Movement Updates:
December 2013:
Hosting
movement classes in the gymnasium at the River church across the street from
Willowwind has been a remarkable opportunity for your students. This facility has enabled our students to
remain active in a large, safe space during these cold, windy days. Students
took advantage of the basketball hoops and large gym space to work on
basketball, throwing and long jump rope skills this month. All of these would have been impossible to do
inside Willowwind’s GD space or out in the freezing weather.
This month
in movement class, students raised their heart rate while participating in manipulative
activities with basketballs, throwing games, body part identification, and
personal space. Students are in the process of learning the fitness vocabulary
to differentiate the purpose of our movement activities. They participate in
cardiovascular fitness activities (huff and puff) and strength building
activities that are fun and good for their body. Our overall goal in Movement
is for your child to develop the knowledge, abilities and commitment needed to
live and promote a healthy, active lifestyle.
They will
raise their heart rates while they practice jumping, galloping, movement
combinations, tossing and catching, rhythmic movement, hula hoops and gymnastic
skills. Students will continue to learn
about their fitness and health by addressing nutrition; learning about food
groups, nutrients in food and decision making skills.
January 2014:
With the New
Year comes the opportunity to reflect on the past, and make resolutions for the
future. It is a time in our culture where fitness goal setting becomes trendy.
It is my hope that Willowwind students value staying active and being healthy.
We will be reflecting and making resolutions about physical activity in class
this month. I would encourage your family to discuss your health and physical
activity goals together.
It is
challenging to stay active daily. I have designed our Movement curriculum to
develop a broad foundation of physical skills that your student can choose to
use in a variety of physical activities. Already this year students have
learned physical skills required for playground games, walking, jogging,
throwing, kicking, trapping, rolling, soccer, gymnastics, rhythmic movement,
and basketball.
For winter
physical activity options, be sure to look for opportunities at the city
recreation centers and local elementary schools for open gym hours, indoor
swimming pool open swim times, and their recreation classes or team sport
opportunities. Both the Iowa City and Coralville Recreation Centers have
published their winter/spring activity guide. The Iowa Gym Nest in Iowa City
and Coralville has occasional open gym times available for a fee during the
holidays and weekends. I hope that your
student discovers that being active can be fun for themselves and their family
all year round.
February 2014:
The weather that this New Year has brought with it has unfortunately plagued our Movement schedule with missed classes. Snow days and extreme cold weather presents a challenge not only to get our Movement curriculum covered, but also to student’s personal fitness opportunities. As the Movement teacher, I made adjustments to what I had planned to keep cardiovascular fitness a priority in our Movement class times together. My goal in each Movement class was to keep them “huffing and puffing” as many minutes as possible!
This month in movement class, students raised their heart rate while participating in manipulative activities with hula hoops, rhythmic movement, movements in combination, and moving in general space. We started the month of February celebrating the Winter Olympics, with our own Winter Olympics in the gym. We had ice skating (on paper plates), curling (with beanbags), biathlon (lunges and throwing at targets), hockey dribble (balls through a cone course) and a torch run relay. I hope they had the opportunity to watch a few events with you at home. Watching athletes at the top of their sport and considering their disciplined training, sacrifices and physical fitness makes a great family dinner discussion.
February is heart awareness month and we have taken full advantage of this. Half the gym was changed into an obstacle course of the heart. Students acted as blood cells as they moved though valves, chambers, veins and arteries to pick up oxygen in the lungs and be delivered back to the game. The other half of the gym was a game of tag with flag belts. “Muscles” were it, stealing oxygen from the blood as they tagged the players. Once they lost their belt, they traveled through the obstacle course to pick up more oxygen and return to the “body” to play the game. It is important for students to know how the heart works and just how important it is to keep it healthy. We will continue learning about the risk factors to heart health like smoking, poor diet, and inactivity in the weeks to come.
March is nutrition awareness month. Students need to be equipped with knowledge about food contents to make good food choices. We will review the terms, “food as fuel,” “an every-day food” and “a sometimes food” to help students judge the nutritional contents of food. You might ask your students to classify foods in your pantry. Be sure to ask them why they labeled a food “sometimes” or “every-day.”
Students are in the middle of a jump rope unit. Jumping rope has provided opportunity to raise heart rate and is a great indoor cardiovascular fitness activity. Students began the month learning a rhythmic dance called the Electric Slide. Line dancing and moving to music are other great ways to stay active indoors. Turn up the music and ask your student to show you some dance and jump rope moves this month! Speaking of dance and fitness, Senor Luis and I are combining forces to bring a Zumba instructor to Willowwind. Raising our heart rates to Latin music will be a great fun and fitness time!
Students are in the process of learning the fitness vocabulary to differentiate the purpose of our movement activities. They participate in cardiovascular fitness activities (huff and puff) and strength building activities that are fun and good for their body. Our overall goal in Movement is for your child to develop the knowledge, abilities and commitment needed to live and promote a healthy, active lifestyle.
Be sure to check out my new blog for updates on current Movement units.
Questions? Contact Karen at karenr@willowwind.org.
