October is here and with it the cooler temperatures. This seemed to
surprise many of the students as they forgot to bring warmer PE clothes this
week. This is just a friendly reminder to make sure to bring sweat or
track pants and a long sleeve shirt or hoodie. These items can be
layered over top of your shorts and t-shirts and can easily be removed if you
get too warm. There are a few days in October that we will have to go
outside because the gym is booked for other events, so be prepared!
In K-2 we began a new unit that focuses on the fundamentals of catching and throwing different objects. We started simple with rolling a ball to a partner with two hands and moved on to one handed rolling and finally to rolling at a target. The students were quick to point out that this was just like bowling. We practised our rolling, making sure to get low so the ball wouldn't bounce along the floor when we released it. We also tried to make sure to move our feet when catching the ball so that our body would block it from going by us if we missed. This was difficult for some of the little ones because they loved diving on the floor to make that highlight reel catch.
The 3-7 PE classes were chased inside a little more this week because of the
temperature and even a little snow one morning. This allowed us to learn
and play a few different tag and target games. One of the games we played was "Box Ball". The objective is simple; throw
more balls into a rectangular box than the other team. The box
was made out of two floor mats, standing on end fastened together and was positioned near the back of each teams zone. Defensive
strategies were similar in most grades--stand in front of the box and knock the
balls down, but offensive strategies changed as the game progressed.
Most students started by throwing the ball at the box, but quickly
learned that it could be easily knocked down by the defense. This is
where I could see their minds starting to work and figure out different ways
they could score. Many started throwing the balls from different
angles rather than straight on which made the defense have to move around
more. Others used shot fakes to get the defense off balance before
they would shoot. One particular student in grade 6 also began
banking the ball off the walls and into the box after a few unsuccessful
attempts other ways. It was interesting because no one on the opposing
team caught on to what he was doing, they just thought he had thrown the ball
too far. I noticed him share his secret with a few of his teammates who
also were successful with this strategy. It's great to see students use
their problem solving skills, but also share things that they learned so
others can have success too.
Finally, we are no longer taking any school clothing orders. If you missed out this time around, I'm sorry, but we may look at doing it again in the spring if there is interest. I have sent in the orders and we will hopefully have everything by the end of October or early November.
