It's an awesome world!

  As I mentioned before I went to the 2014 KAHPERD conference at Pitt State University a couple of weeks ago.  Aside from presenting, I also had the opportunity to learn from others!  I LOVE that!  One of the presenters (I cannot remember his name, or the title of the presentation) but he talked about throwing and catching.  Hand-eye coordination.  At first, I wondered how could you talk about throwing and catching for an hour.  He did, and he did it well!  This man had a tennis background, so a lot of the activities were centered around tennis balls.  But he also used hula hoops, footballs, and yarn balls.  He talked about the importance of kids developing these skills, not only for sports, but also to just learn!  It was great!  I immediately knew I wanted to use this.  In addition to catching/throwing he also talked about manipulating their bodies.  I will use a TON of his stuff in my units!  The first concept I used was the hula hoops!  We started the unit by discussing what the world ABILITY ment.  It's one of our vocabulary words on the wall, and I knew this would be the perfect place to connect it.  You'll se why in a minute!  Trust me, they all had to believe they had the "power to do well," in one of the hula hoop activities.
   A month or so ago, I wrote how I had a surprise walk through.  The "evaluations" from those walk through's were good!  One comment I saw from a few of the administrators was to allow the students "talk" about how they were going to play the game, do the activity, etc.  To be honest, I rolled my eyes when I read those comments.  After all, I only have 25 minutes with the kids.  Then I started thinking about how that would benefit the kids, ALOT! I decided it could be done quickly, and still be effective.  Okay, so back to the hula hoops!
   After getting the kids in the proper place, and having them find a partner, we being with simple directions:
1.  The hula hoop must stay on the ground, and you must stay on your line.  Move the hula hoop between you and your partner! (I wanted them to roll it of course, but I wanted to see if they had an creative ways to get it across...they did)!   After about a minute, I told the kids to "chat" with their partner for 30 seconds and decide what the best way would be to get the hula hoop across.  I reminded them that the hula hoop needed to stay "up."

 

2.  Next, the students line up behind their partner.  Now, the fun stuff started!  Remember when I talked about the word ABILITY?  I knew a lot of students would believe they couldn't accomplish the next movement.  I knew they could.  They all had the "power to do well."  Their partner rolled the hula hoop out, and their job was to get their body through the hoop before it fell over!  FUN STUFF!  And they are moving, and bending, and raising their heart rate!  Check out this video!

 

 

     After a few minutes, we stopped for another "chat."  This time, I asked them, What do you think is more important, the speed of the hula hoop?  Or the balance of the hula hoop!

 

3.  We ended the class with a little relay race.  Again, I gave them a couple simple rules, and let them be creative.  The rules were:

a. Your hula hoop had to go all the way across the gym to the red line and back.  Then your partner had to do the same.  After a couple times of the hula hoops rolling around, I added a rule.

b.  At least one hand had to be on the hoop.  This made things a little less CRAZY!

 

 

       Also this week, I threw in some ipad use!  It was time to use FOODUCATE again!  Like always, there was a few issues with the technology, but eventually we accomplished what we were looking for.  Again, I am aiming towards a giant Project Based Learning assignment with my older kids.  We are focusing on educating ourselves on food content right now.  Eventually, I want them to see how much darn sugar we all eat.  (I am guilty, it's my biggest downfall).  I was brainstorming about how I wanted the kids to plan their food for an entire day using Fooducate.  My co-teacher gave me the idea to have each "grade" (foods get grades on FOODUCATE) equal a certain amount of points.  Ahhhh, yes, that was a fantastic idea (kudos Mr. C).  So, here was the set up:

 

1.  My trusty buckets of "trash" (aka food packages) was brought out of storage.  Each team had a bucket full of food to choose from.  Also, on the app you can type in foods and get a grade.

2.  I made a GOOGLE DOC into a QR code (QRAFTER) that had all the information the students needed on it.  This included the amount of points for each grade.

3.  The students scanned the QR code as soon as they went to their team dugout, now they had the information at their finger tips!  I also told them they could use COUNTER UP to keep track of their points.  I knew they would still have to use addition skills, even if they used this app!  YEAH for math in PE!

4.  Then they went to work.  My larger classes worked in teams.  Their assignment, pick out your food for the day, but you cannot go over 100 points.    A's of course have a lot less points than F's.  Take a picture when your done, and bring it to me to explain your choices!

5.  This ended up taking two days for most classes.   I always include a warm up of some kind, so that took away a little of our time!

 

The results were awesome.  Here is an example.

 

         The students had used EDUREATIONS in the past, so this student took it upon himself to use it again.  Thank you student, you ROCK!  I adjusted this lesson to my younger kids.   Most can scan QR codes, so they were able to do this.  Then we worked in groups with myself and Mr. C leading.  We also has the younger students use prior knowledge and grade the food themselves.  Here are a couple shots of the kids at work!

 

       As you can tell, we have LEARNED this week in Linn PE!   I am seeing myself grow more and more each day.  I love the "chat's" now.  No only is this making the kids think and use their brains, I have to expand my knowledge as well.  The questioning also helps the kids to better understand what is being asked of them.  It's good, those darn administrators know what they are talking about!

 

       Have a great weekend.  Get connected, or you WILL BE DISCONNECTED, you will....there is so much going on in our awesome PE World, make sure you're a part of it!

 

AB