Another year has passed!
pelinks4u has shared a lot of ideas with you over the past
12 months. I have decided to recap all of what you have seen this
year for teachers interested in an Interdisciplinary Physical Education
program.
Reading (see “Word
Walls” in January), writing (see “School Ties Gym in
with Learning”), and communication (see “Operation Cooperation”)
have become vital to the success of any content area. Students must
be given the opportunity to make connections between their school
subjects. We all know how important student comprehension is in
the physical education classroom. If the kids don’t fully
understand the benefits of being physically active, their lives
are at stake. If PE teachers can provide an atmosphere that connects
physical education to other content areas, students and parents
may begin to take PE classes more seriously. Promoting higher level
thinking is the key here, so that students see a reason for being
in the physical education classroom.
In this month’s Interdisciplinary
section, I have taken several creative/unique/interesting ideas,
from over this last year, to remind our readers of how just a little
extra effort can increase students’ comprehension levels and
stimulate their work environment. I completely agree with Abraham
Maslow (1908-1970), an American psychologist when he said, “Almost
all creativity involves purposeful play.”
Kay Redfield Jamison, a
Contemporary American professor of psychiatry, also got it right
when she said, “Children need the freedom and time to play.
Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.” The Greek philosopher,
Heraclitus said, “Man is most nearly himself when he achieves
the seriousness of a child at play.” So, in support of these
opinions of “play,” I have included a “Top Ten
Play List” which includes 10 different activities or lessons
that I think look really fun and promote “play!” These
activities of course teach chasing, fleeing, and dodging skills,
communication skills, jumping and landing skills, and catching and
throwing skills. Children are learning and practicing all of these
skills, and they don’t even realize it.
Rochelle
Mills
pelinks4u Editorial Assistant |
| Word
Walls are a great way to incorporate reading skills into your
physical education classes. At the same time, students learn relevant
vocabulary words. Word walls are very easy to create. All you have
to do is write words related to the current unit on index cards
and post them on a wall in the gymnasium. Try to refer to these
words throughout your lessons, and review them during the closing
of your class. You will find a lesson
plan article at Education World that discusses the benefits
of word walls, and offers a few word wall activities.
You can find other ways Word Walls can be used at ABCTeach.com,
and some inexpensive books on Word Wall games and activities at
Literacy
Connections. Go to TeachingFirst.net
to get a great list of really fun activities that can be done in
class using Word Walls, even baseball!
This
site has some really great Word Wall cheers! Check out the activities
that are to be done standing up.
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In
February, many schools get involved with the Jump Rope For Heart
or the Hoops for Heart Programs. Here are some resources you can
use!
Also games...
Follow
the Blood - This dot to dot activity shows students how to follow
the flow of the blood through the heart.
Activity
IQ - Use this worksheet to have your students test their heart
knowledge.
Heart
word - Use this crossword puzzle to learn new vocabulary words
related to heart health.
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Since I said play
is so important for EVERYONE, here are my Top 10 activities from
this last year’s Interdisciplinary section. Try them out with
your students, colleagues, or family!
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Have
You Ever? - Active, fun group activity to explore and celebrate
the rich diversity of people's past experiences. Works well
with large groups. |
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Fitness
Math (gr 2-4) - Students will do assorted physical activities
associated with multiplication and Odd/Even problems. |
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Sunshine
and Snowflakes (gr K-2)
Subject: Science
Objective: To teach students about hot and cold while practice
chasing and fleeing skills. |
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Design
and Implement a Personal Fitness Plan
Exhibit a physically active lifestyle, and begin to participate
in and establish lifetime health and fitness habits and goals.
Establish, apply, implement, monitor and adjust personal fitness
goals. |
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Art:
Color & Shape Awareness - Show the children pictures
or examples of objects in various colors - one at a time - and
ask them to demonstrate the shape of each object. Possibilities
include a yellow banana, a green plant, a red apple, an orange,
a bunch of purple grapes, or a white snowflake. |
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Spelling
Roll (gr 1-5)
:This lesson is designed to incorporate language arts and gymnastics
in a physical education unit. The activity consists of students
spelling words and using them in sentences while doing a forward
roll. This is appropriate for students up to the 5th grade.
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Team
Handball - This sport originated in Central Europe. It is
played in Sweden, France, South Korea, Norway, England and the
United States. It is an Olympic sport. The Canadian Team Handball
Federation has created an easy to read Team Handball Survival
Kit |
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Heart
Rate and Exercise (gr 4)
In this lesson, students learn about the parts of the circulatory
system and how heart rate is calculated. Students participate
in an experiment to determine how exercise affects heart rate.
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Blizzard
Attack - In this interactive lesson, grade 7-12 students
make a fictitious journey between two cities during adverse
weather conditions, and learn some of the basic skills needed
to stay safe during winter storms. A teacher's guide is available.
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Synaptic
Tag - Integrates science and physical education. Students
will review the parts of the synapse and their functions by
playing a game called "Synaptic Tag." The process
by which enzymes can break down neurotransmitters (e.g., acetylcholine)
in the synaptic cleft are modeled. |
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Cook
With Your Kids - I really have to make this site the "Featured
Website" for this month. If I wanted some really good
information and/or tips on how to cook with kids, this is a site
I'd really want to make use of. Check it out! Discover five
skills you can teach
your kids while baking.
Nick
Jr. - Tons of fun, great recipes based on Nick Junior characters.
Your child would have great fun helping you find recipes,
and also helping to prepare them.
Kids'
Cooking Party - Kids crave two things: food and fun. So what
could be more appealing than a party that offers both in supersize
portions?
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Have any of you observed what is going on in the
regular ed classroom in recent years? Testing has become
the end all for everything. In Florida they can be retained
for not passing a single test. Is that not the stupidest
thing you have ever heard of? It is like state lawmakers
have decided teachers are really too stupid to assess
kids and make correct decisions. I feel for them and thank
God I teach PE.
How do you
kill PE? Try and make it like a regular class. Give out
lots of handouts on the history of sports, the rules of
games, and demand that they actually SIT in a chair and
regurgitate it, just like they do for social studies/reading/science
etc. Just spend lots of time with them in lines waiting
to do some skill that they will hardly ever get to use
in some actual game. Make them take written tests often,
to show they have "knowledge" of specific games and sports.
BTW, I know there are exceptions
to my comments, and I welcome the debate. And I am so
glad this forum is actually moving and working now with
people getting posting and talking. Keep it up. Please
share. |
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Rainbow
Swamp Trail - (poly spots, 6 beanbags)
Each member of the team must get to the other side of the swamp,
and along the way they each must retrieve a beanbag and take it
with them to the shore. Stepping-stones are in the swamp so that
the group can plan a route. Stepping-stones can hold one teammate
at a time. The team must hold hands and stay connected through
their trip. When a teammate attempts to pick up a beanbag, students
may disconnect hands, but they must reconnect before continuing
the journey. Each team member must collect one beanbag on his
or her journey. If someone touches the floor or is not connected
when they are supposed to, the team must start again.
Operation Cooperation
Material: jump rope, base, team color code sheet, master color
code sheet, colored markers, 10-15 cones.
All the team members
must hold the jump rope, moving as a unit, as they try to find
specific colored markers as indicated by the adult. The object
is to see how quickly your team can complete all the assignments
given.
The 1st person is the leader, the 2nd
person is the excavator (who lifts the cone to find the marker),
the 3rd person is the recorder (makes an X on the sheet), and
the 4th person is the archivist and carries the Team Color Code
Sheet. The rest of the players are advisors (remembering where
the locations of certain color markers are). The game starts with
the adult tells the teams a color, then they go out and find that
color. When found they mark it on the color sheet, then come back
to the adult (who is on the base), who then gives the team another
color. The game continues until they are done with all the colors.
Magic Bases (poly spots
or stepping stones)
Spots are set in a figure eight pattern. They must travel the
figure-eight route while holding hands. If they disconnect they
must start over. No more than two feet on a spot at one time.
When you meet at the crossroad of the figure eight pattern, you
must nonverbally communicate as to how to cross.
Games were found
in Character
Education by Donald R. Glover and Leigh Ann Anderson, Human
Kinetics 2003
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| APRIL - GAMES AROUND THE WORLD |
Around
the world, children have one thing in common. They love to play
games. They love to laugh, learn, and have fun playing with each
other. Take your class on a world adventure and see how similar
they are to other children from different countries. Discover
how children from Venezuela, Mexico, Korea, China, Germany, and
other countries play different versions of the same traditional
games, such as jump rope, marbles, tag, top spinning, hopscotch,
jacks, card games.
I think it is amazing how simple lessons like this can help children
learn that history doesn’t have to repeat itself, and what
we hear on the news isn’t always true for everyone, because
we can see how children from other countries are similar, in that
they love to play and have fun.
Tag
and Chase Games
In games of chase and tag, the object is to tag, or touch, other
players who are then out of the game. Usually one player is it
and has to chase and tag the other players, one of whom then becomes
the new person who is it. In other versions,
players must be tagged by a ball, sometimes thrown at the player.
Check out the versions for many different countries.
Children's
Games from Around the World - Check out all the various types
and versions of traditional games being played through out the
world.
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| MAY - FIELD DAY ACTIVITIES |
During
the month of May, many schools hold their annual field day festivities.
Why not put a new twist on your field day, and have all interdisciplinary
activities for your students. Below, I have listed a few websites
that list some field day activities. Don't wait till the last
minute? Why not start planning now?
20
Field Day Activities Any Kid Can Do (And Do Well!)
This website offers 20 activities that you can easily include
in your field day festivities.
FANTASTIC
FIELD DAYS! - From Education World! May is National Physical
Fitness and Sports Month. This month also is the time of year
when many schools hold their annual field days. That's why Ed
World's editors decided to jump in with dozens of great activities
that are sure to make your field day the best one ever! Included:
Five new lesson plans plus links to many more.
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School
Ties Gym in with Learning
By Melissa Jenco
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Gym class long has been about more than dodgeball and basketball
at Naperville Central High School. But now some physical education
instructors are taking things further and team-teaching with colleagues
in literacy programs to help students who read below their grade
levels.
Through the new Zero Hour P.E. class, gym teachers have found
a way to take advantage of research that shows exercise can improve
learning, says Paul Zientarski, chairman of the school's health
and physical education department. By combining the early gym
classes with literacy lessons, they think they've found a new
way to reach students who struggle with reading.
"It's going to be a major breakthrough in education,"
said Phil Lawler, director of the PE4life Academy in Naperville
who has been working with Zientarski. "It's going to get
to the point that physical education is the core class for all
learning."
Read the rest, top
of third column. |
Making
Family Resolutions
In this day and age, it's easy to get over-scheduled, stressed
out and disorganized. Make this year the year you make your family
a priority - to spend more time together, live in less chaos,
or even just have more fun.
New
Year's Resolutions (gr 3-6) - A very good lesson plan to teach
kids all about resolutions, and the many different kinds there
are.
Share
a Story - at PBS Kids, 100s of kids are sharing their short
story on what kind of resolution they are making for this next
year. It's interesting. What kind of resolution
are you making this year?
New
Year's Resolutions for Kids - In addition to your own New
Year's Parenting
Resolutions, this year, how about helping your kids, even
your preschoolers and younger school age kids, come up with some
New Year's Resolutions?
Chinese New Year - This information
is interesting. Check it out. Part
1: Traditions and Beginnings & Part
2: Looking Ahead.
New
Year's Resolution: Your Children's Healthiest Year Ever! -
Good article. Worth reading.
New
Year Around the World - Not all countries celebrate New Year
at the same time, nor in the same way. This is because people
in different parts of the world use different calendars. Long
ago, people divided time into days, months, and years. Some calendars
are based on the movement of the moon, others are based on the
position of the sun, while others are based on both the sun and
the moon. All over the world, there are special beliefs about
New Year. |
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| AUG/SEPT - ACTIVITIES THAT TEACH! |
These
first 5, and lots more activities are to be found at Moving
and Learning.
Art: Color & Shape Awareness.
Show the children pictures or examples of objects in various colors
- one at a time - and ask them to demonstrate the shape of each
object. Possibilities include a yellow banana, a green plant, a
red apple, an orange, a bunch of purple grapes, or a white snowflake.
Language Arts: Auditory Sequential Memory & Listening
Skills. Tell the children you’re going to give them
a list of movements to do, but that they’re not to start doing
them until you’ve finished speaking. Start with a short sequence,
for example: clap twice, blink eyes. When the children are ready,
lengthen the sequence; for example: clap twice, blink eyes, turn
around (jump in place, sit down, etc.).
Math: Simple Computation. Have the children sit
in a circle on the floor or the ground. Call out a child’s
name. The child gets up and stands in the center of the circle.
Ask the children how many are in the center. When they’ve
responded correctly, call out another child’s name. That child
joins the child already in the center. Ask the children how many
are in the circle now. Continue adding - and subtracting - children,
each time asking the group to tell you how many are standing in
the center.
Science: Flotation. Demonstrate for the children
how bubbles, feathers, and/or chiffon scarves float through the
air. Is the movement light or heavy? What are words they would use
to describe the movement? If you have scarves available for the
children, hand them out and let each child explore for himself or
herself how the scarves gently float back down to the ground - no
matter how hard they may toss them up. Challenge the children to
pretend to be floating in the air. Is the movement strong or light?
Are their muscles tight or loose?
Social Studies: Occupations.
Talk to the children about various occupations frequently
associated with one gender or another, without mentioning gender
(e.g., chefs, homemakers, hairstylists, police officers, firefighters,
carpenters, and dancers). Ask them to tell you some of the tasks
performed by people in these occupations. Challenge the children
to act out some of these tasks, one at a time.
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| OCTOBER - ACTIVITIES FOR COLD WEATHER |
Winter
Games - Bring physical fitness inside the classroom by integrating
the Winter Games into other subject areas. With these plans teachers
can integrate art, health, language arts, math, science, social
skills, and social studies with physical fitness.
100
Healthy Habits
Grade Level: K - 2
Discuss with students different ways to stay healthy and have them
think of examples of exercises they can do in the classroom. Choose
10 exercises to do and do 10 reps of each to equal 100 exercises.
Add-On
Line Dancing (gr 3-5)
The class picks a song for the day to which students move rhythmically.
As the lesson progresses, students make up a specific move to teach
to the class which will then put all the moves together in a sequence.
Spelling
Roll (gr 1-5)
Connections: Physical Education/Games, Language Arts/Spelling. Description:
This lesson is designed to incorporate language arts and gymnastics
in a physical education unit. The activity consists of students
spelling words and using them in sentences while doing a forward
roll. This is appropriate for students up to the 5th grade.
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| NOVEMBER - PROMOTING YOUR PE PROGRAM |
| CONTRIBUTED
BY LAURA PETERSEN
Plan
a Physical Education Program Night
This article from a member of Virginia AHPERD highlights the planning
process for a physical education program night. The author goes
through the steps to take when setting up this type of program.
PE4Life
Pe4Life is a not for profit organization whose mission is to inspire
active, healthy living by advancing the development of quality,
daily physical education programs for all children. Pe4Life has
a community action kit that can be used to promote physical education.
National
Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity
The National Coalition website has a number of excellent tools that
you can use to promote physical activity in your school. The Tools
to Promote Physical Activity section has a State Coalition handbook,
which has tools and strategies for promoting physical activity.
In addition, the National
Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity has an E-newsletter, which
you can sign up for, to receive a wealth of information regarding
physical activity and grants to promote physical activity.
Finally, The National Coalition for Promoting
Physical Activity has published Active Communication: A
Guide to Reaching the Media. This guide takes you through the
different ways to promote an event or activity through the local
media. It gives a step by step listing of how to get your message
out to the public.
Physical Education Newsletters
An easy way to promote your physical education program is to publish
a simple newsletter using a word or publisher program. Microsoft
Publisher (check academic
pricing) has numerous pre-designed templates that you can use
for your physical education newsletter. Publish and send home a
newsletter once a month that highlights the activities/units that
you are presenting in your physical education classes. You can also
highlight different topics related to health and wellness to promote
healthy living.
Parent Visitation
Another way to promote your Physical Education program is to invite
your students’ parents in to participate in a physical education
class. I do this during my dance unit each year. I invite the parents
to come during their child’s regularly scheduled physical
education class to participate in a variety of dances. This serves
as the culminating activity in my yearly dance unit. This is always
a very exciting class, and the parents LOVE to get involved with
their children! |
| DECEMBER - CREATING AN... |
| ...INTERDISCIPLINARY
CURRICULUM
The
Interdisciplinary Physical Education Curriculum
This page provides a wealth of information on creating your own
interdisciplinary activities. It has questions to ask yourself when
getting started, and also some sample activities. It also gives
some excellent reasons why interdisciplinary activities are so important.
Fostering
critical thinking through interdisciplinary cooperation: Integrating
secondary level physics into a weight training unit. This is
an excellent paper that discusses the importance of interdisciplinary
activities at the secondary level. It also goes quite in-depth on
how to create a great interdisciplinary activity using weight lifting,
which has become quite popular in many secondary schools.
Interdisciplinary
Teaching through Physical Education:
Another excellent page with tons of information on creating activities,
and many links to other resources and ideas.
PBS
Teacher source:
This website has great lesson plans. It mainly has health and sports
lessons, but they would be great resources for incorporating into
your Physical Education classes.
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