We started our unit on kickball by working on the basic skills of rolling (pitching) and kicking—it might seem easy, but often things are harder than they look. Rolling involves bending the knees to get the ball to ground level, taking a step towards your target and looking at the target for accuracy. Kicking, on the other hand, involves looking at the ball (not the target), keeping the feet loose, and taking a step towards the ball.

With the fundamentals down, we had to learn about the field, positions, running and fielding. After we learned about the various bases and positions, we were ready to enjoy the classic Abbot and Costello routine, “Who’s on First?”:

Everyone loved it, and now knows the answer to that particular question!

Lots of people make New Year’s resolutions to be more active and healthy, so January is a great time to do a unit on health and fitness.  We learn about various types of exercise that can help you be fit, balance and agility, and a little anatomy–names of major body parts (Preschool/Younger Kids) or major bones and muscles (Middle Kids/Older Kids). One activity I call “skeleton building”. We learn that bones are strong, light and made of rock! (Well, essentially–calcium is major component of limestone.) After doing various weight-bearing exercises that can help make bones stronger, kids can earn bricks to build a skeleton

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We’ll also be learning more about the circulatory and respiratory systems, and cause and symptoms of a heart attack, and of course how to help prevent heart attacks with lots of healthy exercise.

We finished up the semester with a short unit on yoga. Not only do yoga poses require control, balance, flexibility and strength, but it can be a lot of fun. We do lots of animal poses, especially with the preschoolers and Younger Kids, that go along with stories and games that keep them engaged. For the Middle and Older Kids, we advance to partner poses as well as power yoga that can be quite difficult (a real challenge for those older boys and girls).

There’s also the added benefit of ending each session with relaxing poses where we get to listen to the music, rest and come out refreshed for the rest of the school day.

We were able to take advantage of some of the nice fall weather to play basketball. All age levels worked on fundamental skills of dribbling and shooting. Middle and Older kids also developed teamwork with passing skills, and learned the basic rules. We finished with a mini tournament, with 3 teams in each class playing each other round-robin.

When the weather didn’t cooperate, we played netball inside. Netball is a sport that isn’t very popular in the United States, but is played more in Europe and Asia. It involves passing and shooting, but no moving with the ball or dribbling (similar to Ultimate). That made it a great fit for the small space in our indoor gym. Believe it or not, netball has been around almost as long as basketball itself!

Being able to strike an object with another is an important skill in many sports: baseball & softball, hockey, and racquet sports. One of the most user-friendly striking sports to start out with is badminton. At least it seems that way when you’re playing it with your family at the park.

But did you know that the shuttlecock, or birdie, can travel over 200 miles per hour when hit by the world’s top players? Yikes! That’s as fast as a race car! Fortunately, with a lot of air drag from the feathers, the birdie slows down quickly. But it makes top-level badminton an incredibly quick sport.

We practiced serving, forehand and backhand strokes, and smashes, and the kids had a great time playing badminton… in fact, it was pretty good minton!

Older Kids enjoy a game of Schtick, and younger kids play disc golf. One of the neat things about many disc sports is that, by tradition, there are no referees. Players are expected to show good sportsmanship and play by the rules without any outside help. It can be a great learning experience if there’s no teacher to rely on to settle disputes. With Older and Middle Kids we discuss ways we can respect the game and our ROOTS (Rules, Opponents, Officials, Teammates, and Self).

The Middle Kids really enjoyed playing Double Disc Court! It’s a simple, fun and fast-paced (almost frantically paced!) game. We did modify the rules a bit, with no zone between the two courts (they were adjacent) and discs out-of-bounds were simply out of play and had to be gotten and put back into play as quickly as possible (no point for the other team). Everyone got to catch & throw the disc and be involved in the team’s strategy.

With the beautiful fall weather, we are outside starting a unit on flying discs. Did you know that Frisbee® is a trademark of Mattel Inc.? There’s a story behind the name, too.

We learned the word “apocryphal”, which means a story that may or may not be true and nobody knows for sure. But it’s said that in the early 20th century, college students on a picnic bought pies from the Frisbie Bakery in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After the pies had been eaten, students turned the empty pie tins upside down and threw them through the air, crying “Frisbie!” (which was printed on the bakery’s pie tins). Thus, supposedly, the flying disc came to be named.

We’ll be learning how to throw and catch the discs in different ways, and playing games like Ultimate, Double Disc Court, Schtick, and disc golf.

Ready, set, go! It’s time for another year of PE at Rivendell. I hope everyone had a great—and active—summer. As always, physical education classes will cover a huge variety of topics and activities, from badminton and flying discs to yoga to basketball to nutrition to track and field. There’s something for everyone.

Students should be properly dressed for PE on days they have class, with appropriate shoes, clothing and outerwear. Please see the links at left for the days each class has PE, dress guidelines, and policies for participation in PE classes.

I’m looking foward to all the fun and games!

Spring brings us both the PSD Elementary Track Meet and the Fun Run, so we start to practice our track (running) and field (jumping and throwing) skills.

The track meet gives 4th and 5th graders from schools across Fort Collins and surrounding areas to have the opportunity to have fun and compete in various events. There are distance events (half mile and mile), sprints of various distances, a shuttle relay race, long jump, triple jump, softball throw and shot put. We practice these events for all age groups (well, okay, the 6-pound shot put is a bit heavy for the Younger Kids and Preschoolers!) and Older Kids who want may attend the District meet.

Have you ever taken a good look at the world records in events like the 100m sprint, long jump and triple jump? Time or lay out the measurement, and it’s simply astonishing what human beings can do. The picture at right is of Bob Beamon’s famous jump in 1968, the first to break 29 feet. The current record, held by Mike Powell, is 29 feet, 4.25 inches. Watching that jump is seeing the closest a person will ever come to flying without assistance.

This year’s District Track Meet is Wednesday, April 30 for distance events and Saturday, May 3 for the sprints and field events. For more details, see the “District Track meet” link at left. Good luck to all of our Rivendell participants this week!