March Madness!

It's that crazy time of the year where all Basketball fans go wild. It's March Madness. You might be asking, what is March Madness? March Madness is the end of the season basketball tournament where the best 64 teams compete for a National Championship! It starts off with an opening round game which determines who is the 64th team. There are six rounds of the tournament, First Round, Second Round, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four and Final the National Championship Game.

On Monday and Tuesday each class worked on a Tournament Bracket chart, on which they predicted the winners for each round. They learned about seeding, and about how the chart predicts, and organized their ideas about how it would go by working their way through the chart. So if it was up to Anita's, Elaine's and Susan's class Michigan State would be the National Champion and if it was up to Renata's class Pittsburg would be the National Champion. So far Michigan State is on track to making it to the National Championship Game, Pittsburg lost in Round Two.

During class the students have been working very hard on their basketball skills from learning how to dribble, pass and shoot as well is teamwork. We talked about how important teamwork is in winning a Championship as well as how it is important in the game of LIFE. Without the support of a family, classmates, teachers, teammates, your community, it is very hard to accomplish the goal, whatever it may be for.

The example I used with them was that just because a team might be the best skilled, talented, or higher rank team doesn't necessarily mean it is going to win the National Championship. We see many times in sports it's the team that works together as team, picks up someone who might be having a bad game or is hurt that wins.

At the end of the National Championship game they play a highlight film with the song called "One Shining Moment" written by David Barrett, who resides in Ann Arbor. This song pretty much sums up the whole tournament and why it is so fun and exciting to watch and follow. The lyrics can be applied to anything you do in life.

One Shining Moment

The ball is tipped
and there you are
you're running for your life
you're a shooting star
And all the years
no one knows
just how hard you worked
but now it shows...
(in) ONE SHINING MOMENT, IT'S ALL ON THE LINE
ONE SHINING MOMENT, THERE FROZEN IN TIME

But time is short
and the road is long
in the blinking of an eye
ah that moment's gone
And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU REACHED DEEP INSIDE
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU KNEW YOU WERE ALIVE

Feel the beat of your heart
feel the wind in your face
it's more than a contest
it's more than a race...

And when it's done
win or lose
you always did your best
cuz inside you knew...
(that) ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU REACHED FOR THE SKY
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU KNEW
ONE SHINING MOMENT, YOU WERE WILLING TO TRY
ONE SHINING MOMENT...

Creative Movement with parts of Speech!

Renata's class did a very fun warm-up activity which involved verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and movement. Each group randomly picked a verb, adverb and preposition from a pile, then they worked together to choreograph the actions.

Leap behind softly.
Running about happily.
Scare upon mischievously.
Crying beside patiently.
Perch on carefully.
Twist forward suddenly.

Can you guess what picture goes with what?

Parachute

This is a great tool to use to develop teamwork, hand-eye coordination, rhythm, and just plain fun. The kids are having a blast. We have been playing several different games including Cat-n-Mouse, Life Guard, Popcorn, and creating different objects. The colors and movement of the parachute are very engaging to the kids, they are drawn in by it and they love using it. It is wonderful to see them coordinating together to make the flow of the different activities work.

Intergrating with the School Themes.

I am having a great time dreaming up fun ways to involve P.E. in the classroom themes this year. There are so many creative ways to get the children thinking about the themes from a physical perspective!

• September - North Africa
• October - Farms
• November - Electricity and Magnetism
• December - Ben Franklin
• January - Caves
• February - Architecture
• March - Book Study (author, genre or illustrator)
• April - Water
• May - Plants/Growing Things
• 
  

K/1

All the K/1 students are coming to P.E. together. This gives us the opportunity to play some great team-games and give the children a chance to cooperate and build trust with all the other children in their age-group. We have been having a great time in P.E. Our day consists of story,warm up, activity, and free time. Our warm ups for the last week have been Color Tag and Cats in the Corner. The kids love Cats in the Corner! It is a tagging game in which the children who start in the corner are the mice, trying to elude the cat who is in the middle. If the child is tagged they become a cat in the middle with all the other cats. The goal is to be the last mouse standing. This game is a great warm up game; it takes a variety of skills such as strategy, problem solving, teamwork, and running.

The focus activity of the group right now is Soccer. Who knew that, in North Africa, the games they play are largely the same as the games we play here in America? Soccer is one of them. The children had a great time and we will continue playing it next week.

Susan's Class

Today we had our first P.E. class and had lots of fun. We worked on setting our goals for the school year. Here are some of the goals the students came up with: run two miles, run faster, have fun, push ups with one hand, 100 sit-ups, lose 10 pounds, walk with hands, and do 20 sit-ups in a row.

Our day mirrored Renata's class, and consisted with setting goals, Getting to Know You with Toilet Paper, The Human Knot. We ended the day with some free time.

THE HUMAN KNOT!!!

Renata's Class

Today we had our first P.E. class and had lots of fun. We worked on setting our goals for the school year and here are some of the goals the students came up with: 10,000 steps each class, being able to run back and fourth the length of the gym 50 times, helping teammates, being able to run 15 laps, getting to know the younger students, running longer distances, getting better at sports, and getting stronger.

Our day consisted with setting goals, Getting to Know You with Toilet Paper, The Human Knot, and we ended the day with some free time.

Getting to Know You with Toilet Paper was a activity to get to know a little bit about your classmates. During this activity the students were handed a roll of toilet paper and asked to take as many squares as they wanted to. The class range was 1-3 pieces. After they had their pieces of toilet paper they were asked to tell us something the was interesting about themselves. The amount of things they need to tell us was the amount of squares they took. This was very interesting; we got answers such as happy, sneaky, and energetic.

The next activity was The Human Knot. The Human Knot is a team building activity to learn how to work together. The students were in a circle. They had to reach across the circle and grab someone's left hand, then they grabbed someone else's right hand. Now they were in a human knot. The goal was to get the knot undone without letting go of hands. The students had a blast and worked well together.

THE HUMAN KNOT!!!