Rotation 8
February welcomed the Happy Heart Puppet family into the TTES gym! It has been a fun and active time learning about heart health while also learning jumping and landing skills and resuming practicing basketball skills.
K-1: Learned simple facts about heart health, such as size, location, and that it beats faster when we exercise. Jumping activities included using single ropes to create snakes and numbers on the gym floor and exploring different landing patterns. Additionally K-1 began Level 1 French Skipping patterns using elastic jump bands. Kindie kids learned how to jump over a teacher-turned rope in games such as Helicopter. Grades 1 also began working on turning a self-turned single rope. Valentine’s day-themed workouts included “The Grinch Stole Valentine’s day” or “Among us! Save Valentine’s Day parties challenge. We also caught up on some basketball skills practice and stopped to feel how fast our heart was beating in between different basketball activities.
Grade 2-3: Learned simple facts about heart health as K-1 but additionally we discussed healthy eating, learnt how to find our pulse, and conducted a simple experiment comparing heart rate to different jumping activities vs yoga balancing activities. Additionally Grades 2-3 explored Level 2 Chinese Jumping patterns from Malta, USA and Africa. Further, we began simple single rope jumping patterns such as single, double, rocking horse and one foot. Given that Valentine’s day was this month, the children also participated in some fun video based workouts in which they had to perform fun HIIT exercises embedded within “ Where is Cupid ? " workouts. We also caught up on some basketball skills practice working on dribbling, passing skills and tied in exploring how fast the heart was beating during the different activities and basketball skillastics skills and tricks.
Grades 4-5. Learned more advanced heart facts involving the journey of the red blood cell through the human body, learning how to measure the pulse at the radial artery, neck or chest, conducted heart rate experiments in which the children had to compute heart rate in beats per minute on a variety of exercises. Additionally we discussed a variety of health habits regarding heart health including nutrition, exercise, adequate rest, hydration, stress reducing activities and more ! Grades 4-5 explored Level 3 elastic jumping routines from Malta, USA and Australia. Further, given their more advanced skills, rope jumping activities included single rope and long rope activities in small groups (e.g, 2 holders and 1-2 or 3 jumpers). Valentine’s Day workouts included tabata’s and HIIT exercises embedded within “Would you rather…Valentine’s Day edition” or “This or That ! Cupid’s Revenge. We also caught up on some basketball skills practice and connected that to Skillastics Challenges (discussing exercise intensity and heart rate). The final tasks culminated in games such as Knock Out Dribble and Around the World.
Rotation 7
We started 2023 with Basketball ! It has been an active and fun time while learning about the history of Basketball too! Canadian PE teacher James Naismith invented the game of Basketball way back in 1891 when he was charged to invent a game that would keep energetic young men active as they were attending the YMCA in Spring Field MA. Did you know that he used a soccer ball and two peach baskets for that first game on 21st December 1891? Did you know that a ladder had to be brought out by the janitor to retrieve the ball that got stuck in the basketball once a shot was made? Did you know that Naismith received his medical degree in Denver in 1898? He then went to the University of Kansas, later becoming the Kansas Jayhawks' athletic director and coach. Since then the equipment has involved with the first ring and net invented in 1906 and the ball and rules modified since to what we know today. You can read more about Naismith here.
The mascot of the Basketball unit is Garfield and he has joined PE lessons to support the teaching and learning of basketball. Why Garfield? Because when he is all rolled up, his orange and black coat resembles the colors found on a basketball! Especially K-2 have loved having Garfield come to class, and greet him as they enter the gym.
We have explored working on learning grade appropriate K-5 basketball skills, drills and games. Additionally the children were introduced to Skillastics, an innovative curriculum developed by Sandy "Spin" Slade that helps children develop their confidence in Basketball by playing an active "board game" : children work in teams to practice basketball skills and tricks. Grades 2-5 have loved playing Skillastics and seeing Sandy perform her amazing wizadry with a basketball(s).
Grades 3-5 also watched a short video reporting a sports science experiment on the "HANG SHOT " in basketball. Isaac Newton's law of gravity was put to the test here .