Then another student hurries over to play with them and try the pose.  I show demonstrations for every station in the obstacle courses.  My students sit in their “special spots” while they watch the quick demonstrations. I’ll say, “turn to the person next to you and try this”…I love to see them connect with whomever is nearby! One class in particular last week had everyone in pairs doing V-sits together in their “special spots”!  It was so exciting! It makes watching the demonstration very interactive and worthwhile!

I hope as my students grow they keep growing their connectivity skills. They can be very creative in their partner work too!  Sometimes I’ll see a group playing together in a way that is all their own.  These two were playing catch on the beam!  I love their creativity!

I also love that our classrooms are multi age (3-5). Pairing a 3 year old with a 5 year old can have great benefits! Sometimes pairing a child with a lot of patience with one who needs a calm partner can be fabulous for both students as they learn how to interact.  I am looking forward to finding more ways to help children to learn to play together kindly and enjoy being physically active! #playingtogether #socialemotional

Exercise can keep you warm on cold days!

We have had quite a few days where the temperature is extremely cold outside.  But that doesn’t mean your child should be sedentary.  Every time your child enters the gym for physical education they leave sweaty and happy!  Exercise and movement need to be a part of every day!  Here at Green Bay the children get physical education twice a week! On the other days they are having gross motor time.  They are exposed to all sorts of skills, games and movement explorations!  If your child comes home and is still looking to move here are some ideas on home play:

Turn on music and dance! Children love to dance! Hold their hands and sway to the beat! See the sweat begin and enjoy their smiles!

Take some space in your home and put down some tape.  Maybe painters or electrical tape.  Please take caution with the surface you are putting it! But if you can create a balance beam or hopscotch on your floor it is fabulous for them!  Explain that hopping is on one foot and jumping is on two.

If you take pillows and blankets you can create obstacles for your children to climb on and move around!  Children love to explore uneven, yet safe surfaces! Also you can find pictures of animals online, or in a book.  Have them move around like bears, elephants, horses, giraffes, penguins and crabs! When we move in our warm up obstacle course we always use animals!

Also, stationary poses can be done in very little space.  Here is a plank pose:

Set a timer and challenge your child and yourself to hold planks together!

I hope I have given you some ideas on how to work up a sweat and stay warm on these cold winter days! Keep on smiling and creating #Happyactivekids!

Happy Active Kids!

Every week I take pictures of my students.  They are such a pleasure to take pictures of!  Most of the time they are smiling and super happy to be active in physical education!  I love that at such an early age I am instilling the idea that exercise is fun!  The children at Green Bay are exposed to all of the emerging skills for major sports including: soccer, basketball, hockey, baseball, and tennis .  Plus they get mindful movement and yoga in their curriculum here at school.  I  use these pictures to see what my students can achieve and what they need to work on.  But the best part is to see how happy they are!

As I’ve blogged about before I try to teach to them as individuals and with partners.  Plus at times a whole class game!  Seeing them make connections with others is also a goal of mine!  If I have a child who is hesitant to try an activity; I pair them with a friend!  I love seeing two children work together to be able to accomplish so much more than one!  If combining the two children can make them both smile..It is a bonus!  I strive for independence especially from the young age.  I say quite often, “You can do it! I know you can! Keep trying…”  If I am taking a video of a child and they are successful it is so exciting!  To be able to show them what they did is a great reward!  I will let them know that if they try I will take a movie and show them!  They love seeing themselves shine!

I begin each lesson with an obstacle course.  This course gets demonstrated by one student.  The kids love to demonstrate and show what they can do!  I take time while they are warming up on the course and try to get to each child.  I look for areas where they need help and places that they are shining!

So as we approach Thanksgiving this week…I just want you all to know that I am thankful to be able to teach your children and watch them grow happily in their physical development!

 

Learning to Throw

One of the skills I am focusing on now with my students is throwing and catching.  I have begun some individual and partner activities to aid in their skill development.  So far it has been such a fascinating journey!  Many children have difficulty just squeezing the ball enough to get it to go far enough that a friend can catch it.  Others get so excited that the ball goes across the gym 🙂  There is such a huge range of skills in the preschool age child with throwing and catching.

I wonder at times if children go outside and just take a ball to play?  When I turn on music to allow explore time I see such huge variations in their behaviors.  Some students have no idea what to do and become wild.  Others begin to repeat skills that I already introduced.  These children were working on taught skills during explore time.

Once I organized partners, (which is another story in itself with preK!) they had more skills to work on! Learning to look at the person you are throwing to alone is a skill for this age!  Once they began to enjoy their partner we did have some great successes! I try to have them step and throw.  I was happy if they threw overhand or underhand.  (There’s only so much a sweet young one can focus on at once!) A few of my older students were even able to understand that you step with the opposite foot!! I do love the yarn balls for first catches since they are soft! Hoping to use bean bags next…

After this some groups were even ready for props! Hula hoops or baskets make excellent additions to throwing skill development.  I hope to continue my work on this all throughout the school year.  I love the focus on the faces of these girls!  So basically if you are a parent reading this…Please play catch with  your child or simply send them outside with a ball!  I will keep the skills going in school on my end! Thanks for reading! #throwingandcatching

Twitter and PE are the place to Be!

I love sharing through Twitter!  As a parent it would have been wonderful to see my children’s activities when they were young…Alas Twitter did not exist then!  But I hope the parents of my students take advantage and enjoy seeing their child’s smiles and achievements in physical education.  I also hope parents will gain good conversation starters from my Twitter feed.  Even if it is not a picture or video of your child; you can ask if they played that game.  A discussion could go like this, “Did you use a red ball to play tag today?”.  Or, ask your child, “Which animal movement did you do for the warm up today in PE?”  Another question could be, “Did you get to demonstrate the obstacle course warm up today?” (Every child gets a special turn showing the warm up course.) Asking open ended questions that lend themselves to teaching your child how to converse is wonderful!  At the dinner table or before bed you can look at my tweets and see if your child can tell you the story of what they did in PE!

As for myself, the twitter world is a wonderful professional development tool!  I look every day and enjoy gaining knowledge from other PE teachers!  I am a small island here at my school.  I am the only preK physical education teacher in the district.  So all of the wonderful people around the world also teaching preK PE are truly a gift to my curriculum! I collect ideas and try to learn from them.  If that one video or picture can help me to be a better teacher…Then it is worth it!  So if you are reading my blog and you teach preK PE, keep tweeting!

Here are some of the beautiful faces of my students that will be benefitting from the knowledge gained from my Twitter world! #Ilovetolearnfromtwitter

Small units work best for preK

So I’ve been teaching physical education to preschoolers now for almost ten years!  My lessons have evolved over the years…I really love how this school year especially has worked out!  My students get physical education twice a week.  Each week the children enter the gym to an obstacle course around the perimeter of the room.  This course encompasses many different locomotor/gross motor movements.  I use visuals to aid in their remembering what to do at each “station” or part of the course.  Below are a few examples from some parts of an obstacle course warm up.  Usually the children stay on the course for about 3-10 minutes depending on their interest.

After the obstacle course I usually take time to gain their attention/calm them down. This is the second mini lesson.  I use songs, mindful movements, or a stretching activity.  Usually this part of my class is short.  (But actually today one of my classes ended up doing mindful movements for the rest of the class and didn’t even get to the game.  I love being flexible with each class and seeing what they need!) These girls are playing a mirror game:

Then I teach a game or skill based lesson.  This is the third part of most classes. I find that the short 10 minute mini lessons really work for the young child!  This week for example I taught them about the bases for baseball.  

Some classes played complex games to learn the bases.  Others simply enjoyed running from base to base!  My physical education classes do take a lot of thought and planning with three mini lessons going on at once!  But I love the outcome of happy active kids!

Teaching a sport a little bit at a time!

This past couple of weeks I have been teaching about hockey. Because my students are so young (preK) we all use the pillo polo sticks instead of actual hockey sticks.  The pillo polo sticks are soft on the end and have nice round handles for easy gripping.  At first one of my goals is to see if they can manipulate the sticks.  We hold them like a horse and gallop around!

Then we rotate the sticks like windmills around our bodies.  Even pretending the sticks were guitars was a fun activity for the children!  I used the sticks as oars and we sang “row, row your boat” with them.

Hockey sticks can also be used to lay flat on the ground and lift up for sit ups.  This was difficult for my young ones.  I am always trying to find ways to strengthen their cores! Once they feel comfortable with the sticks I add pucks or balls.

By this time most children have learned to hold the stick with two hands and are really excited to move the puck around.  It is so wonderful to see them explore and chase their own puck! After this step targets and goals are added.  I used domes on the ground randomly placed and also created goals out of mats standing up.  During exploration it is amazing to see who remembers to hold the stick with two hands and can move the puck to score!  With some classes I demonstrated how to pass to a partner.  A few of my students enjoyed this and worked to score goals together!

This week is our final experience wit the hockey. Today I added gator skin balls for a new dimension to their hockey play. We are playing sideline hockey!  The idea of an actual game with sidelines to 3, 4 and 5 year olds varies.  Some students are totally ready for this!  Others are confused with what to do.  In some of my classes it was fabulous to see them using the rules and aiming for a goal or even staying on their sidelines!  Other classes ended up having another exploratory day.  Time to play and explore is always valuable! #hockey #pillopolo

Working Together!

Here at Green Bay School the children are encouraged to work together!  Many times when I introduce a piece of equipment I spend time on individual skills.  Then the following day I have them put those individual skills together.  Watching children learn to get along, play and interact is truly wonderful!

We have used partners for example in: ball skills, stretching, balancing, and mini versions of games.  Using partners to learn locomotor skills can be very beneficial!  By holding the hands of a friend a skill can be learned in a sweet manner.  Watching two children move sideways together, almost like dancing, is very exciting! Singing songs like, “row, row your boat” while holding a friends hand always makes children smile!  Partner yoga poses give children terrific challenges and another way to interact.

I also find putting together different skill levels can be very beneficial.  Our classes are a mix of 3-5 year old children.  Having a young three year old pair up with a 4 or 5 year old can really work!  Seeing the older child feel proud and help the younger one is a beautiful event.  As the year progresses it is great to see the children be able to get into pairs themselves!

If I see the children during an explore time working together and playing with others I hope I aided in that confidence to engage and interact with a friend! #partners #workingtogether #play

 

 

 

Visuals are a wonderful teaching tool!

Most children benefit from a visual aid when learning movement.  I can explain over and over how to do something…But having a student perform a movement; or showing a visual is sometimes the best teaching tool!  I am really adding to my library and knowledge of how to incorporate using these visuals into the world of physical education this year.  

Even the visual of using sign language for students really is amazing to see.  In one of my pictures above a fabulous teacher is helping the student to realize he needs to stand up.  He looked sweetly at her and saw the motions she calmly provided…Then he stood up to perform the next movements.  

It is so exciting to see ideas come to reality through the use of visuals!  I use the Yoga Pretzel visual cards for teaching yoga, by Tara Gruber and Leah Kalish. In some of the pictures above you can see students going to a station during a tag game and posing just like the visual!

I also love the imagination of the child!  Using animal pictures to help them to visualize what we are going to move like really seems to help and work!  By taking a cone and some velcro these pictures can be placed throughout my gym to add to the obstacle courses we do for our warm ups.  My students are very young and cannot read yet.  However if I combine the words and pictures they are even beginning to recognize some words! In my self assessing area I hear them reading the words, “I am proud that I can crab walk”!Also in my gym there are visuals that we use around the entire school!  We use a positive behavior system with Mr. MAC being our consistent school mascot so to speak.  Everywhere the children go they know Mr. MAC is watching for good behavior.  When they enter the gym they hang up their version of Mr. MAC.

I love the learning these visuals provide!  I look forward to teaching with them more throughout the school year to come!  #visuals #childrenlearnthroughlooking #movethroughvisuals

 

Make new friends and movement!

The first month of school is all about making friends and learning to move!  We’ve been working on our skills in our own space and in a space with a friend.  The students have PE twice a week. The first two weeks they were introduced to a scarves and hula hoops. We spent time enjoying and exploring with the equipment on our own and then with a friend!  Some of the time was teacher directed ideas…The rest was on their own. It is so exciting to see their eyes widen to discover what you can do with new equipment and then with a friend.

The imagination of a young child is wide open!  Tell them their hula hoop is a car and watch them drive on their open road!  All of a sudden it is a bumpy road and they jump up and down!  If it is raining move your arms like windshield wipers!  They get a flat tire and need to hop on one foot!

A few classes even created hula(hoop) huts.  Building with the hoops to create a tiny house to gently crawl in was very exciting!

At times I pair up the children to work together.  Sometimes they find their own partners.  Seeing the children work and get along with each other is fabulous!  Even at times a grouping is not so great and I love to encourage them to get along and make it work!  When we have an uneven amount of children either I play as a partner or I create a group of three.  Both methods really have their place and I love to see them happy when they play and move!