School Startup

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and write a little update about the first few weeks of school.  As most of you probably know the gym is not quite ready yet, but we're getting closer.  The basketball lines have been repainted and the floor refinished.  I've been able to move a lot of our equipment into the storage room now and are just waiting on some of our pull out carts to get finished up and put into place.  I think by next week we should be up and running.

We've been very fortunate this year the weather is cooperating and we have had some beautiful sunny days to play outside.  Thanks to all parents that keep sending their children with outdoor running shoes for PE classes.  I realize that sometimes running shoes don't go with the outfit your children are wearing, but it is much easier and safer for the students to run and be active with the right footwear. Also, as a reminder to our older students, it would be a good idea to keep wearing athletic clothing on our PE days until our change rooms are functional.

PE classes have been great to start out the year.  The students are excited to get outside and get moving.  With the grade 1 and 2 students we have spent time focusing on routines like sitting in our squads, stopping on the whistle or freeze signal and finding our personal space.  Along with these things we have been learning and practising various locomotor movements through various cooperative, tag and movement games.

 The grade 3-5 students have been working on soccer skills, such as dribbling, passing, punting and shooting over the past few PE classes.  We have some very talented players in these grades and I'm excited to see them play for our school soccer team this year and in years to come.  We will spend the next few PE periods refining our skills and playing some small sided soccer games.

Finally, the grade 6 and 7 students are starting the school year off with a flag football unit.  This game is new to many students so we've had to spend a lot of time on how to grip a football, basic throwing and catching skills and how to hold the ball when running.  We have a few more skills to discuss and will get into small group games in the next few periods.

Tiger athletic teams have started up already the soccer teams had their first match yesterday and played quite well.  Cross country runners have been busy practicing during the lunch hour in preparation for their first meet this Thursday.  Boys and girls volleyball teams will start up at the end of this week or early next week as well and have their first game on Sept. 26.  Check out the athletic page on my blog for further updates.

I think that's all for now.  If you have any questions about athletics or PE class feel free to call or email me at the school.