Sportsmanship Awards for September

This month the Lower Division PE team would like to recognize Taylor M. and Mitchell S. for their outstanding sportsmanship. Both of them will be featured in Ebytes and will receive an award at the upcoming Town Meeting.

We asked both of them what sportsmanship meant to them and here is what they had to say:

"I think that sportsmanship is about being nice and telling your teammates that they're doing well. Even if they make a mistake you should always count on them. If you have bad sportsmanship you might get kicked off of your team. So it is always important to have good sportsmanship. Don't ever let your teammates down." - Taylor M.

"I think sportsmanship is important because you will make a lot of friends and be doing the right thing. Another reason sportsmanship is important is because you can help someone up if they got hurt." - Mitchell S.

Does a bunny hop or jump?

In August, the students in the junior kindergarten classes were assessed on their ability to jump and hop. The difference between the two was demonstrated and then each student was asked to hop and then jump in a straight line for a distance of six yards. This week we will be revisiting these two skills using Poly Spots and "hot lava" as motivation. So what do you think, does a bunny jump or hop?

Hey Batter, Batter!

This week students will be working on batting skills. From the get-go it was made clear to me by a number of students that they could hit a tossed ball and didn't need a tee. I assured them that the tee was not an indication of my lack of confidence in them, but rather a way to facilitate a more efficient class. Once they understood that using the tee would mean more chances to hit, their dissatisfaction disappeared.

The Rays may be done, but we're just getting started.

For the past two weeks, I have been working on catching and throwing with our LD students. What may seem natural and easy to us, can be very challenging to a beginner. Breaking down the process into progressions and adding learning cues helps to link cognitive and psychomotor objectives, which in turn strengthens skill acquisition. For example, having students write their name in the air helps them to easily recognize which hand is their dominant hand, and the letter "L" gives students a familiar shape to mimic when positioning the throwing arm. Progressions begin with students throwing into open space while experimenting with throwing the ball high and low. Corrective and positive feedback is given with special attention placed on correct foot placement and beginning arm position.

Catching with a glove is a student favorite. There is something very appealing about putting a leather monstrosity on your hand and trying to snag a ball out of the air. The first step may seem silly, but many students instinctively put the glove on their throwing hand, after all that is the hand they are most comfortable catching with too. Modeling catching the ball with the wrong hand and then having to take the glove off to throw is powerful in explaining why we catch with our non-dominant hand. The "web" or "pocket" of the glove is highlighted because of its importance and is likened to a Venus Flytrap. The students love to imagine that the ball is a bug and their hungry glove is just waiting to devour it the second it touches the pouch.

Motor Development in the Mini-Gym

In the Mini-Gym, Shorecrest students in Pre-K through First grade participate in one motor development class a week. The program allows for our students to practice a wide range of gross motor skills in small groups. Activities include balance beams, juggling, rebound nets, launching boards, obstacle courses, stilts, throwing, tossing and catching stations, just to name a few. We are proud of the hard work demonstrated by our little chargers.

Burnball

Imagine a world of baseball where you could pitch to yourself, could never strike out, couldn't get out going to first base, could choose to not run to the next base and not be penalized, could share a base with as many teammates as you liked, and could earn points on defense. It sounds very appealing doesn't it? This is the world of Burnball.

Burnball is the Swedish equivalent to baseball. Played by young and old, Burnball is a summertime staple of Swedish society. Having lived in Sweden for four years, I was able to learn the game, play it with family and friends, and subsequently bring it back to the United States to share with my students and colleagues.

We are currently in the middle of our Burnball unit and the students can't get enough.

Click here to see how to play Burnball (and Pesapallo, the Finnish version of baseball).

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What is sportsmanship?

Sportsmanship is one of the underlying themes of the affective objectives established for physical education here at Shorecrest. This week, we popped the question, "What is sportsmanship?" on a group of unsuspecting third graders. The responses were genuine and right on target.

It's Raining Giant Beach Balls!!

A rare phenomenon occurred during the latest storm to hit the Shorecrest Campus. At 11:00 a.m. this morning a giant beach ball dropped from the clouds above. The unsuspecting group of students used quick reactions and teamwork to deflect the bouncy ball avoiding serious injury. The ball, although mammoth in size, quickly deflated as it was still a beach ball.

And we're off

This year grades K-4 have one extended period of PE each week. For Kindergarten and First grade these 45 minute sessions will be broken up into 3 stations. At each station, classes will participate in a group game emphasizing cooperation and teamwork. Today, our Kindergartners played What Time is it Mr. Wolf?, All-for-One, and Mini-Grinch.

The President's Fitness Challenge

This week, students in grades three and four will be participating in the President's Fitness Challenge. The Challenge assesses fitness levels through five tests: sit ups, pull ups, sit and reach, the shuttle run, and the mile run. Award levels for the battery of five tests are based upon national norms for boys and girls in specific age groups. Students who achieve scores above the 50th percentile in all tests will earn the National Award, while students posting scores above the 85th percentile in all tests will earn the Presidential Award. This week's pre-test is designed to assess individual fitness areas of strength and weakness. Students will then be asked to set individual goals; subsequent lessons will be molded to help students attain these benchmarks. Follow-up tests will be administered in January with the final tests to be given in April.

The first day of school!

It was great seeing so many happy, smiling faces this morning. Having morning duty, I got to spend an extra 20 minutes talking with students about their summer adventures: horseback riding, trips to Chicago, tubing, and finally getting to let the hair grow out-just to name a few. I enjoyed our chats, but they were all eager to get to class and scurried off at 7:50 a.m. sharp. It was soon quiet and our first P.E. class followed shortly thereafter. We discussed our expectations and went over fire drills/inclement weather procedures. We will continue to do this with the rest of our classes this week before starting fitness testing next week.

Exergaming

Today, we had the privilege of visiting the USF Tampa campus and speaking with Dr. Steve Sanders, Director of the School of Physical Education & Exercise Science. USF boasts one a few exergaming labs in the state. Dr. Sanders and his staff utilize this state of the art lab for both instructional purposes and research. During our time in Tampa, we were able to not only learn about the various exregaming units, but also play a few of them. Our personal favorites were the exerbike linked to a PS2 motorcross game and the kickboxing game that tested your reaction time and fitness level.

According to Dr. Sanders, their research has shown that behavioral issues decrease when students are using the exergaming equipment. He also noted that they have just recently finished a study at a local elementary school that showed students using the exergaming lab averaged and sustained higher heart rates than their counterparts in a regular physical education classes.

A well-equiped lab runs around $50,000.

Here We Are!

Welcome to our new blog!

For those of you who may not have already figured this out, you have made your way to the blog for the LD PE team here at Shorecrest Prep in St. Pete! We are looking forward to another PHUN year of PHYSICAL PHITNESS! See you soon!