The State of PE

Lab 6, Merry Christmas St. Mary's!

The theme for the last week of lab was Christmas. The kids really enjoyed this theme ad were very excited to see us back there. This week I was in the cafeteria group. So it started out with me going downstairs and working with the kids I the cafeteria. Professor Yang brought a electronic game that Justen and I were trying to get the kids to play. They really liked the game but there was one big problem with teaching in the cafeteria. The floor downstairs is very slippery and the kids are permitted from running around.  This was a serous dilemma because we are trying to teach kids how be physically active but they can’t run around.  I understand why they shouldn’t run around downstairs but me ad Justen had to come up with away for them to get exercise. So we set up the game so they had to power walk, or just walk fast. Many of the kids kept trying to run but we had to remind them that the floor was slippery and that they could get hurt. After we spent about a hour downstairs we went up into the gym. There was a girl’s basketball practice on half of the gym. We set up a basketball game where both the kids and the teachers were involved. The kids enjoyed it while we were playing but eventually there were to many kids on half of a gym to continue. It is sad that the St. Mary’s experience is over. I had a lot of fun there and learned a lot about teaching. The time flew by when I was there. I would love to work there next semester or some time in the future. It was a really great experience.

Lab 4 make up, Merry Christmas at St. Mary's

This week in lab started out with the gym group doing parachute games with the kids. While they were teaching their games Prof. Yang had a student do some motor skills for me to assess. I observed and took notes on how well the students performed the movements. I was assessing two students overhand throwing and catching ability. Once I was done assessing the students I got to play with the kids. At First I was supposed to work with the special project group. This group was to interview, take pictures, and eventually create a newsletter telling St. Mary's parents what occurs while we are there. Because there were already 4 people in the group professor Yang though it was best if I worked with the gym group. So we just played parachute games with the kids and once that was over we did basic tag games with them. They are very easy to run and the kids usually enjoy them. I thought this lab went very well. The students really enjoyed the Christmas theme and enjoyed playing the parachute games. It is sad that there is only one more lab left.

Just a Small time zygote

St. Mary's Bazaar

Last Saturday I had a chance to get more experience at St. Mary's. Me and some of my classmates helped out at a fund raiser at St. Mary's. Dan and I ran a basketball, and football station. The kids gave us blue tickets to play, and if they won we rewarded them with red tickets(which could be used for prizes). When we got there it was very slow, most of the kids had already played all the games and used all their tickets. I wish I got their earlier when their was more people there, but overall it was a lot of fun. I saw some of the kids from lab and they were very happy to see us and play our games. When the fund raiser was over we helped clean up and put stuff away. I really enjoyed the fundraiser and I wish I worked there for longer.   

Thanksgiving lab 5

Lab 5 was a very fun learning experience.  This week I was in the Gym group which meant that I had to teach my game in front of all my peers and Professor Yang. Right from the start of lab we had to deal with some adversary. The St. Mary's basketball team had practice after school which left us with only half of the gym. After this the 2nd graders were supposed to get half of our half. So when it was our turn to teach we only had a quarter of the gym. This is something that PE teachers have to deal with on a regular basis. The game I taught was Thanksgiving treasure hunt. I put pictures of turkeys, Pilgrims, and Native Americans under poly spots. Then I put Three posters up in different areas of the gym. The pictures on the poster board matched the pictures under the poly spot. When I said Go the kids were to run around the gym. Once I said find the treasure the kids were to dribble 10 times on the poly spot, look underneath the poly spot and then take the treasure to the matching poster. The game went really well and the kids enjoyed the game. The posters and pictures really got the kids attention and kept them entertained. If we had music it would have made the game a lot better but I still think that it went good. It just makes it easier to use music as a cue to start activity. I forgot to bring a Ipod so I had to use my voice to cue the kids when to start and finish activity.  

Thanksgiving Lab 2 make up lab.

On Monday I had to make up St. Mary's lab. I was injured when the lab took place and was unable to attend do to my ankle injury. This lab was one of the funnest ones yet. Lab started out with the gym group doing there games while we studied one students movement skills. The gym group did a great job, there were over 30 kids in the group and they really kept them entertained for the whole time. The kids loved the thanksgiving theme and were very excited to play our games. after this I went to work with the Pre-K group. It was a very nice day out so all the kids were very happy to play outside. We played random games with the kids. After playing outside we went inside were the kids ate a snack. Once inside Becky red the kids a nice book about thanksgiving. While she was entertaining the kids, Me and Andrew set up his activity. His game involved a boat (the mayflower) and land (Plymouth rock). The kids were to use the scooters to get from the boat to the rock and once they were there they were to dribble a basketball over to the side. There they would grab a piece of food and carry over to the table. It was a very fun activity for the Pre-k. I think all the kids really enjoyed there games.