To introduce and reinforce the components of fitness (cardioendurance, strength, flexibility) with students, we started our lesson with a pretest. Students worked with partners to label pictures showing different types of activities with the component of fitness being shown. Students rotated with partners to rope jumping and spot jumping (multiply the # on the spot by 2 and jump that # before moving to another one) activities to "experience" what a cardioendurance activity feels like. We monitored heart rate during each activity and had music playing for motivation.

Next, the students got task cards with pictures and descriptions of partner strength and flexibility exercises. They worked together to read, learn and practice the exercises together. Later, we had some students demonstrate upper and lower body strength and flexibility activities. At the end of class, we went over items on the pretest and I had the students tell me how they could apply what they learned to create a personal or family fitness plan.

The second lesson in the unit will involve work with exertubes for upper body strength and cone jumping while solving multiplication problems written on the cone to determine how many jumps to do.

The final lesson in the unit will involve color-coded stations with all of the exercises learned in the unit. Students will change stations by "trading cards" with someone in order to go to another station. At one of the stations, students will look at magazine pictures of people exercising and categorize them into the three components studied.

A post test will be given in which students will draw pictures of cardioendurance, strength, and flexibility exercises for a bulletin board. Students will be asked to create a family fitness plan with their parents and families will complete surveys about the effectiveness of their exercise program after a month.

This unit has the following:

• Student responsibility for their learning and the learning of others.
• Assessment.
• Integration of reading and math.
• Family involvement.
• Correlation to lifelong fitness.

For mor information on this set of lessons, please contact Brenda at Bearcat1976@aol.com