Lacrosse and Jai-alai

Welcome back from vacation!  The first and second graders are starting the Jai-alai unit this week.  This unit will teach them how to play this popular summertime activity that works on hand-eye-coordination.  We will work on rolling, tossing, throwing, tracking, scooping, and catching the ball with the scoops.  The third and fourth graders will be working on these skills as well, but with lacrosse sticks.  Both groups will be learning the history of the sports along with how the sports are played.  Lacrosse has a very rich history, and has close ties to the New England area and our natives.  It should be a fun unit!

Juggling Weeks 2-3

The students are into the second part of their juggling unit. During the first two weeks they have been working on traditional (Cascades) juggling, the tossing and catching of balls and scarves. We are now into the second part of the unit, learning non-traditional juggling skills. These include balancing plates, diablo's, devil sticks, balancing feathers, rings, and juggling pins. The equipment is set up around the room in stations and the students experiment with each item. The classes are really enjoying this time while working on hand-eye-coordination at the same time!

Juggling

The classes have moved on from our dance unit and into juggling. I am trying to work on uploading some videos from the dance unit, hopefully we can figure out why they are not syncing with this website! Our focus during the juggling unit is on hand-eye-coordination. Juggling is a great activity that works on increasing our ability to control our bodies to what our eyes are seeing. During this time, the classes will work on traditional juggling (tossing/catching objects), but they will also get to explore non-traditional types of juggling too (spinning plates, yo-yo's, etc.).

Dance, Dance, Dance!

The students are into one of their favorite units of the year, DANCE! Here the students will work on a variety of line dances for part of the class then have an opportunity to free dance at "Club Maple". This unit is always met with great enthusiasm and excitement. This year the classes will be learning a new dance to the song Dynamite. In addition, the classes are working on earning the ability to play Just Dance 3 on the Wii for their last class! Third and fourth graders were given the idea of creating videos of a them performing their own dance to show in class! These videos need to be formatted so they can be watched on a computer. The songs have to be appropriate for school too!

Rock Climbing

We are off and climbing in PE at Maple Avenue. During this unit, the students will learn some basic rock climbing skills that can be used to practice this great physical activity properly. Rock climbing is a great activity to get children involved in, even if they are the non-competitive type! This nontraditional activity allows people to push themselves at their own pace and not be reliant on a team or feel the pressure from others to perform well. The students have a great time during this unit, especially when we get into some of the challenges like "eagle's nest", or "the electric fence".

Bowling Has Begun

This week we started our bowling unit. Here the students learn all about rich history of this lifetime activity. Did you know that bowling dates back 7000 year ago! During this time the students work on their bowling skills, communication skills, and ability to set the pins up in different patterns. They also work on their math skills when we do scoring the second and third classes. However, this year we will be doing the scoring electronically. The children will post their scores on the computer and have it projected up on the wall in the gym! We will have our very own Maple Lanes here at school!

Basketball

We have moved on from soccer and into our basketball unit. This unit is set-up very similar to the soccer unit, in that they will build their skills from week to week. The first class we focus on dribbling the entire time. During this time they work on both hands, as well as the v-dribble (crossover). The second week they work on dribbling, but the focus is on passing. During this time we play an exciting activity called "Mario". The third and final week of the unit focuses on shooting, but incorporates dribbling and passing! This fast paced unit will take us up to our Thanksgiving break, which I can't believe is here already!