Last Friday was a lot of fun, it was the most free flowing lesson we’ve had all year, due to the variance it’s station based approach.I really enjoyed the creativity involved in the warm up and cool down. More so, I appreciate the creativity and ambition with the lesson as a whole. It goes without saying that, that lesson is a high risk, high reward undertaking. With an ample amount of front loading by the instructor and a trusting relationship between teacher and class, it could be tremendous. On the other hand, things could easily go array. Nonetheless, as aforementioned, I admired the ambition of this lesson. I think a lot of the preceding groups, including my own, took a more traditional route because most of us assumed that the students would be acclimated regarding the type of behavior expected in those traditional structures. Last Friday, however, took an entirely different, more progressive, and perhaps more fulfilling approach. If there is a time to try a more unique approach to teaching, it is in a safe, experimental and controlled environment such as this. In retrospect, I wish I had suggested something more outside the box to my presentation group after participating in this lesson. Overall, it was a great lesson, one that only provides us with more tools for our P.E. toolbox. We have now been gifted some knowledge in almost every overarching aspect that we will have to deal with in our P.E. class in terms of activity types to game plan for. I hope to lesson plan in a creative manner much like the one that was exemplified last Friday.

Congratulations Cheryl, Rob, Elizabeth and Mary! I thought you did a fantastic job with your presentation on Friday. I really enjoyed seeing everyone’s teaching persona come out during the different activities. For instance, I thought Mary had a more warm and gentle voice while Elizabeth’s was very enthusiastic and encouraging which also helped to suit the activities they were doing. I loved the warm up and cool down activity which involved students imagining themselves as animals. From my experience, primary students absolutely love animals and thought these activities were a great way for students to use their imagination. I also loved the instant activity where we each used our bodies to form different letters of the alphabet. This was very creative and allowing students to form partners based on where they were in the gym when the music stops is a great way for them to form relationships with different people.

I thought having sixteen stations was an excellent idea and I loved how Elizabeth said students are free to explore which ever stations they want. This made all of the activities sound really fun and exciting. I also liked how all of the different activities came together to help promote mental, emotional and physical health. I’m a great fan of mindfulness and loved the positivity wall and the meditation centre. I think a lot of students might sometimes get overwhelmed with all of the noises and activities that go on in PE and this is a great way to calm themselves down. I also liked how all of the stations were positioned around the sides of the gym and I feel it would be quite easy for a teacher to stand in the centre and monitor what was going on in the different stations. Overall, it was an excellent presentation and all of the presenters should be very proud of the hard work they put into their lesson.

I really enjoyed the physical and health literacy lesson by Cheryl, Elizabeth, Mary and Rob. I liked how there were so many choices for activities and many of them allowed students to be creative. When I first went into the gym I thought there were four stations but then saw that there were 16. I thought that was great because there was less of a chance for line-ups so students can try many different activities. I saw at the obstacle course a group of students made a hungry hippo game with just two crates, 2 scooters and bean bags. They seemed to really be enjoying themselves. I think that is something that we should all be instilling in our students that simple materials can create fun games. They had many games where a person had to be aware of their body and what it could create. The instant activity had you using your body to create letters and the warm up and cool down had you using your imagination to turn into animals or imagine that you were in certain situations.

The discussion we had was very interesting because it made you reflect on how much exercise a child actually gets in a day and what is considered exercise. When you break down the 60 minutes required it is actually very doable. A teacher can do cross-curricular activities to teach subjects that can involve physical activity. Or a quick activity in the morning or brain break can also be incorporated. Sometimes just that little bit of exercise can make a difference. In my school all students have to go outside to play and are not allowed to stay in the classroom unless it is really cold outside and I think this is very good. A child needs to run around or at least have a change in environment to function.

I think the group had a good balance of activities that incorporated all different interests of students. Some students prefer individual activities and others enjoy working in groups. Good job!

Last Friday’s group did a great job on physical literacy! Both the warm-up and the cool-down were really memorable! They were able to have consistency with the animal theme; something that I think is a great strategy for a Grade 2/3 class, for any class! It was a great way to get us students to use our creativity and imagination; something we should all be striving to do in our lessons. I think we can get lost in the content of what we have to teach that we have a hard time getting creative. Although, using the new curriculum, we will have more opportunities to be inventive with our lessons.

I thought the main activity was also a great way to teach us physical literacy! Liz, Rob, Cheryl and Mary were effective educators in giving us the Bingo task. They told us we did not have to complete it and that we had the choice to go to any of the stations as we pleased; just as long as we were moving and completed at least 2 of the stations. It was a great way to show us students that it was more important to be moving, exploring and having fun with it. I think that is what physical literacy is all about, being able to apply the different aspects of movement into every day play and being able to balance the different bouts of knowledge, in our daily routines. For example, there was a station to create a healthy routine and a healthy plate; giving us the option to have fun with the food options and while educating us. I personally enjoyed the cheering station! I love the rhythmic gymnastics ribbons, they are so much fun to run around with and it was very fun to cheer for our classmates!