JRFH and March Madness

Our 21st fundraising season for Jump Rope for Heart has come to a close.  This year we raised over $2,400 for the American Heart Association and had a blast participating in heart healthy activities.  This year we started a new tradition of celebrating JRFH by renting the gym at Highlands Middle School and jumping/dancing/playing our hearts out.  Thank you to all of the parents, families and students that participated in fundraising and/or the celebration event.  Please send me any photos you took of the event so I can publish them here in a later post.

In other big news, March Madness is finally upon us!  It has been a long wait for most basketball enthusiasts at East but it's finally time to get into our basketball unit.  Each class in every grade level will have some sort of basketball related activities in classes for the next two weeks.  K-1 classes use lighter/safer playground balls instead of basketballs.  This helps them with the fear factor of being hit by a pass or shot.  These classes focus on the fundamentals of ball control, dribbling/bouncing the ball, passing to a friend and trying our best to make a basket.

2nd through 4th grades are exposed to slightly more challenging drills.  2nd graders are tasked with dribbling with one hand, bounce and chest passing to a teammate and learning to shoot with the dominant hand.  3rd and 4th graders are challenged with more difficult ball handling drills and team aspects of the game like moving without the ball to get open for a pass and playing defense on 1 or more players.  I will try to get some photos or videos of the kids in action of the next two weeks to add to a basketball page on the blog.

Thanks for following the blog!

Jordan

New page and Jump Rope for Heart 2016

The last three weeks in PE at East Oakview have been a mix of fitness, gymnastics and Jump Rope for Heart preparations.  I have added a new page with descriptions and videos of all of the interesting things we have been doing.  Last Friday we had our local American Heart Association representative Julie Neuhaus stop by for an assembly.  She had lots of great information for the students about heart healthy choices for food, drinks and activities.  For the next two weeks we will be collecting donations for the American Heart Association.  These funds help families dealing with heart issues find the medicine and help they desperately need.

The most convenient way to earn prizes and gather donations is by joining the East Oakview online donation page.  Just type www.heart.org/jump into your web browser and search for East Oakview Elementary.  Join our team and create your own fundraising page.  Even if you earn donations in the form of money or check, the best way to enter it is to convert it to a web donation.  The web donations earn extra prizes like the Ninja Star Dog and it eliminates the need to hand in an envelope of checks or cash. 

Our Jump Rope for Heart event will be held on Saturday, March 5 at Highlands Middle School from 2-4pm.  All students are welcome, even students who have not collected donations.  This event is about encouraging heart healthy activities along with celebrating the team that has raised money to help kids and families.  I look forward to seeing everyone there.

Jordan Wallin

jwallin@nvps.net

Global School Play Day 2016

On Friday, February 5th East Oakview joined over 177,000 schools around the world in Global School Play Day. Over the past several decades students have seen a decrease in the amount of time allowed for free play in school and an increase in time spent on formal testing and instruction.  During the same time period we have seen an increase in disruptive behaviors and decrease in test scores.  The GSPD movement is trying to bring play back as a valuable activity for students in daily life.  More info on Global School Play Day and information on the benefits of unstructured play, please click here.

Below are some examples of the activities the students came up with during their PE time on GSPD!

Pages

I just published a page about our bowling unit.  I will try to add a new page for each unit that we go through during the year.  I took some videos during our bowling unit and pictures of the bowling trip.  I can't promise a ton of videos and pictures throughout the year because it is difficult to be behind the camera and still manage the class.

Enjoy!

Exercise should be fun

My main focus as a PE teacher at East Oakview is to help students enjoy exercise.  If we want students to grow up to have a healthy lifestyle, exercise must be something they enjoy doing.  Personally, I feel that exercising in a group or a team makes it more enjoyable because of the social benefits.  When we are young, exercise almost always comes in the form of being on a sports team, club or school PE class.  When we get older, for most of us, sports teams and PE classes are no longer an option.  A good way to stay fit and be part of a club or group is to find a gym that offers group fitness classes.

Below is a link to an article about a gentleman who was extremely overweight and joined a CrossFit gym.  I personally like CrossFit because I have been part of a CrossFit gym for almost 6 years.  I would encourage anyone who is looking to create a healthier lifestyle to check out a local CrossFit gym or any fitness center that offers a group classes.

...And Fitness For All 

Sincerely,

Jordan Wallin

PE footwear and sledding contest!

It is always a challenge to get students to remember to bring and wear their gym shoes on PE days.  In an effort to try and increase shoe responsibility, I am offering a sledding class as a prize for classes that have 100% of students wearing gym shoes.  Class progress will be visible on the whiteboard in the gym.  If a class has 100% shoes, the class will earn a "Smiley Face".  At the end of January, the class in each grade level that has the most smiley faces will earn a special PE sledding class on the first week of February.  Notes will be sent home to the students in the winning classes.

-Jordan Wallin

Integrated Fridays

At East Oakview we have a rotating Friday "specials" schedule.  The year is split up into four blocks and each day of the week is repeated on Friday once each block.  At the beginning of the year, the Friday specials schedule is exactly the same as Monday.  During the second block, the Tuesday schedule is repeated on Friday.  This format continues for Wednesday and eventually Thursday at the end of the year.  This means that on every week, half of the school gets an extra day of PE.

Instead of continuing on with the weekly theme on Friday and allowing half of the school to get ahead of the other half, we have instead been having "Integrated Fridays."  Integration is about pairing movement and fitness activities with literacy and math skills.  Below are examples of some of the Integrated Friday activities that I have captured on camera so far this year.


4th grade keyboard vocab words

4th grade keyboard part 2

1st grade keyboard

3rd grade dice and dots

Many students have trouble maintaining focus while sitting in desks in classrooms.  I think adding movement to literacy and math practice helps students stay interested and excited about learning.

Thanks for reading.  I can't wait to get back to work on Monday.

Happy New Year!

Jordan Wallin