PE 4 EVERY KID - THIS WEEK IN PE

This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham

5/27/2022

We wrapped up our school year this week with the last full week of classes! In our culminating week, students participated in free choice activities. They selected the things they enjoy doing to be active and spent their time playing and having fun with their peers. It was bittersweet as this year's 5th graders were my first group of students I got to teach from kindergarten all the way through 5th grade. Hard to believe I've been teaching at Williamsburg for 6 years and just finished year 25 overall. I've had lots of fun working with our graduating class and I hope their physical education experience was an enjoyable one. Best of luck in Middle School!

HERE'S A LOOK BACK AT SOME MEMORIES WHEN THEY WERE LITTLE...

As we prepare to transition into summer break, I just want to say thanks for another great year. It certainly had its challenges along the way, but we made it through and I'm already looking forward to next year with eager anticipation. Whatever you have planned this summer, be sure to make time to get outside and BE ACTIVE! There are lots of adventures ahead and I hope everyone takes full advantage of being fully engaged and present with their friends and families. I can't wait to hear all about everything you did over the summer. My plans include relaxing, fishing (of course), swimming, a family trip to Michigan, a couple home improvement projects, and some PE curriculum planning for next year.

This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

5/20/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

First off, a HUGE THANK YOU to our 125+ Williamsburg parent volunteers who showed up to make our Sports Finale (Field Day) a tremendous success! The students loved seeing so many of their parents in attendance. The weather cooperated and all the stations were a blast!

This week our K-2 students participated in some parachute activities! The parachute requires students to listen, follow directions, and work together in order to make the different activities a success. They had a lot of fun and made some great memories launching rubber chickens up to the ceiling, going under the parachute, playing a variety of "color" games.

Grades 3-5 played either Champions & Challengers or Hula Moolah which worked on throwing for accuracy in a 1v1 format. Hula Moolah uses money where students can wager any amount they agree on to see who can accumulate the most money. For our second lesson, we switched to throwing a Frisbee in a large group game called Frisbee Pin Knockdown.

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This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

5/13/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

With the end of the school year just around the corner, I wanted to spend a week getting students engaged in activities that require them to work with a variety of different people. I typically do that in my classes anyway, but this week I really wanted to be intentional about getting students to accept others into their group or to be their partner. So often students select their best friend or circle of immediate friends to play with, which is normal, but I wanted to encourage students to step outside their comfort zone and initiate conversations with other people that they might not ordinarily select to play with. The social-emotional learning that takes place in the physical education setting is paramount to any physical skills that they acquire along the way. I always want the students to remember, "The game isn't as important as the people you play it with."
Here are a few videos from some of the games we played this week...

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This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

5/6/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

This week, our students got a chance to participate in a HUGE obstacle course that contained 10 different obstacles that they worked through. The course contained a lot of "functional fitness" movements...balancing, running, jumping, leaping, bounding, crawling, climbing, jumping, landing, you name it, the kids did it! I posted a lot of individual class videos on Class Dojo throughout the week if I got a chance during the class period. On day 2, our 1st-5th graders wore their pedometers to measure their activity levels.

Congratulations to our 1st graders from Ms. Hanna's class for winning April's Positive Behavior Contest!

Congratulations to all of our grade level winners from April's Monthly Fitness Contest!

This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

4/29/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

This week our students participated in some teambuilding activities that focused on cooperation, communication, problem solving, critical thinking, and decision making. I was only at school one day this week as I flew to New Orleans after school Monday to attend the SHAPE America National PE Conference. I was honored to present to PE teachers from all over the world in a 2-hour presentation with other PE Teachers of the Year as we shared activities and some tricks of the trade that have contributed to making our PE programs a success. I learned a ton while I was away and I'm excited to finish the year strong!

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This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

4/22/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

This week our students learned all about their heart and lungs and how they work together to keep us alive! Over the weekend I set up a HUGE obstacle course that represents a life-size model of the heart and lungs. Students pretended they were the blood cells carrying either oxygen or carbon dioxide as they traveled through the course. This kinesthetic learning experience was a TON of fun for the students as they learned a little more about their bodies and how they work. Here's a few videos showing the content/concepts I taught each day.

Here's a look at a couple classes working on the obstacles as I give a walkthrough of all the different parts of the course. Our students had an absolute blast participating in this exciting obstacle course this week.

This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

4/15/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

This week, our focus was on getting students repetitions on hitting off a tee. They got to work together in small groups to rotate through different positions as they played "Home Run Dice Derby"!

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This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

4/8/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

This week was one of the best I've had in a LONG time! I finally got my FULL teaching space back after 2 years of being on half the gym and having lunch taking place on the other side of the divider curtain while I was teaching. To say teaching over the last 2 years has been difficult would be an understatement. Now I'm sure that there are other PE teachers who have had it worse, and I don't want to sound like a "complainer," so let's just say I'm glad everything we've endured is behind us.

We celebrated our return to the full gym with "Free Choice" activities which included our traverse climbing wall! The kids LOVED challenging themselves to make it across the wall using the different colored rocks which indicate various levels of difficulty. The second day we added some hula hoops that snap into the wall as additional obstacles for students to navigate through. The kids are excited to have the space and are adapting to some of the new routines.

The icing on the cake this week for me was that the Illinois State Board of Education released a statement stating that teachers were not required to administer the annual battery of Fitnessgram Fitness Tests! So after I had starting testing, I found out I didn't have to. Needless to say this made both teacher and students very happy!

Congratulations to the winning classes from our Monthly Fitness Challenge for the month of March!

This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

3/25/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

This is it...the last week before spring break. We've had rain ALL week and as a result, the kids have had indoor recess as well. Not getting outside for their recesses throughout the week has definitely been evident in student behavior, so free choice stations weren't originally what I had planned, but the kids just "needed" to "play." I'm so excited to be able to return to my full gym space without the disruption of lunch taking place on the other side of the curtain. I'm looking forward to the push through end of the year!

This Week in #PhysEd with Mr. Graham...

3/18/2022

Each week you can see the activities that our students were engaged in as well as many of the resources I used in my teaching. I put out these weekly posts for parents to see what their child is learning in PE as well as for other PE teachers to get ideas they can implement in their own program.

With St. Patrick's day Thursday and a Spirit Day on Friday, the gym was overflowing with laughter & fun! We had some St. Patrick's-themed warmup activities followed by some skill-practice activities. This week students continued to work on manipulative skills with a short-handled paddle. The energy level was high and I think the string of warm weather days has definitely given way to some "spring fever" in terms of student behavior.

All our our 3rd-5th graders completed the first of four State-mandated fitness tests this week. We will be completing our remaining assessments after spring break.

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This "time to line up" video series by @physedreview has really added an orderly way to end class and get my students' attention focused on lining up and making that transition back to the classroom.