Going into the first day of practicum on Thursday, I was excited and curious to observe how physical activity was being incorporated into the students’ activities through the day at Queen Mary, as well as to have the opportunity to assist in a PE class. Although I wasn’t able to observe an actual block of PE, I did have the chance to witness the Grade 2 students partake in physical activity in two other contexts, both of which were quite interesting to note.

The first example of physical activity I observed was the school’s “Kilometre Club” – a short period at the beginning of each day during which some teachers bring their classes outside to run laps. I was actually quite surprised to see this in schools today, as I recall doing something similar when I was in Kindergarten (though it wasn’t called Kilometre Club at that time)! The children would circle the playground, and receive a small line on their hand for each lap they ran; at the end of the time period, the teacher would tally the lines and mark it on her attendance sheet. I have observed this running practice in other schools I have volunteered at as well, and generally the children seem to be interested in running laps. Of course, this doesn’t mean that all of them are engaged – some are more interested in socializing, but they socialize with their friends as they walk around the field. For these children, the amount of laps they run is less important than having a chance to build relationships with their classmates, which I think is okay. However, this club is also used as part of the IB transdisciplinary theme the class is focusing on: How we organize ourselves. Their unit discusses physical and social/emotional health, with a focus on goal setting; thus the children set personal goals for the teacher with reference to their exercise and how many laps they are attempting to do for a specific time frame. It was interesting for me to see how the IB themes are used to incorporate a variety of subjects within a single theme, including physical activity.

The second instance of physical activity I observed was in the middle of the day, after the students had returned from the library. As they were restless from sitting and listening for a long period of time, the teacher had scheduled a 15 minute period where the students could be active and engaged, providing them with a necessary break from siting in the classroom.   The teacher used to overhead projector to put on a website called “GoNoodle” which provides amazing guided dance routines for young children, and many other activities to get children active. Students and teachers alike were participating in the dances and the children were very excited to do this activity. I thought this was a great way to add in a short period of physical activity in the middle of the day to help students use some energy and re-focus their attention after having some time to just move around. It was obvious that GoNoodle is a classroom favorite, as the children knew the lyrics to all the songs and were all extremely excited to participate, even the quieter children. I would definitely use this resource in the future, and if anyone is interested (it’s free!), I have included the link below.

https://www.gonoodle.com/

I thought Wednesday’s discussion and group teach were both very well done, I enjoyed both the instant activity and learning net ball for the second portion of the class. What I thought was great about our warm up was how it was very simple, but also fun and quick. I thought it was a really good game for any P.E. class warm up. After our discussion on curriculum models Jessica, Ally and Kaira taught us how to play Netball for their team-teach. I personally was unfamiliar with the rules of the game, and kept trying to relate the mechanics to basketball, which our teachers reminded us, was a sport that had little in common with Netball. Jessica, Ally and Kaira did a really great job of explaining the skills and getting us to just start playing. This is an important lesson I learned from them. In some cases just starting to play a game allows students to get the idea of it better than an explanation can.

Another point I wanted to bring up in my reflection was the experience of P.E. I had in my practicum classroom on Thursday. The class I was shadowing had their Daily Physical Activity block at the end of the day before dismissal. In this block they played two games that were a variation of tag, both very active and inclusive of the whole group. I was really impressed with how quickly the games were explained and how involved the entire group was. I think my biggest take away from that block was learning from the teachers when to stop one game and start another. Different games can run for different lengths of time and you really have to be paying attention to the class to see if they’re enjoying what they are doing still or are ready to play something else. Looking forward to outdoor ed this week! 🙂

I enjoyed talking about different approaches to teaching PE this week. I had never heard of TGFU until our discussion. I really like the idea of teaching a game through another game, and slowly working out the details and the technique later on. I think TGFU makes a lot of sense because it’s hands on, it gets kids moving right away and it gives each learner the opportunity to participate even if they do not have the technique perfect. I also like this approach because I think it encourages more lifelong learning for students because it is fun, as opposed to putting stress on the rules of a game at the beginning.

I think this approach also applies to theories we have been learning in other classes. For example, in Lisa’s class we discussed the Whole Part Whole approach. I think it’s a similar concept – introduce the large idea first, investigate each part, and reconvene to apply the finer details to the whole lesson again.

I look forward to using this technique in my future classes!