CONFERENCE/WORKSHOP CALENDAR

The last few weeks of school are left – phew! What a year this has been! I look back on the exciting school year and just how much I myself have used this site as an ongoing professional development and teaching resource! I share with you a quote: "Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books." -Bell Hooks- Well it seems that this can be done through the internet! And this site is one such source. It has for me, been an interesting and motivating integration of Physical Education information and practice, both closely linked in a cyclical manner. This has in turn served the scope for developing and sharing ideas with other teachers all over the globe. I hope this site has proved to be a meaningful resource to your teaching. You too can be part of this exciting adventure! Do join us! Contact any of the elementary section editors. Marina Bonello Section Editor

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Featured sites

Earlychildhood.com Try this site to read articles related to Physical Education, Movement and Play, and Playgrounds for the young pupils. Cyber stretch If you are teaching your students about the need to sit at a computer with correct posture, this is the site to look into! There are handouts available here. Nutrition cafe Visit the Nutrition Cafe to play three games revolving around healthy eating. These games involve some trivia and wise thinking. Have fun and make sure you fill up on these nutritious games. Safe Kids The National SAFE KIDS Campaign’s mission is to prevent the number one killer of children — unintentional injury. Read the news article "National SAFE KIDS Week 2001 To Focus on Summertime Risks to Kids" to find out about how often kids will be rushed to emergency rooms this summer due to accidental injuries.

Featured Curricula

Missouri Curriculum Missouri's Health/Physical Education Frameworks for Curriculum Development are available as .pdf files here. Portland Public Schools Portland Public Schools have put up their PE Content standards here. Look for the "PE Content Standards" in the yellow, left hand column. You will need to scroll down to find it. Baltimore County The updated Baltimore County Public Schools PE Curriculum is online! Download the Elementary and Middle School Essential Learnings here. You can read the PE indicators in the downloadable pdf files.

Children's Activity Pyramid A physical activity poster for kids! This cool poster highlights the recommendations regarding the role of physical activity in our lives, in a pyramid format. Other Activity pyramids are: Summer Activity Pyramid, Winter Activity Pyramid, and Kids' Activity Pyramid Children's Food Pyramid Check also this colorful poster. Pupils can develop their own pyramids here.

Go On Wheels! Keep Active in a SAFE way! May 5-12 is National SAFE KIDS Week 2001 in the USA. At my school I developed a related event during March, and below I would like to share with you how I merged my PE program learning with Safety Education, lest other educators might find the concepts and resources useful. This last March 31st was a fun filled morning for kids at San Andrea School. I staged the "Go On Wheels" event in conjunction with the annual Spring Fair. I had long been advocating the need for active lifestyle habits to my pupils, yet this year I also felt the need to stress the importance of keeping active in a safe way. Because of this, I dedicated a "Keep active in a safe way week" to explore the whole theme. How did the idea start? Last Christmas Scooter sales were soaring here in Malta, and many of my pupils received scooters, or inline skates from Santa. Yet how many of them were also provided with protective equipment? Too few! So few, that it was a concern to me. I realized that advocating keeping active was not enough. Unfortunately, there is no legislation in my country enforcing use of helmets, either on bicycles, inline skates, or scooters, so by organizing this event I wanted to promote a "it is better to be safe than sorry" approach whilst using bikes/scooters/inline skates. The week leading up to the event saw me tying in this safety education campaign into my PE lessons, which would thus culminate on the day of the event. Using the Slogan "1st ACTive SAFE," a series of stations was developed in the school car park and playground. Roping in the Police Traffic unit, I also managed to borrow traffic lights, pedestrian crossing, and road signs, etc., to promote traffic regulation awareness. Obstacle courses and games were set up for inline skates, skateboards, bicycles & tricycles, and scooters. Parents assisted me to run the event. Pre-requisites: Using the internet I located several websites featuring scooter/bike/inline skate/and Car safety, in the media or educational promotional sites. Several banners, posters, and pictures were printed (using Print shop deluxe plus clip art images I downloaded from the Microsoft Clip Art Gallery) and put up, newsletters were distributed to parents on site, and children were invited to sign the "Helmet Pledge" and "Buckle Up" Poster. Class pictures were taken with the PE Mascot "Safety Fitness Flamingo" (originally from Monocacy Elementary School) who sported the Helmet and Knee Guards on his limbs. I also created an assessment task sheets for the children - coloring in for the younger children, and spotting the unsafe behavior in other handouts. This was done to both reinforce learning, and be a means for self-check of understanding. This sample assessment task sheet is a Word document that can be saved to your desktop for viewing in Microsoft Word. Sites that provided useful information include: Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute, National Center for Bicycling & Walking, Safety School Teachers' Lounge, National Bicycle Safety Network, The Kid Zone Drawing Board, Family.com, Inline Skating, and HealthCentral Through systematic planning, and linking the activity to clear learning outcomes, this event was very successful in being both a fun and learning experience for all involved - myself, the parents, and the pupils. It was a collaborative venture that enabled me to teach according to a maxim I believe in - namely that what I am teaching in PE “must be relevant for life”. Should you require more detail regarding how I developed this event, please write to me here.

"Why Milk's Sports nutrition pyramid" integrates the need for active lifestyles by developing activity pictures around the central food pyramid. As such, no guidelines regarding the Physical activity requirements are provided in the diagram and indeed, if one tries to locate the image of the activity with the location of food on the pyramid, this can result in misleading interpretations if one is not clear about what the picture means to convey. E.g. Cycling is near "Eat Sparingly" and "Golf" near the base of the Pyramid. How the activity pictures are interpreted here is important. You might need to highlight to your students that the pictures on this Sports Nutrition Pyramid are there to indicate that Nutrition has an important role to play in active styles. The pictures are not arranged in a manner aiming to indicate activity recommendations. The message of this Nutrition pyramid is that physical activity and nutrition go together. The "what to eat" and "how much of "the Food part is indicated, but the "how much of" physical activity is not. By the way, free Brochures can be ordered here. Mayo Clinic and Health Canada: Non-traditional Food Recommendations. Although many resources (books or online) typically present the USDA food pyramid, there are two sources which have developed equally valid, if alternative guides. These resources integrate the Physical Activity Pyramid & Food Pyramid together, thereby presenting guidelines related to the healthy lifestyles in an integrated and holistic approach. Check out the Mayo Clinic Food Pyramid news and diagram. Another resource which is "Rainbow shaped" was developed by Health Canada. The Physical Activity and Healthy Eating guides, and additional material make very captivating resources.

Olympic Resources online

The Olympic Games Since the Olympic Games began more than two thousand years ago, they have been the competition grounds for the world’s greatest athletes. Check out this page dedicated to providing knowledge on the Olympic Games - past, present, and future. Mrs. McGowan's Olympic Internet Resources Check out this extensive site with links to classroom activities, lesson ideas regarding character education, and more.

Contribute YOUR Ideas

If you have ideas, comments, letters to share, or questions about particular topics, please email one of the following Elementary PE Section Editors:

	Gerry Cernicky
	Paula Summit
	Tom Winiecki
	Marina Bonello