| Bring
Less Stress and More Joy Into Your Holidays
The holiday season offers us a chance for both joy and stress, depending
on how we approach this special time of year. The best recipe for
a joy-filled, rather than a stress-filled holiday season includes
these five fundamental “ingredients."
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Taking
good care of yourself |
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Challenging
yourself |
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Recognizing
the consequences of your choices |
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Calling
forth your highest self |
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Spreading
goodwill |
Take Good Care of Yourself
You’re more likely to enjoy the holidays - and the rest of
your life - if you have energy and vitality. You’re more likely
to have energy and vitality if you take good care of yourself. Thus,
doing the little things that “keep your well filled”
can make a huge difference in whether the holiday season is a season
of stress or joy.
If you think taking good care of yourself is indulgent or self-centered,
think of the difference in makes not just in your life, but in how
you affect others. Remember that the more rested, happy and filled
with good cheer you are, the more you have to give to others. In
fact, perhaps the greatest gift you can give others is by being
a happy, vital, vibrant person. Think of how good you feel when
you're with such a person. You feel better just being around them.
So taking care of yourself is both an essential part of enjoying
the holidays and your life, and a gift to others.
Cindy Kuhrasch
Interdisciplinary Section Editor
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| KEEP
FITNESS IN YOUR HOLIDAY PLANS |
| Holiday
Fitness - by Amanda Gavlik
Follow these tips to keep your activity level high even when you’re
over the river and through the woods at Grandma’s house.
Afraid you’ll get out of shape in
a fraction of the time it took you to get to your holiday destination?
Fear not - all you need is determination and a dash of creativity
to keep up with your exercise when you're away from home. Read the
rest.
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HOLIDAYS:
Celebrating Diversity and Meeting Children's Developmental Needs
Talking and thinking about
holidays in early childhood programs today is a "hot topic."
There is an increasing diversity of children, families, and staff
who make up our programs. Each may have different ideas of how to
celebrate holidays. As educators, we also have the responsibility
to meet both the intellectual and social needs of the children we
work with. How we meet those needs also applies to how we include
holidays in our curriculum.
Finally, even for us as
adults, the concept of holidays may not be as simple as it seemed
when we were young. Particularly, Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and
Halloween seem to challenge our actions in our work and leisure
lives. Working through these issues is important, for ourselves,
the children, families, and communities we live and work in.
Read the rest.
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| NASPE FORUM (Brenna Clark) |
This
is a great resource that allows professionals to share ideas and
discuss topics. You might find especially interesting the discussion
that took place on the topic, “Should
PE Teachers Teach "Classroom" Content?” (This
topic is also discussed in depth on the newly released pelinks4u
DVD The New Physical Education: Promoting Healthy and Active Lifestyles
- available through the PE Store on our web site. )
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My school district is saying that I need to have
a Math or Reading standard in my lesson everyday. I have
a few good ideas but not enough to get me through the
whole year. Does anyone have any good ideas for the Middle
School years? Please post.
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Themed
Activities - PE Central has numerous lesson ideas related
to Christmas and winter. In the text box for "Lesson/Activity
Name" use search words such as winter, snow, santa, christmas,
etc.
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Candy
Cane Pass (Relay Race): Supplies:
4 candy canes per team (have a few extras due to breakage).
How To Play: The first player holds
4 candy canes between his/her fingers and passes them down
the line, teammate to teammate, without dropping any. |
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Pass
the Christmas Ornament: Supplies:
one straw for each child / ornaments cut out of tissue paper
(tree, bell, star, etc.). How To Play:
Divide the class into 2 teams and line up each team. Pass
the ornaments down the line, teammate to teammate, by inhaling
and exhaling on the straw to hang onto or release the ornament.
No hands! The first team to successfully pass the ornaments
up and down the line wins! |
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Santa
Says: Same as 'Simon Says': The S up is "Santa".
S says "Santa says hop". All Ss hop. S says "Stop".
Ss should continue hopping on until "Santa" says
"Santa says stop". Repeat for other actions such
as jump, run, turn around, sit down, stand up, hands up/down,
star jump, etc. |
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Freeze:
Supplies: Christmas music (see bottom
of this page). How To Play: Begin
playing music, everyone moves and dances until the music stops
then they must "freeze" in whatever position they
happen to be in. |
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Christmas
Stocking Relay: Supplies:
one stocking for each team, one spoon for each team, one bowl
for each team, some wrapped candy. How To Play:
Divide Ss into teams. Have each team line up at one end of
the room. At the other end, hang a Christmas stocking for
each team. Place a bowl of candy and a spoon in front of each
team. Each S takes a turn carrying a candy from the bowl with
the spoon across the room to the stocking. They drop the candy
in the stocking and race back to the next person in line and
give them the spoon. First team to fill the stocking wins!
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These and more can be found at ESL
KidStuff's.
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Frosty's
Freeze Tag - Pre K-2
To allow students to improve their chasing, fleeing and dodging
skills in a cooperative, fun, holiday atmosphere.
Winter
Wonderland - Grades 2 and up
To celebrate all of the wonderful winter activities that children
and families can do during the winter months.
Jingle
Shapes - Grades Pre K-2
Teaches the parts of the sentence (the sentence itself, the period,
the comma, the question mark, exclamation point) while using locomotor
skills.
Snowman's
Playground - Grades K-4
The purpose of this activity is to practice locomotor skills in
a cooperative activity, while reviewing winter safety in regards
to proper outdoor attire.
Winter
Wonderland Stations - Grades: 3-5
To reinforce previously learned concepts in a fun holiday station
set up.
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With
so much emphasis on getting during this season, it is
fun to pay a game in which the focus is on giving! Even though
children are sharing pieces of equipment that aren't really theirs,
the idea is still the same!
GIFT GIVING GAME
Every child is given a piece of equipment and stands or sits
on the circle. The teacher reads a story and every time the word
RIGHT is read, everybody passes his
gift to the right. Every time the word LEFT
is read, gifts are passed to the left. The gift that each person
is holding at the end of the story is the gift she or he gets
to play with.
Story Example:
The Right Family Christmas Story Christmas
was almost here and Mother RIGHT was
finishing the Christmas baking. Father RIGHT,
Susie RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT
returned from their last minute Christmas errands. "There's
not much LEFT to be done," said
Father RIGHT as he came into the kitchen.
"Did you leave the basket of food at Church?" asked
Mother RIGHT? "I LEFT
it RIGHT where you told me to,"
said Billy RIGHT." "I don't
have any money LEFT." The hall
telephone rang, and Susie RIGHT LEFT
to answer it. She rushed back and told the family, "Aunt
Tillie RIGHT LEFT
a package for us RIGHT on Grandma RIGHT's
porch. I'll go over there RIGHT now
and get it," she said as she LEFT
in a rush. Father RIGHT LEFT
the kitchen and brought in the Christmas Tree. By the time Susie
RIGHT returned, Mother RIGHT,
Father RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT
had begun trimming the tree. The entire RIGHT
family sang carols as they finished the decorating. Then they
LEFT all the presents arranged under
the tree and went to bed, hoping they had selected the RIGHT
gifts for their family. Now I hope you have the RIGHT
present for yourself, because that's all that's LEFT
of our story, except to wish you a Merry Christmas, isn't that
RIGHT?
PASS THE BOW (or apple or whatever fits the occasion)
Winner: Team that passes 6 bows down
and back first
How to play: Have the teams line up
side by side, either sitting or standing next to each other (they
could hold hands if they wanted to). At one end of the line, place
the six Christmas bows (or apples). With their left hand have
each player grab the right wrist of the person to their right.
On the mark, teams pass all the bows down and back again. If a
bow falls, players must retrieve while still holding on. The chain
must not be broken!
These games and more can be found at Christmas
Party Games.
Sites
with Games, Icebreakers, and Energizers - This site provides
links to a large variety of energizers and games. So, depending
on how much action you want from your energizer/game, you have
a lot to choose from here.
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| SECONDARY INTERDISCIPLINARY IDEAS |
Celebrate!
Celebrate! - In many countries, December and January bring exciting
holidays and festivals. Here's a chance to focus on a multicultural
study of winter celebrations. The Internet will give your students
a taste of events that they never knew existed, as well as let them
enjoy the holidays that they know and love. While student partners
are at the computer, give the class a few related activities. This
winter you can help your class understand the differences and similarities
that make our world the colorful and diverse place that it is.
Emphasize
the Giving, Not the Getting, This Holiday Season - Are your
students too focused on the "gimme" elements of the holiday
season? Teach about the true meaning of the season by emphasizing
the giving over the getting. Included: Ten classroom activities
that focus on doing good things for other people! |
| INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM (Brenna Clark) |
| RESOURCES
FOR CREATING ONE
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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Brain
Gym: This is a program developed by developmental experts.
They use simplified movements that help with the learning process.
They have different portions that accomplish specific goals, one
being “The Laterality Dimension pertains to the relationship
between the two sides of the brain - especially in the midfield,
where the two sides must integrate. Laterality skills are fundamental
to reading, writing, listening, or speaking. They are essential
for the patterning of whole-body movement, and for the ability to
move and think at the same time.”
“Brain Gym includes 26 easy and
enjoyable targeted activities that integrate body and mind to bring
about rapid and often dramatic improvements in concentration, memory,
reading, writing, organizing, listening, physical coordination,
and more.” Teachers “enjoy the Brain Gym movements in
classrooms as a tool to integrate the brain before learning, work,
or sports activities, as well as during breaks,” or physical
educators can use these principals to integrate classroom learning
into their class.
This is an amazing resource, and classes
can be taken to learn how to use brain gym movements. They also
have several books available. Learn more about brain
gym and educational kinesiology.
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| GO ZONKERS (Brenna Clark) |
GO
ZONKERS
This site is extremely innovative. They
are really working to fight childhood obesity. Each day they offer
a story that corresponds to previously learned activities. There
are always five different sections to the daily exercise and those
are: warm-ups, stretches, cardio, jumping, and cool down. Each of
these parts helps to satisfy a different need for students.
These programs incorporate many different
subjects in a really interesting and fun way. These could be used
in a physical education class, but perhaps an even better way to
use them would be to introduce it to classroom teachers. This is
a short activity, 10 minutes, which can be done every day. Some
teachers use it as a day starter, and others use it to take a short
break from instruction and allow the kids to release some of their
energy and refocus their minds. Look at this site. I know you will
be amazed by it! |
Concept
to Classroom! We've got a new look with the same great workshops.
The site features a series of FREE, self-paced workshops covering
a wide variety of hot topics in education. Some of the workshops
are based in theory, some are based in methodology - but all of
the workshops include plenty of tips and strategies for making classrooms
work. Specifically check out the Interdisciplinary Learning
in Your Classroom workshop.
Inside
Fitness - 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. Together the teacher
and students can take P.E. inside and learn that fitness involves
more than just exercising. These lessons may be used independent
of one another or as a month long unit.
Article: Creative
Movement and Dance in Early Childhood Education - Many early
childhood educators recognize young children's primary need to express
themselves through movement. Some teachers include movement exploration
to enhance other curriculum areas such as language and literature,
science, art and outdoor play. Read more.
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