One of our primary goals in our physical education programs is to give our students the ability to carry on without us. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make us obsolete. Rather I want to emphasize how important our jobs are, especially at this time of the year.

Summer vacation is fast approaching all of us. The kids all can't seem to wait. If we have been successful with them, they will never be able to say those dreaded words: "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"

All through this past school year, we have all been showing our kids fun ways to stay fit. Every activity we give them has been designed to both emphasize a teaching point and to develop a level of fitness. Everything we have done with equipment such as soccer balls, jump ropes, bean bags, beach balls, hockey sticks, milk jug scoopers, and such has been designed to both stimulate their skill levels, fitness levels and imagination levels. I want to spend some time on that last one, imagination.

As far as elementary school kids go, they are "born to run." It's awfully hard to mess these kids up. As long as they enjoy what they do in your class and understand why they are doing it, you can teach them almost anything. But what about when you aren't there any more. Will they be able to stay as active as you would like over the summer months? For those kids that are booked solid over the summer; camp after camp after camp… they will be active. There is a lot of debate about the virtues of being involved in so many structured activities, versus having time to be a kid. That will have to wait for another column.

What do we do as teachers to arm our kids with the knowledge needed to create their own activity? Do you equate what you do in class to their own backyards? For example, your students may not have a volleyball set at home. They can still play with a balloon over a clothesline! They may not have a lacrosse stick at home, but they can certainly cut the bottom out of a gallon milk jug to play with. They may not have a chin up bar at home, but they can surely be told that climbing trees will go a long way towards improving their score in this area. All of these suggestions sound overly simple and obvious. Maybe so, but they should never be overlooked.

Have you ever thought of setting up a unit of "low organized games" that culminates with the kids teaching a game that they made up themselves? Throughout the unit, you can go over the different elements that go into making a game a good one. What a great way to give your kids some "real world" experience! Besides, they will just love being the teacher for a while. They are going to be on their own soon. Why not take advantage of that and show them how to make things up for themselves. I know we have done this for years at Mott Road Elementary School. The kids just love to do this. We still use some games that kids taught us years ago!

We also set up some links on our web site at http://www.fm.cnyric.org/mott_road/pehome.html Two of those links: "Summer Fun 1" and "Summer Fun 2" are found on the site's main page. The third, "Games Kids Play" is found under the link marked "Cool Kids Links." (We tell the parents every year at Open House that they are not allowed to use this link unless the promise to act like children). All three of these sites are also featured on the current "Elementary Physical Education" edition of PELINKS4U.

All three of these links are nothing but listings of hundreds of games. All you do is select a game and the site gives you the rules. We have had parents frantically come up to us saying that they are having a big family reunion, or a huge birthday party and they don't know what to do. They want to know these web addresses. We love giving it to them for a few reasons. We love helping them out, of course. But the big thing is that they now realize that we are a resource for them, as well as for their children.

Some people don't have access to the Internet. That's fine. Your kids will love to help you put together a booklet that contains activities from their physical education classes that they can do at home. This can serve two purposes. One is that it is tremendous public relations tool for your program. Second, it is a great way for your students to take ownership of their own activity. These are both great things to have going into the summer.

Now, none of our students (or parents) are ever allowed to say those dreaded words: "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO!"

I hope you consider trying these ideas. Let me know what you think of them. You can contact me at twiniecki@fm.cnyric.org, or check us out on the Internet at http://www.fm.cnyric.org/mott_road/pehome.html