Putting the Fun back into Fitness - The Nuts & Bolts of the Fitness Unit

If you've read previous posts you will already know that I don't particularly agree with fitness testing in Elementary School. (Link Here to Fitness Testing in Primary Schools - YES or NO?)

For Grade 5 we overlapped the Athletics Unit (an intro to Track & Field) with the Fitness Unit in order to introduce the students to a wide range of the components of fitness (health and skill).

For the lower Grades we focus six lessons (three cycles) on cherry picking the components of fitness that we feel appropriate for the specific age groups.

In this post I am not going to go into depth into the Athletics unit (Grade 5), but the events covered within that unit will help highlight where certain components of fitness fit across the two units.

Grade 5 Athletics (Intro. to Track & Field)

Athletics Unit 2018
Lesson 1: Into. to Sprinting
Lesson 2: Sprinting
Lesson 3: Intro. to Middle Distance 1500m
Lesson 4: Middle Distance 1500m
Lesson 5: Intro. to Long Jump
Lesson 6: Long Jump
Lesson 7: Intro. to High Jump
Lesson 8: High Jump
Lesson 9: Javelin

A constant theme throughout this unit are the components of fitness, particularly:
Health: cardiovascular fitness, flexibility, muscular endurance, strength and
Skills: agility, balance, coordination, reactions, rhythm, power and speed.

Added onto the Athletics Unit for the Grade 5s are the following lessons, which make up the Fitness Units for the younger Grade groups.

Fitness Unit 2018
Lesson 1: Intro. to three new bodyweight exercises through a tag game. Followed up by Fitness Prisoner Dodgeball.
Lesson 2: Intro. to three new bodyweight exercises through a tag game. Followed up by Fitness Prisoner Dodgeball.
Lesson 3: 'Old School' (warm up), one partner circuit. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.
Lesson 4: 'Old School' (warm up), one partner circuit. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.
Lesson 5: Interval training via a timed tag game. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.
Lesson 6: Interval training via a timed tag game. Followed by a Dodgeball game or Yoshi.

The breakdown of lessons 1 and 2 introduces 6 bodyweight exercises over the course of two lessons.  This is achieved by playing 'everyone is it' tag or the fast tag in the world. Each time someone is tagged they perform 5-6 repetitions of the exercise we are learning about. The game is repeated three times introducing the three exercises. A lot of emphasis is place on form and doing the exercise right.

The first three exercise were the Star jump, Mountain Climbers and the Burpee.

Each exercise was taped to a board so they could be stood up around the gym.

The second half of those lessons is devoted to a game the students really have a lot of fun playing. With prisoner dodgeball when the students are hit or if they get caught, they go to the side and perform one of the exercises introduced that lesson. Once they have completed the exercise they make their way to prison and the game continues.  Each time they head to the side to do an exercise they are advised to rotate through the three and if they get hit a fourth time they start back with their first exercise.

By the time the students get to lessons 3 and 4 they know their six new exercises really well. After an 'old school' warm up, as a class we run some shuttles, the students break in to pairs and make their way clockwise round the gym doing their new circuit. Rep. ranges for the easier exercises are 20 and for the harder exercises 10.

For the second half of the lesson we play a fun game of the students choice, usually dodgeball or Yoshi.

In lessons 5 and 6 we play a tag game as part of the fitness element of the unit. The tag game introduces interval training. I don't know what the tag game is called, but I will attempt to describe it below.

Interval Tag Game.
The game is divided into 10 rounds.
Each round is 30 seconds long or each round gets progressively longer by 3-5 seconds.
Mr. Weston starts off as the sole tagger, carrying 4 mini noodles.
In the first 30 seconds I have to tag 4 students.

Once round 1 is over, if the students have not been a tagger or have not been tagged they receive a lollypop stick e.g. if they have successfully evaded the taggers that round they get a lollypop stick.

After the first round, if the students do get tagged they have to surrender their all their lollypop sticks to the tagger. You can not get tagged back within that round.

After 10 rounds we have a quick show of hands regarding who has how many lolly sticks.

Another possible timing opportunity would be to pyramid the times e.g. start at 30 seconds, increase by 5secs until you get halfway through the rounds and then start decreasing the time back to 30 again.

Again the second half of the lesson is devoted to a popular student game, Dodgeball or Yoshi.

That's it for a rough nuts and bolts for elementary fitness.

Orienteering Revisited '18

This is a post that is based on the reflections on last years Orienteering unit and how I organised the unit this year.

Lesson Order:
1. Introduction to basic maps and map drawing (find your partners lolly pop stick)
2. Micro Orienteering
3. Marco Orienteering (Flags of the world pt. 1)
4. Marco Orienteering (Flags of the world pt. 2)
Future Lessons:
5 & 6. Clue based Orienteering

Last year I started with Micro Orienteering follow up with Map Drawing (Hunt the lolly stick) Orienteering. As you can see this year I reversed the two lessons.

Reasons for this were I felt the students need to get to understand the basics of map reading, and the Micro Orienteering lesson didn't really answer all their questions.

Having them look at maps first and then produce a simple map on a personal white board of the gym with bits of equipment scattered round it seemed the more logical path to take. The practical part of the lesson had the students draw a plan of the gym (plus equipment) and then in pairs one would hide their partners lolly stick, mark it on the map with a circle and then have them try and find it.
A link to how to play this game can be found here.

Once the students have kinda got their heads around the idea of drawing and looking at a plan of the gym the next lesson: Micro Orienteering is much more plain sailing. In this lesson the idea of orientating yourself to the map is really important. It should be noted here, to save time and to lay the course, I had to produce the map for the class and photocopy it accordingly. Alternatively, if I have the time I would let the students copy the map onto their own white boards and to mark on the circles... I'm guessing that would produce some interesting results (and maps!).
A link to how to play this game can be found here.

Lessons 3 and 4: Macro Orienteering is conducted in an area of the schools ground, including outside basketball courts, a covered play area, the cafeteria, the gym and the football field.

I made up 40 cards with 20 flags (each flag had a double). With one set of flags I gave a number and with their double I gave a letter e.g. The Flag of France, one card is S and the other is 72.
To add a bit of technology into the mix I had the cards made up as QR codes (our G3's have individual iPads).

Before the lesson I place 20 cards (10 flags) around the area mapped, each location marked with a circle.

The objective is for the students to work in pairs to locate, find and record each card found and to match up the flag codes.

This is repeated for the 4th lesson, but with a varied map and the other 10 flags.

Below is one of the maps and keys for the flags that I used this year.

In the future I would like to try as the final lesson a clue based orienteering course. I'm not 100% sure what it will look like, but I like the idea of getting the students critically thinking their way to the next clue etc.

G5 Athletics (Track & Field)

This is a great unit for the G5's.

It's a great individual pursuits unit, we explorer body mechanics, they time and measure, set PB's and future goals. Plus we get to visit the high school track and field facilities which are outstanding - using the facilities motivates and inspires the G5's to really push themselves and be the best that they can be. 

The unit itself is split between the primary school gym and the high school track & field facilities. We usually explorer the mechanics and techniques the lesson before in the gym and then take it up to the track the following lesson to time/measure.

The unit fits under the learning journey of the elements of movement.

The enduring understand for this unit: Movement techniques impact our performance.

The compelling questions are: 

How do we move our body to develop our running for speed and distance?

How do we move our body to develop our jumping for height and distance?

How do we move our body to develop our throwing for accuracy and distance?

I usually start with sprints, move into jumps and throws and then we extend the running distances, exploring pace and strategies. We finish the unit with an all-out assault on the Mile. 

What I do notice (and love) is that before the unit, you mention the mile run and you'll get one or two students let out a small groan. But, by the end of the unit, attitudes have changed and myths put to bed. The mile run isn't seen as this near death experience, it's seen as a challenge, and each student now has a good idea of how that distance feels and they have a strategy on how to run it.

This year the events we inquired into were: 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, Mile, Long Jump, High Jump, Indoor Javelin & Indoor Shot Putt. For the G5's we classified the 100 & 400m as sprints and took the 800, 1500 & Mile as middle distances.

Over the years at JIS I have been diligently collecting the data from the events, so when a student asks 'what should I be aiming for' etc. I can give them rough targets to aim for (an informed answer), but as I tell the students at the beginning of the unit, this is all about setting personal targets and challenging yourself. Though a little friendly competition is good for them.

Reflections on the unit 

Again I return to the MTV (Making Thinking Visible) reflection of 'I used to do/Now I do'

I really emphasized that I wanted the students to pullout just one of the learning journeys they have be on during this unit and to write about it...

Some "Now I Know/Do's"

Fitness Testing in Primary Schools - YES or NO?

Fitness Testing in Primary Schools

I will now attempt to put an argument for not testing in primary PE... 

For myself, the word testing is enough to make me let out a little grown. For some students, when it's used in conjunction with the word fitness it's enough to make them limp off to the nurse, or in some cases have sleepless nights. Now this definitely isn't all students, as you will always have a handful of athletes willing to compete who just love the tests. But I'm guessing they are the handful of students that excel at fitness testing.

Fitness testing does have a time and a place, I'm just not sure it should be done during primary school PE lessons. Don't we preach that play and inquiry are key to the development of the child and yet we make them sit through tests that were originally designed for adults and are incredibly prescriptive?

But, you do the test. You record the students heights and weights and you put them through a series of designer challenges in order to collect data. Why? So you can let the overweight or unfit child know they are overweight or unfit? I'm kinda guessing that the child already knows, and doesn't need a beautiful printout stating the obvious.

 

What's Just Happened

Personally, as a professional physical education teacher I think I can recognise if my students need to improve their fitness or lose weight. Hopefully I can target these issues by promoting a healthy active lifestyle, and by making the most of the time I have within PE. Additionally, you always have to keep in mind that there's a good chance that over the next couple of years as students grow their body types change. The slightly overweight child in grade 5 could become the class athlete by grade 7 or 8. Particularly if you've given them a love for being active and staying healthy!

 

Missing Our Primary Audience

I think we're missing our audience by fitness testing in primary school.

The top athletes love the multi stage fitness test because they do well in it! But they are not the students we want or need to get up and running, because they are already internally motivated.

Our target audience are the ones that don't do particularly well in the tests, the ones that need help in getting motivated, and/or are too shy about being tested in front of their peers.

I have to argue that if fitness testing is the way we are introducing a love for life long fitness into primary schools, we are doing the majority of our students a disservice.

Instead we should be promoting the understanding that fitness and exercise are fun! As PE educators we talk about how we should be developing a love for exercise, games and sports that should be with students a lifetime.

Case in point, when I was at university we worked closely with Great Ormond Street Hospital, helping medically obese children. Our number one priority was to get them back to enjoying being active: playing tag, capture the flag etc, not sticking them through boring fitness tests that already told us what we already knew.

I could go on about fitness testing in primary schools, and I certainly could play devils advocate. 

My belief as a PE specialist is that we need to introduce healthy life style concepts at an early age.  We need to make fitness and exercise fun so they become positively integrated into students lifestyles. Then, as students grow and develop the introduction to more commercialized fitness tests, particularly when linked with sport makes more sense.

KG: Fun with Storage Crates

As the title suggests, the students loved playing with the storage crates - from experience let me tell you, pushing them around the gym floor with students tucked safety inside is a real cardio and whole body workout.

Making Thinking Visible: Building Understanding through Critical and Creative Thinking

How can we activate students’ thinking to build understanding in the subject areas? And how can we help students to think more critically and creatively at the same time? During this course, you will learn to personalize and apply a research-based framework called Visible Thinking that is being used effectively in a number of schools. Adaptable to any subject area, Visible Thinking allows getting started almost at once with ‘thinking routines’ that help students ponder ideas from the subject areas. These routines, together with other ‘cultural forces’ such as language and expectations, and often with the use of art and artifacts as conversational foci, create a vibrant culture of thinking and understanding in the classroom. Documenting students’ work and reflecting on it both with colleagues and the students, make students more aware of their thinking and feeds professional conversations that foster collegiality and collaboration among teachers.

THROUGH LINES

The core questions we will investigate during this course are:

• How can we build students' understanding, increase engagement in the subject areas through thinking, and improve students' thinking?

• How can we foster positive thinking and learning attitudes as well as abilities?

• How can we use the arts and artifacts as foci of thoughtful learning for understanding across the subject areas?

• How can we document student thinking so that both teachers and students are better able to understand and develop it?

• How can we foster a culture of thinking and regard for thoughtful learning in the classroom?

• How can we build teacher collegiality and collaboration around a culture of thinking and thoughtful learning?  

Trying out the CEC Visible Thinking Routine with G4 Health and Fitness

 

I started the unit by writing down three questions for the students to think about and then answer on a post-it note.

1. Our bodies change and feel different when exercising - why?
2. How do we count heartbeats?
3. What do we know about heartbeats?

After reviewing the students answers across three G4 classes I picked six post-it note answers from the Question 1. that I thought would extend the students thinking and deepen their understandings of the connections between exercise, their bodies and health.

The next step was to slightly adjust their answers and turn them into questions. As you can see I picked six different answers to make sure I extend their thinking in order to deepen their understanding in a way that gives them a rounded knowledge of the subject matter.

To summaries what I have done so far:

Feedback from the Course: Making Thinking Visible: Building Understanding through Critical and Creative Thinking - February 2015

The Next Step...

Addressing the gaps and misconceptions in the students answers and wonderings. In the connection stage I chose six student questions that need to be explored in more detail. The plan in the extension stage is to devote 10-15 minutes of the next six lessons to address the six questions in order to fill those gaps and address those misconceptions regarding the human body and exercise.

Addressing Question No.1: "When you are running not enough oxygen gets into you and your heart beats faster, why?"

G5 Athletics: Health & Fitness/Track & Field

This unit is all about introducing the students to Athletics (Track & Field). With a focus on achieving personal bests (PBs). The events we will be covering are the two jumps, high and long. Two of the throws, shot put and modified javelin. Three track, 100m, 400m, and 1500m. In the build up to the 1500m event we will examine our own personal fitness levels,in order to set achievable goals in the run up to the event.

The approach to each event will usually consist of the students watching a clip from an athletics meet, a brief discussion on rules, techniques and our own biomechanics, and then one or two practice drills in the gym followed by a complete lesson up at the HS track where the students get to put all they have learnt and practiced into action/context.

 

 Student questions will help shape the Athletics Unit this semester

100, 200 & 400m Sprints.

Key Physical Objectives:

• High Knees.
• Powerful, Active Arms.
• The Sprint Start
• "ON YOUR MARKS" measuring your starting position and placing your hands.
• "SET" bums in the air, leaning forward, looking up.
• "GO!" Drive & Acceleration.
• Don't SLOW DOWN until you cross the finish line.
• Run in your lane & NO physical contact with other participants.
• Introduction to staggered starts.

Each individual students personal best (PB) was recorded.

400m

400m

Shot Put

Key Physical Objectives:

• Holding the Shot "seeing daylight"
• High elbows.
• Clean Palm, Dirty Neck.
• Weight transfer - Back to front.
• Travel - From low to high.
• Add a twist (the coiled spring)
• Throw high!
• Flick your wrist on the release.
• Grunting is optional :)
• Enter and exit from the back of the circle (Throw and Collect only when Mr. Weston tells you to). 

Again, each individual student will be recording their best throw.

Shot Put

Javelin

Key Physical Objectives:

• Holding the Javelin "different grips & laying it down the hand, rather than across, palm facing up".
• Delivery "non-throwing arm at approx 45 degrees, throwing hand remains facing up, pull through the Javelin".
• Transfer of weight.
• Throw high and flick your wrist.
• Don't over step the line!

Record PB

Javelin

Javelin

Long Jump

Drills:

• Warm Up: Hopping for Height & Distance
• Standing Long Jump with 2 leg take off
• Standing Long Jump with single leg take off
• Distance jumping competition - 3 continuous and successive 2 footed jumps
• Circle (Hoop) Jumping
• Box Jumping
• Elementary Long Jump techniques with 3 bounding strides

Key Physical Objectives:

• Use your ARMS!
• Jump for height as well as distance
• Jump 1 foot to 2 feet
• Take of behind the line
• Fall sideways or forwards when you land
• Keep your head high

Long Jump Practice in the Gym

Long Jump Practice in the Gym

Long Jump

Long Jump

High Jump

Drills & Key Objectives:

• Warm Up: Hopping for Heigh
• Jump back onto the mat - flicking hips high, bringing knees to chest, keeping chin on chest and landing on your upper back
• Introduction to the Scissors and which foot do you prefer to take off from?
• Using the Scissors to clear a low line.
• Remember: Always take off from the foot furthest away from the mat & and run in at an angle.
• The Fosbury Flop - will be introduced when we get to the HS on the professional High Jump equipment (American athlete Dick Fosbury first brought it to the world's attention in 1965 and won a gold medal in the 1968 Summer Olympics).

High Jump Practice

High Jump Practice

High Jump

High Jump

More Photos:

400m

Modified Javelin

Shot Put

High Jump Practice - Gym

High Jump Practice - Gym

Long Jump Practice - Gym

The Unit concludes with the Middle Distance: 1500m

In preparations for the run students have used the Cooper 12 minute run (flat and as an obstacle course) to help them judge their pace and to get an idea of distance (I have the Cooper course measured - so the students can track and compare how far they travel in 12 minutes). Most of the students are surprised how far they travel during the test! In addition getting them to run and possibly pass the 1500m mark helped dispel the rumors that the 1500m is a near impossible distance to achieve!

In the build up to the run we discussed pacing, and the different body position we run in compared to short distance sprints. The need for staying re-hydrated when running in the sun, and some simple strategies they could possibly use to help make their running efficient with the goal of achieving a PB.