PEnpal Newsletter
Welcome to PEnpal…the Physical Education Newsletter for Promoting Active Lifestyles
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Quote of the Month
The answer for all our national problems—the answer for all the problems of the world—comes down to a single word. That word is “education.”
--Lyndon B. Johnson
Feature Article
Add Some FUN to Your Exercises!
Remember when you were in school and your PE teacher made everyone stand in squads and do ten jumping jacks and ten push-ups and ten sit-ups and ten...you get the picture...before you could do something fun, like play a game? It made exercise seem like a chore you had to complete before you got to the fun stuff. Doing exercises with children in this manner has a tendency to turn them off in regards to exercise. It’s not very motivating to have to do the same thing every time you come to PE class. Doing callisthenic type exercises such as these does serve a useful purpose, however. It is a very efficient way to develop muscular strength and endurance, as well as flexibility. And, since must elementary schools don’t have weight rooms, it is the best way to accomplish the goals of resistance training. The obstacle is making it fun and motivating. If you change the way you present exercises to children, you can change how motivated they are to do them. To help you get started, try these two exercise activities:
Exercise Box
Get a cardboard box and tape it closed. Cut a hole in the top large enough to get your hand through. Write down 30 or so different exercises on index cards. Place the index cards in the box. When the students enter the gym have them reach into the box and pull out a card. Whatever is on the card is what they do. Let them work in pairs or groups of three. Once they complete the exercise on the card, they return it and get another one.
Exercise Roulette
Set up 12 exercise stations (numbered 1-12) around the gym. Put the students in pairs or groups of three. Give each group a foam die. The group rolls the die and goes to the corresponding station, performing the exercise at that station. When finished they roll the die again. To get to stations 7 to 12, they simply roll the die two times and add the two numbers together. A variation of this is to write the exercises on a chalk or dry-erase board. Write the numbers 1 to 6 on the board and list 3 or 4 exercises under each number. Now when the students roll the die they have to pick one of the exercises under the number to do. This gives them a few more choices to pick an exercise they like.
Did You Know?
- Over 50% of children live in home where at least 1 adult smokes.
- More than 10 million children in this country are being raised by drug-addicted parents.
- Nearly 1 million children each year are abused or mistreated by alcoholic or drug-abusing parents.
- In 1965 the average husband did 15% of the housework. Today, he does about 30% of the housework.
- 11% of mothers admit to using illegal drugs during their pregnancies.
Body of Knowledge
- The life span of a taste bud is 10 days.
- The tongue has approximately 8,000 taste buds at any given time.
- The tongue is the body’s most flexible muscle.
- Red blood cells live for about 120 days.
- The eye’s retina is the size and thickness of a postage stamp.
- Your esophagus is 10 inches long.
Fitness News
Everywhere you turn someone is making a statement or quoting a statistic about America’s children being overweight and out of shape. The facts are there, and it’s not hard to see that it’s getting worse. We obviously would agree that TV, video games, computers, and fast food don’t help. In fact, they’re probably the main cause of the problem.
Recognizing the problems, however, doesn’t solve it. We need solutions. So what can physical education teachers do? It’s hard to help kids get in shape when you only see them once or twice a week for 30 minutes or so. So, the approach has to be focused on the time you’re not with your students. First, teach students the value of physical fitness and get them to appreciate its benefits. Second, encourage them to be active and work on improving their level of fitness outside of your class. Give them homework assignments or monthly “activity” calendars they can do at home. And, third, make fitness a FUN part of every lesson you teach. The more they experience fun fitness activities the more they will see the true value of being fit and healthy.
Once-a-week physical education class might not solve the epidemic of unhealthy children, but a PE teacher certainly can motivate children to want to be healthy outside of class.
Book Review
Adapted Games & Activities by Pattie Rouse (2004, Human Kinetics; Champaign, IL; Paperback; 187 pp; $19.00
This book contains over 80 fun games and activities suitable for children with cognitive disabilities. It is divided into several chapters, including: Tag, chase, and dodge games; Team-building & cooperative games; Higher organization games; and Lead-up sport activities.
The book is very well written and organized. There is an excellent “game finder” at the beginning that lists each game or activity in the book, along with the skills it covers, how many players, equipment, etc. The only thing we didn’t like about the book is that it includes a dodgeball game where students in a circle roll balls at others inside the circle. Other than that, it’s filled with some very good activities that all kids would enjoy.
If you’re interested in a copy of this book go to “products” and click on books on this page. The book is $19.00 plus $5.95 for shipping. We accept all major credit cards.
Bulletin Board Idea
Start Your Day Off Right, Eat Breakfast!
Objective: To teach children the importance of eating a healthy breakfast each morning.
Materials You’ll Need: Pictures of healthy breakfast foods such as: Oatmeal; Cereal (not Lucky Charms!); Whole wheat breads; Juice; Milk; Fruit; Eggs; Peanut Butter; etc. A list of positive words written down individually on paper such as: Concentration; Alertness; Success; Positive Attitude; and Energy.
What to Do: Place the healthy food pictures on the bulletin board underneath the title (Start Your Day Off Right...Eat Breakfast!). Scatter the positive words around the pictures. Explain to your students that eating a healthy breakfast is important. The right foods help you to concentrate, be alert, have a positive attitude, and give you energy to make it through the entire school day with success.
Evaluation/Follow-up: Ask your students to keep a list for a week of what they eat for breakfast. Collect the lists, and without mentioning any names, go over the lists and ask the students if they think some of the items on the lists were healthy or unhealthy and why.
Games & Activities
Four-Down Football
Objective: Throwing; catching; cooperation; teamwork.
Equipment: One foam or rubber football and 4 cones (markers) for every 6-8 players.
How to play: This game can be played 3 v. 3 or 4 v. 4, so divide the students into the size groups you want to use. Each group has one football and four cones. Place the cones on the ground in a large rectangle (approximately 40’ x 60’). The team with the ball starts on their own goal line (one end of the rectangle). They have four plays to get into the other team’s end zone. One player is the quarterback and says “Ready, Go!” The other team members run down the field attempting to “get open” for a pass from the quarterback. When a successful pass and catch are made, the person catching the ball becomes the new quarterback and the team continues with their next passing play. If the pass is incomplete, it comes back to the same quarterback and the next play is run. If the offensive team catches a pass in the other team’s end zone it is a touch down. The other team now starts from their goal line and has four plays to try and score. If the offensive team doesn’t catch a pass in the end zone after four plays, the other team starts from their goal line and has four plays to try and score. The only time a team doesn’t start from its own goal line is if they intercept a pass. In this case, they start from where the pass was intercepted. No one is allowed to advance the ball by running with it. An offensive play is over as soon as the ball is caught or it hits the ground.
No Dribble Basketball
Objective: Teamwork, cooperation, tossing & catching.
Equipment: 1 Basketball (or rubber playground ball) for every 6 players; plastic hoops (if needed).
How to play: This game can be played 2 v. 2; 3 v. 3; or 4 v. 4, so divide the students into teams based on what size game you want to use. If you have enough basketball hoops available for every group to use one for their game, then do so. If not, duct tape a 30-inch hoola hoop to the wall and use it as a goal (players must hit the wall inside the hoop to score a basket). The game can be played full-court or half-court. There is no dribbling allowed. Players must pass the ball. When a basket is made, the other team retrieves the ball and moves up court. If playing half-court, the defensive team retrieves the ball after the basket then starts behind a predetermined starting line (i.e., 3-point line) by throwing the ball to a teammate. Defensive players cannot take a ball from an offensive player, or knock it away. They can intercept or knock down passes. If the defensive team takes possession of the ball by intercepting a pass or picking up a loose ball, they must start from behind the starting line. If the defensive team retrieves a rebound from a missed shot, they must start from behind the starting line.
The activities presented here are suggestions. When selecting activities for your program, you may need to change or modify them to make them more developmentally appropriate for your situation. Use these activities at your own risk, and at your own discretion, making sure to take all safety precautions into account. All of these activities are © Copyright 2005 by PlayFit Education Inc. unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. No part of these activities may be reproduced in any manner without written permission from PlayFit Education Inc.
PEnpal (ISSN:1092-4302) is published 5 times each year in January, March, May, September, and November by PlayFit Education Inc., 1945 Melson Way, Hockessin, Delaware 19707; toll-free 1-888-217-9131.
Copyright © 2005 by PlayFit Education. All rights reserved.
No part of this publication can be reproduced in any manner without the written permission of the publisher. |
