Kids love to run!
I just completed my first few weeks practicum with St.Mary's University and it was an amazing experience! I was placed at an elementary school in a grade 1/2 class with an encouraging and kind teacher who let me try out so many different things. When I told her that I did my undergrad in Kinesiology she let me take over the phys. ed. classes and they were so much fun!
The school where I did my practicum recently opened and had a huge variety of brand. new. equipment. I was sooooo lucky and sooooo excited!!! The first few days we didn't have a lot of time so I led some quick games with easy set up. Of course with young children you have to do something to makes these games fun and engaging for them. Being in a grade 1/2 class, it was easy to think of fun and engaging games, kids at this age don't need a lot to have fun because their imagination is so big.
Some of the games we played:
1. Hibernation: in teams of 4 each animal family gets a hula hoop as their "home". In the centre of the gym have a pile of bean bags, dot markers, rings, and juggling scarves. Assign each group an animal and demonstrate their proper "animal" travel movement. One player at a time travels to the food lot and brings one back to their home, then the next player goes. This game can be played until a team obtains a pre set number goal, to a time, or until all the food is taken from the middle.
2. Blob tag: Start with one student that is "it". every time they tag a player, that player joins hands with the "it" player and start to create a chain. The game continues until all the players are part of the blob.
* as more players are part of the blob, you can make the boundaries smaller to help the game end.
3. Freeze tag - a classic, and for good reason.
* make this game more active by allowing players to "unfreeze" frozen players
4. Monster & Bed - Make the centre of the gym the players' "bed". Players begin lying down pretending to be sleeping, when "monster" is yelled out, the players must run away from the bed from the monster. When "bed" is yelled out, the players must run back to their bed and "sleep".
* this game can be altered by changing the movement (ie. you have to be quiet and tiptoe, the monster grabbed your legs so you have to crawl away)
One of the cool down games that I created on the spot was a "bed time" game. I still haven't really established how it works or what I want to call it but it was a good way to wind things down and the students' seemed to love it. Essentially how it worked was all the students would be in a circle at the centre of the gym and we would go through a series of stretches, small movements, and then a rest. I just sat in the middle of the circle, or beside the students in the circle and demonstrated some stretches and final little energy releasers (ie. jumping jacks, spinning, squat jumps) then I would call bed time (kind of related to the monster and bed game). During bed time the students would lie down and sleep, I would call tummy, back, or side so they could change positions when they got restless. I was a little surprised that this worked because I thought that they wouldn't want to lie down and close their eyes but they followed along and seemed calmer when returning to classroom compared to the times I didn't do this activity.
Overall this has been an amazing experience and I'm loving every second of it. I'm learning so many new things in the classroom but those are saved for my University reflection journal. One of the things we discuss a lot is creating a relationship with the students and I have seen how valuable that is. I like to end each phys. ed. class by kneeling at the front of the line (to be on the same level as the kids) and give each student a high five on their way out and tell them that they did a great job. I can't wait for next week to start and have some more fun with the kids and develop my teaching skills!
