GLOW IN THE DARK GYM          
By: Lisa Wright, Kitsap Lake Elementary School, Bremerton, WA.

This October, the students at Kitsap Lake Elementary School in Bremerton, had a blast as they discovered the many ways to experience fitness activities in a Glow in the Dark Gym. My objective was to stimulate students’ interest in anatomy and physiology, while promoting the inclusion of basic skill development and health concepts. The focus was to maximize participation while promoting fitness, cooperation, and teamwork!

The GLOW IN THE DARK GYM was presented at the 63rd WAHPERD State Conference, October 18th , in the Shoreline Convention Center. Many health and fitness educators had the opportunity to explore hands-on activities that glowed in the dark, while moving from station to station. The thematic units were designed to increase students’ skills in eye-hand coordination, balance, and agility, while integrating music, anatomy, physiology, reading, writing, math, and listening skills.

The students began this thematic unit by identifying the major bones and muscles in the human body. Mr. Bones, a life size skeleton of the human body, made a visit to the gym. First, we learned the names of the bones in the human body by putting together a puzzle of all the basic bones in the body. Next, we discovered that muscles are attached to bones, and when the muscles are shortened, they are doing their job by moving the bones. To demonstrate this actual concept, I attached a string to the shaft of the femur bone. When the students pulled on the string, shortening it, the femur bone was lifted, much like a puppet would perform. We learned the names of the major muscles by participating in similar activities.

Next, we implemented these concepts into activity stations promoting cardiorespiratory fitness; identifying the FITT guidelines for children 5 to 12.

All the activity stations were pre-taught with the lights on, and no more than six stations were set up at one time. Students rotated from station to station, moving when the music was on, stopping when the music was off. We constantly reviewed safety rules and the correct use of the equipment.

The 4th and 5th grade classes carved pumpkins for this event. The pumpkins took the place of cones. Snap-glow lights were placed inside each pumpkin. Students were able to move on scooters dribbling their hockey puck around the pumpkins with the scooter hockey stick. The scooter hockey sticks were placed inside a florescent paper, shaped like a bone and labeled, femur, humerus, etc. I copied a picture of a skull on florescent paper and placed the hockey pucks inside.

The Kindergarteners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders had an opportunity to make their mark on this event by putting their hand prints, drawing pictures, or writing their names on a large refrigerator box with fluorescent paint. This box served as a spooky scooter tunnel.

All the students entered the gym holding onto the glow rope with one hand while the song, “Going on a Spooky Walk” was playing to the same melody as “Going on a Bear Hunt.”

Some of the highlighted activities were:

• Scooter Hockey (Bones and Skulls)
• Glow in the Dark Bowling: A piece of carpet with florescent spots for the pins served as a bowling lane. Each pin had a piece of glow tape around the neck of the pins.
• Hula Hoops: Each hula hoop had four pieces of glow tape attached to the hoop.
• Target: There were several types of glow targets. Bean Bags made out of white cotton illuminated more effectively than other colored bags.
• Jump Ropes: Glow in the dark Jump Ropes from NETS (See Resources).
• YOYO: Glow yoyo (See Resources).
• Balance Beam: Glow tape was placed on the center of the balance beam.
• Badminton: Short handle rackets with fluorescent string and shuttlecocks.
• Scooter Ramp: A brightly painted fluorescent scooter-ramp served as a slide to go inside the spooky tunnel.

Common Asked Questions:

• Q. Where did you get the Black Lights & the Glow tape?
• A. PNTA in Seattle (See Resourses)
• Q. How expensive were the black lights?
• A. They were approximately three hundred dollars for two weeks. Often the high school in your school district may have them available. You may also want to check your music and drama departments.
• Q. Were some of your students fearful of the dark?
• A. Just a few students at first. I left a row of lights on in the gym for the first few minutes and soon the worries went away because they were so excited.

My goal was to give the students at Kitsap Lake Elementary School a positive experience with lasting impact in their physical education class by Making Learning Fun, Meaningful and Memorable!

Teaching Tips:

• Pre-teach station activities with the lights on.
• Introduce the black lights slowly to the kindergarteners, then slowly turn the gym lights out, one at a time.
• Have students hold onto the rope while entering the gym.
• Vary the number of stations and change the activities to keep learning interesting.
• Warning! The black lights may adversely affect some students with special needs.

resources:

• Black Lights: Pacific North West Associate (PNTA) 615 South Alaska Street, Seattle, WA 98108 (206) 622- 7850 www.pnta.com
• Glow in the dark rope: Nets System Inc. 7910 NE Day Rd West Bainbridge Island, WA. (206) 842-5623
• Motivating Music Selections: Spooky Walk, Holiday Songs CD. 1999, Newbridge Educational Publishing, LLC, New York, NY. www.newbridgeonline.com 1-800-867-0307 / Fax 1-800-456-2419

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