Holidays are HERE!!!

Oh my, what to buy? If your child's list looks anything like mine your choices revolve around two things...video games and something that will trash my house with small parts that will eventually get sucked up into the vacuum.

I wanted to share an idea with you about a family activity game that the 3rd-5th grade students have had an opportunity to use recently during Physical Education class. (Disclaimer, I do not work for the company that sells this, nor do they provide me with any monetary kickback.)

Spikeball is a game that is played 2vs2, no boundaries, no sidelines and it is crazy fun once you get the hang of it. The skills involved are similar to some found in volleyball. The setup is much smaller which increases the portability and flexibility to fit any space.

Students began our unit learning the techniques for volleyball. When we began practicing spiking, Spikeball was a logical transition. You will see in the following picture that the class started with a hula hoop on the floor. This accommodation allowed them to get the concept of three hits prior to the challenge of spiking hard enough to get a good bounce off the net.

We then moved to the nets, where our practice of the three hits continued. Not worrying about scoring made our activity less stressful, errors were laughed off and do overs became the norm!

Many stores are currently stocking this game on their shelves. So if you are looking for good family fun that will keep you active, consider asking your child if they would be interested in having their own Spikeball set (not all of the students loved it, since it is around $60 you should probably make sure they are interested!).

Brrrr...it's starting to get chilly and we saw lovely snowflakes falling yesterday! We are getting to that time of the year when crawling under a blanket seems like a much better idea than heading outside for a run.

I wanted to introduce you to an app that I have been using that keeps you moving inside your own home with minimal equipment. SworkIt has a free app and offers a free kid specific app as well. The app allows you to choose the amount of time for your workout, which is great if you have a limited amount of time to sneak in exercise. The exercises that are offered are fairly basic, I like that they offer a real human as the demonstrator and the app allows you to choose the activities that you would like to focus on that day. One downfall I see are the in app purchases. So if you download this to a device that your child has access to, beware! Of course, since exercise is good for all of us, I encourage you to workout using SworkIt with your child.

Please note, I am not paid to push this app. I actually use it and thought some of you would like it also.

Stay active everyone,
Mrs. Dittrich

Fitness Assessments for 3rd, 4th and 5th Grade

I would like to take a moment to help you understand the fitness tests your child will be taking this year. If you have a third grade student, this is the first time the student will be evaluated on their fitness skills as a formal assessment.

Sit ups
Students will be asked to complete as many sit ups as possible in one minute. These are full sit ups, not crunches. You may have been informed that crunches are a better exercise than sit ups. However, if we would like to be able to actually sit up from a lying down position with more ease, a full sit-up is a much more functional and effective exercise to complete. This is why we assess students using a full sit up.

Plank
Students are performing this exercise in a straight arm position with their hands on the ground. The plank is a wonderful exercise to help build core muscles that offer stability in everyday movement.

Continuous Jog
I have had some questions from students wondering why we switched from the mile run to a continuous jog. The continuous jog actually gives us more information about your students overall aerobic endurance versus the mile run. We ultimately want students to work at a sustained moderate intensity for a period of time. When practicing at home, consider a moderate intensity as a pace that allows you to talk a bit while jogging.

Sit and Reach
This is a flexibility assessment focused on the lower back and hamstring muscles. Our goal is for your child to be able to, at a minimum, touch their toes while keeping their legs flat on the ground. Good flexibility in this area of the body will decrease the occurrence of lower back pain and overall injury in that region of the body.

Practicing all of these skills at home will assist your student is maintaining a healthy lifestyle and allow them to be successful this year in Physical Education. Just like reading practice, exercise should be performed daily if we wish to see positive results!

Sportsmanship

Happy Friday everyone! I'm jumping on my soapbox...I absolutely love college sports. The young men and women who manage to juggle their academic schedule with practice schedules and strive to bring excellence to their schools name is something I find very honorable.

I enjoyed seeing all of the students wearing different college colors and supporting the universities that we all hold so dear. However, it is unfortunate that on these days we also hear from students the nasty side of sport. At times, we hear phrases uttered from these sweet little faces that would you kringe.

As we watch our colleges play this weekend, please remember that children are listening to us and watching us for clues on how to behave. If we want our children to have good sportsmanship when they attend their game, we have the responsibility to model that for them when we watch our teams play.

This picture made me smile today, I hope you enjoy it also.

Go Team!

For our families that have been with me for years, I am a familiar face. For our new Webber families, I am Molly Dittrich and I am your child's elementary Physical Education teacher.

I started teaching in Lake Orion in 1999, I have been at Webber for all of those years as well as some travel to Pine Tree and Orion Oaks. My education is in exercise science from Michigan State University (no worries U of M peeps...Mr. Dittrich is a Wolverine fan!). I initially worked in the private sector after college and returned to school for my teaching certificate while living in Iowa...so I also cheer for the Hawkeyes!

As a family, we enjoy a variety of outdoor activities and up north time here in Michigan. Snow skiing and wakeboarding are my current go to activities while up north, but you can also find me taking a lazy paddle in my kayak or reading a book in the hammock.

I have enjoyed getting to know your children this past month and look forward to meeting everyone in person. If you are ever in the building, please come introduce yourself!

Welcome Webber Families to our Physical Education blog. This is all new for 2017-18! I have started this blog to provide how to videos for at home practice of fitness skills, while also highlighting helpful links and tips that your family can use to maintain a healthy lifestyle. At times, I will also include family challenges to keep us moving even on our less motivated days. As we move through the year, check back frequently. I will update this blog on a weekly basis.