written by Kim
Nygaard, Peninsula Heritage School Elementary/Secondary
In our world of athletics and sport, teaching can become
very challenging. I teach Kindergarten-6th grade and my challenge
comes from re-directing children back to the activities and/or
games rather than actually educating them. As I have said
before, I am a true believer that self-confidence, self-esteem,
and discipline come before teaching actual physical skills,
especially in young children. Children need to learn and understand
how competition and cooperation fit into their lives and the
important role they play. Children need to understand the
concept of winning, losing, and fair play.
When it comes to Sports, it is sometimes difficult finding
the examples of fair play. Children/athletes are taught to
win at all costs. Winning seems to determine the success of
the team/coach, not necessarily the success of the athletes.
It is easy and fun when a team is winning, but difficult requiring
more perseverance and character when losing.
At Peninsula Heritage School we celebrate Metric Week with
a theme. The children learn more about the metric system,
which as we know is widely used in athletics. This year our
theme is "Tour de France." The Legendary race of
fierce competition includes top cyclists from around the world.
Three weeks of competitions over 2 mountain ranges.
National Metric Week is celebrated the Second week of Oct.
Each year I organize a PE unit to go with the theme. This
gives our school a chance to work on team building, and learn
more about athletes & sports they might not know. In the
past the children have been involved with:
NASA Fit Explorer Challenge
Believe it or Not PE Activities
Mini Olympics
Around the World Passport to Play
Amazing Race, and more...
This year I planned a 21 stage race for my students. As I
was preparing, I couldn't believe how much information was
available for the Tour de France. I took advantage of showing
the children a short DVD called "Wired To Win"
by the National Science Foundation. It is an amazing movie
about the brain and how the brain never stops developing.
It mentions how the brain sends out electrical signals at
incredible speeds, and how each area has its own job. The
children enjoyed this and were more excited to use these techniques
of the brain while competing.
I divided the classes into four teams. Team USA, Team France,
Team Germany, & Team Sweden. The children practiced and trained
the week before since I had a variety of bikes for them. I
used Tricycles (one and two seated trikes), a mini trick bike,
and a spin bike. I used metric measurements for the race course,
and a motion pedometer for the spin bike. Also on the spin
bike I had a counter which clicked the RPM's (Rotations/Revolutions
per minute). Each stage was different. Later the children
met with their teams and chose the stages they wanted to compete
in. I created 3 stages a day running simultaneously (21
stages) . Since my PE classes meet three times
a week I set up the Tour for three weeks. Below are the descriptions
of our stages as seen in Document 1.
TOUR DE FRANCE STAGES
Day One: Stages 1, 2, 3
Stage 1 - Flat
terrain with easy climb. This was done on the small trike.
The course
consisted of laps around the track and a small ramp for
the start.
Stage 2 - Team
Trials- Spin Bike Partners. RPM’s added together/pedometer-distance
-Double Seated Trikes- Timed event.
Stage 3 - Short,
flat sprint- 1 lap around cement with trikes. (Timed event.)
Day Two: Stages 4, 5, 6
Stage 4 - Figure
8 on the trick bike (timed event).
Stage 5 - Switch
Backs: Spin Bike sit for 10 pedal rotations, stand for 10
pedal rotations. Three times through. (Clicking RPM's)
Stage 6 - Medium
Hill Climb: Trikes starting at bottom of the ramp. (Timed
event)
Day Three: Stages 7, 8,
9
Stage 7 - Switch
backs (same as stage 5)
Stage 8 - Flat
build-ups: trick bike timed event.
Stage 9 - Medium
Climb 2: (same as stage 6)
Day Four: Stages 10, 11,
12
Stage 10 - Rest
Day. I had the children compete for the "slowest"
lap.
Stage 11 - Straights
& Curves: 1 lap around the track on trikes (Timed event).
Stage 12 - High
Mountains- Spin bike standing climb with resistance. (RPM’s
Counted)
Day Five: Stages 13, 14,
15
Stage 13 - High
Mountains (same as stage 12)
Stage 14 - High
Mountains (same as stage 13 with more resistance)
Stage 15 - Flat,
open road: Trick bike line to line to line (Timed event).
Day Six: Stages 16, 17,
18, 19
Stage 16 - medium
climb up the ramp on the trikes. (Timed event)
Stage 17 - 19
- High Mountains (using motion pedometer to calculate rotations
(steps)
and distance.
Day Seven: Stages 20, 21
Finish!
Stage 20 - Individual
Time Trials: Spin & Trick bike for time and distance.
Stage 21 - Last
leg sprint to the finish. A course around the school with
ramps, flats,
and curves on the trikes.
This was such an exciting event at school that the children
can't stop talking about it. It was true team competitions
and the children were so excited to see who was in the lead
each day. There are different jerseys for the cyclist. The
red and white polka dot goes to the King of the Hill best
climber, The Green jersey is for the best sprinter, the yellow
jersey is for the overall leader and the white jersey is for
the youngest overall rider. Each day I gave the jersey (t-shirt)
to the competitor that deserved it.
At the end we awarded the winning rider and team. Not only
was this an awesome and thrilling PE for the children, it
was for me too. The school actually involved the specialty
teachers and we celebrated the Tour de France Metric week
with activities across the board. Art class designed their
own racing Maillots (jerseys), Math involved measurements
in capacity, length, weight. The children helped design &
measure the race course using kilometers, meters, and miles
(Kilometers
to meters and meters
to miles).
I'm sure you have read about the physical adventures I bring
to my classes. Bringing adventures into PE is an enjoyable
way for the children to be involved, and for me to have the
enthusiasm to be active and involved in this field for over
30 years. When asking the children what they enjoy the most
about PE, they will say Survivor
and the Olympics. I also used the Iditarod
Dog Sled race, Amazing race, Pirate’s Adventures,
and this year in the Spring I will be introducing London 2012
Paralympics. I am in the planning stages now. I feel it is
very important for us to think about what happens all around
us, not just in our school or community. I am looking forward
to teaching the values of the Paralympics to the children.
Those values are:
I will have the children competing in some of those events.
We will work through the challenges and struggles together
and hopefully educate these children to be grateful for what
we have and why we should never give up when times get tough.
These athletes of the Paralympics never give up! I’m
hoping for an inspirational unit of PE in the spring.
Maybe this will be my next article for pelinks4u.
Stay tuned.
Please feel free to contact me anytime. Good luck to each
of you, and hopefully you are as satisfied teaching your PE
classes as I am.
