Category: Elementary School

Within this category, essays and articles focus on effectively teaching children in the pre-school and elementary grades. It’s a great place to find teaching tips and get advice from experienced practitioners.

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Be a 50 Million Strong by 2029 Champion

As physical educators, we have many opportunities to improve the lives of thousands of kids who participate in our school physical education programs. If we are diligent in improving our programs by focusing on lifelong health and physical activity with our students, we can all do our part in succeeding with “50 Million Strong.”

Group biking

What’s My Number?

At McPolin Elementary School, my number is 425, preschool through 5th graders. I work directly with the Lifestyles Counselor to provide quality instruction at our Title 1 school. We are a Spanish Dual-Immersion school. Although we live in an affluent resort town, 50 % of our students are on free or reduced lunch. We have Federal funding for free breakfast for all students and a healthy snack every day (See EATS program below). We have an Afterschool Enrichment Program for at-risk students, that provides a snack, a physical activity, computer, and homework sessions.

Some students go home to care for their younger siblings at night while parents work in a service job. Many have multiple families living in the same apartment. The challenge for me is to help provide a variety of opportunities for physical activities at school and in the community. I work closely with community agencies to provide access to programs that will benefit ALL of our population. The adage “it takes a village to raise a child,” definitely applies to our town. Many residents have stepped forward to benefit our diverse population.

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Painting Peaceful Playground Games in Oklahoma Schools

In January of 2015, I was asked by Lindsi Lemons the Program Director of Schools for a Healthy Lifestyle, and Jason Hasty of the Putnam School district, if I would be interested in Painting peaceful playground games again for their Oklahoma schools. After numerous delays due to record rainfall, other commitments, and a minor injury, we were finally able to paint the third week of July. It turned out that it would be the hottest week of the summer!

Blake Taylor and Vaughn Humbolt

I talked my former co-worker and dear friend Vaughn Humbolt who was enjoying retirement to come help me for four and a half days to paint eleven schools, nine in Oklahoma City and two in rural Oklahoma. The schools that we painted included: Overholser Elementary, Apollo Elementary, D. D. Kirkland Elementary, Ralph Downs Elementary, Harvest Hills Elementary, Northridge Elementary, Parkland Elementary, Oakridge Elementary, Hupfeld Elementary, Beggs Elementary, and Choctaw Elementary.

The first day we left my farm outside of Augusta Kansas at 4:30 A.M. and drove to Oklahoma City to our first of three schools. The first two days we had six schools to do with some of them being repaints, while the last two and a half days we were starting from scratch. Typically, we would work from 6:30 A.M. to 11:30 A.M. By about 11:15 A.M. the surface would be too hot to work on. Then we would go eat lunch, take a nap at the hotel, and go back to painting from 4:00 P.M. to 8:30 P.M.

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Answering the “What Do You Do?” Question

(This essay was originally published on SHAPE America’s member Exchange [December, 2015] and is reprinted with permission.)

Does this scene sound familiar? You’re in a social setting and someone politely asks, “What do you do?”

Quickly the question morphs into a conversation killer if you answer, “I teach physical education.” A few seconds of uncomfortable silence follow. “What do you coach?” they ask, hoping for respite. “I don’t coach,” you say. Discomfort heightens. Blank stares. What to do?

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What I Learned During Recess Today

I would like to share an incident that occurred while I was teaching the other day. At the time, I found the actions of one of my students to be unconscionable. Now, as I look back, I consider the incident both comical and pivotal.

It was a beautiful fall day, 65 degrees, clear with no wind, so we decided to take our classes outdoors. While I love being outdoors, teaching outside at my school does not provide for the best learning environment. The outdoor space consists of a grassy area the size of a soccer field, a small blacktop, and a playground. Therefore, during the lunch periods we are competing with the myriad of distractions that come with seventy-five children at play.

We were working on kicking a stationary ball, so we chose to kick a football off a tee. We used dynamic football warm-ups to begin the class. These warm-ups consisted of agility courses in which the students had to jump small cones, run through hoops, and zigzag through larger cones. Between the kicking stations and the warm-up, we set up 72 cones and 40 hoops. It took nearly a half hour to precisely line up all the cones and arrange all the colorful hoops.

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Physical Literacy and Enjoyment: The Route to 50 Million Strong by 2029!

Most likely, few people would argue against the goal and necessity of 50 Million Strong by 2029. Indeed, many would view its importance as being critical to our future. However, as suggested by Steve Jefferies in his recent editorial, as a profession we have yet to make the extensive impact we’d like on the physical activity and health lifestyle choices of our students.

The Importance of Physical Literacy

We believe that the notion of developing physical literacy in students is vital to developing active, healthy lifestyles and, ultimately, the attainment of the 50 Million Strong by 2029 goal. Although definitions of physical literacy vary, it is commonly accepted that physical literacy is a holistic view of a person’s knowledge of how to move and the ability to do so with competence, their understanding of why activity is important, and the willingness and desire to be involved in physical activity on a consistent basis. If we want to be 50 Million Strong by 2029, surely this holistic view is a necessity. The 50 Million Strong by 2029 goal requires physical literacy and, similarly, physical literacy can achieve 50 Million Strong by 2029!

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Aiming for Inspiring Teaching

Who among us would not like to be considered an inspiring teacher? What’s the secret? Phoebe Constantinou shares a slide presentation of the stages of development for becoming inspiring. A great resource for each of us to reflect upon or to share with others who would like to improve their teaching.

Click on the link below to download a PDF file. Be patient, it might take a minute or two

Constantinou_Aiming_for_Inspiring_Teaching-2

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The 12 Days of Physical Education

Implementation plan for the “12 Days of PE”

  1. The setting is in the gymnasium.
  2. Playground or junior basketballs are in learning team colored hula hoops. Learning teams are dismissed by color to get a ball and find a personal space and use the ball in whatever way they choose until the teacher states, “Reindeer”! Reindeer is the cue to silence ball and listen to directions.
  3. I typically “sing” the lyrics with support from the children’s classroom teacher! We use a microphone and sound system to project voices across the gymnasium.
  4. Children are already familiar with the ball-handling skills. The “superhero pose” is when a child goes down on one knee and holds their junior basketball or playground ball in their opposite hand, similar to the Statue of Liberty!
  5. We sing each verse and repeat verses just like the regular song.

Verses and Movements

On the first day of physical education my teacher said to me, “Bounce the ball as high as a tree!”

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