Yahooo we had a much busier week this week! Students came in with 1,905 minutes this week! This is an increase of 670 minutes! That is equivalent to about 11 hours and 15 minutes more than last week! Staff came in with 1440 minutes this week, making our grand total 3,345 minutes this week! That is equal to 55 hours and 45 minutes! Nurse Leah and I are still so proud of all participants!
This weeks activities included playing frisbee, running, hiking, riding horses, aerobics, baseball, football, and working on a mountain biking trail. Keep up the activities everyone! We love hearing all that you are doing!
I am so excited for the upcoming weather, as they say April showers bring May flowers. I hope you are all able to get out and enjoy some of the sunshine and fresh air! This week I am going to be looking for a little bit more creativity from you all in your movement!
Active Activity
Preschool and Kindergarten
This week for my younger students Pk-K I would like you to work on pathways and traveling using objects you can find to help you! This might look like laying sticks in shapes of letters on the ground, or placing cones, or using chalk to make a pathway. Pathways we have learned are zig zag, straight lines, curved pathways and a combination! Please use different ways to travel like walking, galloping, skipping, hopping, and leaping. We also know that there are different directions we can travel! Forward, backward, side to side, above, below, inside and outside! We also know there are different speeds we can travel, fast, slow, medium, we can also travel at different levels, high, low, medium. I would also like you to join the activity below!
Preschool-6th Grade
All grades please begin with this game OUTDOORS! You will need parent permission to play indoors and you should invite all family members to play. This is a fun activity for all ages, it requires balance, agility, and a bit of listening. This game is called FLOOR IS LAVA. The way the game works: you need to make rules for where the boundaries of your area of play is, you need to make sure to mention which items are off limits to use, and you need to make sure the objects you are playing with are safe. Once you have made these rules one person will say ‘the floor is lava!’ Once this is announced the person that called it will count down from 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and BOOM the floor becomes imaginary molten lava. You need to make sure you are not touching the ground with any body part by the time the counter gets to 1. You have to hold that position until the counter says the ground is safe. This cannot be longer than 5 full seconds. If you touch the ground you’ve become lava. There isn’t winning or losing in the game however you should switch who gets to count and call ‘the floor is lava.’ The counter can participate if they would like but they don’t have to if they called it. You can make this game more challenging if you make the rule that people cannot share the same space.
Another variation is to challenge yourself to get from one side of the playing space to the other without touching the ground. Most grades did this challenge in P.E at the beginning of the year using all sorts of equipment! Since we are at home and don’t have the fun items from P.E we will have to improvise! Use items that would be safe!
Here is a video of the game being played with the first variation!
Challenge Activity
This week’s challenge was inspired by a 5th grade student who sent me a video of what he’s been up to! He has been playing ‘Dude Perfect Golf’ where each person is given a frisbee, basketball, soccer ball and a football. Then they start from far away from their basketball net and try to see how many times they can get their objects to land in the hoop by throwing or kicking. He sent me a video of himself kicking a soccer ball and scoring it in the basketball net from what looks like at least 20 feet away! So cool!
Your challenge this week is to try to make ‘trick shots.’ This means taking objects that can be thrown or kicked and try to get them to land in a chosen spot. Here are a couple examples below. You get to make things as challenging or as simple as possible.
I have also included the water bottle flip challenge because it is another simple item to challenge yourself to use. If you are into reusable bottles and don’t happen to have plastic bottles floating around, I have tried with my Nalgene and it works however it is louder and heavier, so I recommend going outside. Make sure you are not flipping the bottle onto breakable objects.
Brain Break Activity
This week instead of giving you a calming activity I wanted to give you a tool for a brain break. I used 4 sticky notes to create a square on my living room floor. These 4 activities are quick ways you can recharge your body and brain by moving with intention. Try to perform 15-30 seconds of each of these 4 activities in a row; you will get your heart pumping in only two minutes! Practice these motions slow, and then speed it up, the faster you can go while in control the harder these activities can be. This is a great challenge for your brain and body to do together! Try to create your own patterns too! OR you can try to use the agility ladder exercises we learned and stay in one square instead of traveling.
Our first week has come to an end! Participants logged in a total of 2,780 active minutes! This is about 46 and a half hours! It isn’t too late; if you forgot to send in your results please email Coach Sadie or Nurse Leah! We will happily add you to the total!
This weeks activities consisted of hiking, biking, riding horses, playing basketball and running!
This week is looking pretty gloomy, please try to get outside when you can, fresh air supports a fresh mindset!
Weekly Active Activity
Ladder workouts! Some of you may be thinking- Coach Sadie we did that last week… and you would be correct! This week however is a different type of ladder workout. This is for strength and endurance, last week we worked on agility and short, fast movements. Our exercises will be set into a progression MEANING we will begin with a small number and work our way up to the big number, and then back down to the small number. I will give you a workout for each day this week. Preschool to first grade your active activity will be below this portion! I did not forget you! You are more than welcome to try the grades 2-3 exercises as well!
Tuesday
We are going to do upper body and core exercises today. I have chosen Superman, Flutter Kicks, and Shoulder Dips. Superman exercises and engages our core including our abdominal muscles and our lower back muscles. Flutter Kicks engage our lower abdominal muscles as well as our hip flexors. The Shoulder dips will engage our triceps which are on the back of our arms! Below will be a GIF of each exercise. If you are having a hard time viewing please make sure you are in google chrome, I find I have a hard time viewing in Safari.
Grades 2-3 Your ladder will be 3, 5, 7, 5, 3. This will look like 3 supermans, 3 flutter kicks, 3 tricep dips. Take a 1 minute rest. Now try 5 supermans, 5 flutter kicks, 5 tricep dips. Take a 1 minute rest. 7 supermans, 7 flutter kicks, 7 tricep dips. Take a 1 minute rest. Now work your way back down the ladder, 5 supermans, 5 flutter kicks, 5 tricep dips. 1 Minute rest. 3 supermans, 3 flutter kicks and 3 tricep dips. NOW YOU ARE DONE WOOO!
Grades 4-6 Your ladder will be 5, 7, 10, 7, 5 This will look like 5 supermans, 5 flutter kicks, 5 tricep dips. Take a 1 minute rest. Now try 7 supermans, 7 flutter kicks, 7 tricep dips. Take a 1 minute rest. 10 supermans, 10 flutter kicks, 10 tricep dips. Take a 1 minute rest. Now work your way back down the ladder, 7 supermans, 7 flutter kicks, 7 tricep dips. 1 Minute rest. 5 supermans, 5 flutter kicks and 5 tricep dips. NOW YOU ARE DONE WOOO!
Superman! Sometimes this is a holding exercise, I want you to lift your body up hold for one second, and drop, then repeat.
Flutter kicks! Try not to lift your head, and try not to lay on your hands!
Tricep Dips!
This first one is the beginner tricep dip, keep your knees bent and lift your body with your arms. Try not to sink your head into your shoulders, you got this!
Version number 2 is a little more difficult, keep your legs straight out and remember to lift your body with your triceps and shoulders! Don’t lift with your legs, I believe in you!
Wednesday!
Cardio ladder day! Today I would like you to grab a timer of some sort (watch, kitchen timer, ipad, iphone, android, clock). Now you will go OUTSIDE! You will set the timer for the following times:
Now high five yourself! You rock!
Thursday
Another exercise ladder! This time we are going to work on our lower body. We are going to do calf raises, side lunges and leg raises.
Grades 2-3 Your ladder will be 5, 10, 15, 10, 5 remember the one minute rest in between each level!
Grades 4-6 Your ladder will be 10, 15, 20, 15, 10 remember the one minute rest in between each level!
Calf Raises! These are simple you essentially go up on your tippy toes. If you have a stair you should put your heel near the edge of the stair, and dip lower than the edge. If you are like me and do not have that option in your home a simple calf raise will do! These work your calf muscles, did you know you have two calf muscles? They are called your gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. This exercise is mostly felt in your gastrocnemius which is the bigger calf muscle.
Side lunges! These are great for strength and flexibility, try to get low and lift yourself and switch to the other side without losing your balance! These are great for our hamstrings, quadriceps and gluteus maximus muscles which make up our thighs and our bottom.
Leg raises are great for our hamstrings, and quadriceps but more importantly our gluteus minimus which is the smaller of our gluteus muscles. This muscle can be hard to exercise and this exercise seems silly but is great! This muscle is important because it strengthens our hips which is important for how we move and support our body!
Friday
Today we will do another cardio ladder! This time we are going to do jumping jacks, squat jumps and mountain climbers! The only new exercise today is a squat jump and it looks like this:
Grades 2-3 Your ladder will be 10, 14, 18, 14, 10 remember the one minute rest in between each level!
Grades 4-6 Your ladder will be 14, 18, 20, 18, 14 remember the one minute rest in between each level!
Again give yourself that HIGH FIVE!
Preschool, Kindergarten and First Grade!
Our ladder workout this week will look a little something like this:
Tuesday
Have a guardian time you for 5 seconds hopping on one foot, then 5 seconds hopping on the other. Now try to do 10 seconds hopping on one foot, now the other! Try to hop for 15 seconds on one foot, and the other!! This Is SO HARD but such a fun way to burn off some of our energy. We are also working on practicing these locomotor skills still as we grow with our bodies more!
Now let’s try to do 2 inch worms, take a break, now do 3 inch worms, take a break, now do 4 inch worms! This ladder will only be a build up because inchworms exercise our WHOLE body!
Last one for today! Let’s try to do a crab walk for 3 crab steps, take a break, now 4 crab steps, take a break, now 5 crab steps! Again we are going to stop at the top of this ladder PHEW!
Great work!
Wednesday
Today we are going to RUN! Have a guardian time you for
30 seconds running, 30 seconds walking, 45 seconds running, 45 seconds walking, 1 minute running, 1 minute walking, now lets try to work back down the ladder!! 45 seconds running, 45 seconds walking, 30 seconds running, 30 seconds walking. Phew! Done with that!
Thursday
Time for a skiing ladder! Don’t own any skis? No worries! I don’t either, in fact I’ve never gone downhill skiing! This ladder will mostly be jumping in different forms that remind me of skiing. Why do we jump so much? Jumping moves our body in a way that we transfer weight. What that means is our body has to learn how to balance when we land from a jump. This is a skill that we are developing and will help us with our balance and agility as we grow bigger! Today we are going to the pretend ski slopes and we are going to try to do another ladder! Try to take a one minute break between each exercise.
We will start with Moguls! Here we are going to try to jump from side to side! Imagine you are flying down hill on a pair of skis and you are bouncing from jump to jump. Lets begin with 10 Side to side jumps!
Now we will head over to the Cross Country skiing area where we will begin with 10 big glides.
Head back to moguls one more time for 20 more jumps side to side! Then ONE MORE ROUND of cross country glides! Lets do 20 front and back. Remember to propel yourself using opposite hands and legs! You can do it!!
Friday
We are going to RUN AGAIN! Have a guardian help you time yourself!
45 seconds running, 45 seconds walking, 1 Minute running, 1 minute walking, 1:15 minute running, 1:15 minute walking, now lets try to work back down the ladder!! 1 minute running, 1 minute walking, 45 seconds running, 45 seconds walking. Phew! Done with that! Great job!
Challenge of the week
Juggling! This week I thought it would be fun to work on variations of juggling. See if you can find 3-4 like items around the house that would be safe to throw and catch. I recommend things like hacky sacks or stress balls. If you don’t have these items try balled up socks, clementines (if your guardians okay that…), tennis balls work but may be frustrating because they are light weight and bouncy. Alternatively you can make them using rice, plastic bag, and balloons if you have those floating around your house!
Level 1
-Throw the ball in your dominant hand (the hand you feel stronger throwing with) and catch with the same hand
-Throw the ball in your dominant hand and catch in your NON Dominant hand. If both of these feel comfortable it’s time to move on!
-Throw the ball up over your head and turn around and catch the ball with one hand. Try to throw and catch using both hands! Keep practicing!
-Throw the ball up, and catch the ball between your legs using your dominant hand, then switch to practice the other.
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
I would love to see how far you have progressed with this challenge! I am still working on juggling 3 balls! This is a great challenge when you need a break from work.
The PE challenge of the week is another one of my favorite games! This game is called Salad Bowl. I call it Salad Bowl because it is best played with a big bowl and usually the biggest bowl in the house is the Salad Bowl.
Things you will need:
Paper
Writing Utensil
Open Mind; with a dab of creativity
An inventory of ALL items you could possibly play with
Game Play: On a piece of paper write down the objects in which you have that you can play with. For example the equipment that I have at home is VERY limited. I have -2 hockey pucks, 1 hacky sack, 1 soccer ball, 1 jump rope, 6 dice, 1 hockey stick, 1 balance board, 2 lacrosse sticks, 2 lacrosse balls and chalk. I will write down each of these items on their piece of paper. Now I place the papers into the salad bowl.
If you are playing with more than one person each person will take turns picking items out of the bowl. You will choose 3 items total to start. Here you will now have to make a game, or challenge with the three items.
I picked hockey puck, balance board, and lacrosse stick. I am now going to create a game or challenge. The challenge is for me to balance on my balance board, place my hockey puck on the board, try to flick it up to myself and catch it with my lacrosse stick. I can add to this by switching sides and catch on my left, I can try to see how many catches I get in a row without the balance board touching the ground, I can challenge myself in a ton of ways!
The games you create should have rules about safety, and using items in a way that will not be dangerous. I highly recommend doing ball games outdoors. The challenge is to really use items in a way that is different than intended while being safe and having fun. Make an obstacle course, try to juggle a ball of socks with your feet, use a frisbee as a catching tool on your head and try to catch objects you throw to yourself on your head! There are so many activities you can do with limited equipment, try to make something fun out of the things you have!
As you know games you all create I love to hear and build with! In Kindergarten we have a warm up game called Pine Tag that students created on the playground- it has grown to be a fun mirroring and matching game that we love to play. Have fun, be creative and please share if you would like in the comments below!
Calming Activity of the week
Some of you may have noticed we began a sequence last week. This sequence is called Sun Salutations. I began the sequence last week and left it with the first bit because I find those few motions are great when I am really busy and just need to recollect myself. This week we will add the rest of the sequence so that we have a full Sun Salutation Sequence down. This week’s weather is looking more favorable for Yoga and calming activities so here we go!
Last week we left off with a Half Standing bend. Remember these should be slow movements holding 1-3 Mississippi’s between each movement. Here we have a video of my best attempts, and a picture of what that all looks like if you need to see a visual of each movement.
What a rainy Monday! These are the days where I find it the hardest to motivate myself to be active. BUT as they say ‘Practice what you Preach.’ I will do some exercises today after I finish our weekly update. The activities this week can be done indoors OR outdoors as most of the activities I share will be. I encourage you all to get outside when the opportunity arises!
This week’s active activity is one of my favorites! The AGILITY LADDER! I do not have one at home so I used chalk to create my ‘ladder.’ You can do the same outdoors, alternatively if you live in a place with a gravel driveway you can use sticks to make the ladder rungs OR you can trace the ladder rungs into your driveway. If you are indoors (especially today!) you can use scrap paper, cardboard, painters tape, even objects like socks in a line will work.
Wait! Coach Sadie… what is ‘agility?!’
I like to think agility is the opposite of clumsy. To be clumsy a person might be uncoordinated, move quickly but trip or bump into things. When I was younger I would trip over air as my Mum would say. Truthfully I am still clumsy. When we are growing our bodies are changing fast and with that change, our brains have to learn to adapt. When I was little my feet grew really fast and I would trip over my clunky shoes all the time! However when I was participating in activities like skateboarding or soccer, I wouldn’t. The reason being I was concentrated and thinking about where I was moving and where my body was when I would do these activities.
Going back to agility- Agility is the way we move our body quickly, with coordination, and balance. When I practice agility I think of it as a brain and body puzzle because I have to think about where my feet are going fast enough for my brain to tell me what to do. Here are some patterns for us to try this week!
For students who are in the younger grades, this activity is challenging but still great! To remember patterns it is important to go slow and try to make sure your feet go where they need to before you speed it up. Here is an alternative to the agility ladder that still practices coordination, and balance. This is the classic game of HOP SCOTCH!
Level 1: The first person would begin at the starting line and would begin hopping on one foot when there are single blocks and when there are double blocks they jump to two feet spread apart. Try to hop all the way to safety, take a break and hop all the way back to start.
Level 2: Before your second turn you will toss an object into one of the squares. We use bean bags at school but things like balled up socks, small stuffed animals, or if you are outdoors a rock big enough to see would work. The person that threw the object must jump/hop through the course without jumping into the square that has the object. On their way back through the course they will bend over and pick it up ideally while balancing on one foot. *Make sure objects are being tossed underhand to avoid injury*
Part 3: Change the pattern! With objects like paper or plates it is easy to rearrange where the squares are! If you want to make it longer you can keep going to 15 squares or 20! The Guinness World Record for hopscotch is 6,131 m (20,114 ft 9.47 in) including 1,518 squares! In France their version of hopscotch is called Escargot which translates to snail. The hopscotch pattern for Escargot goes in a spiral shape just like a snail shell. Use the pathways we have learned in P.E! Zig Zag, Curved, and straight! Go backwards, sideways, switching feet, use three squares size by side, make holes where you can’t travel BE CREATIVE!
This week’s challenge and calming activities will be in a separate post, soon to come! Stay tuned!
I hope you all were able to enjoy the sunshine the past few days outdoors. Nurse Leah and I are now introducing the ‘LES Get Moving Challenge.’ This is a school wide challenge by choice activity. It is optional and we hope you give it a chance! The challenge is to track how many minutes you are being active each day. We would like to see how many of our students are getting at least 4 hours of active activity each week. Below you will find the link to the log. If you cannot edit the document or print it, need not fret just send us a note of which week it is, how many active minutes each day per student, and what activities they were doing.
Can’t wait to hear from you all! Have an active and healthy week!
Hello all! I know it is really difficult to sift through information and find what you need fast. Here is a list of all resources for physical activities. Some of these are specifically online resources that can be used at any time. A few of these resources can be offline; other offline resources I have given can be found on the left hand menu under the March and April archives. You will see all posts at once for easier access!
Moving Minds WebsiteThis one tends to focus on quick brain breaks versus full activities.
Cosmic Kids Yoga Great resource for our Pk-1 Grades, these are thematic stories with movement mostly Yoga based.
Just Dance YouTube Choreography Fun for all grades and for kids who just need to move their bodies and dance it out! No need for gaming system just follow the screen!
Sparkacademy.org (You will be prompted to make an account- it’s free)
GoNoodle.com (You will be prompted to make an account- it’s free) This is great for a variety of activities for kids to choose from active and energizing to calming.
Hello everyone! This week for P.E. we have 3 separate activities, we have an active activity, a challenge activity, and a calming activity. The active and challenge activities could take as little as 10 minutes and can be extended to as long as you wish. Please spice these activities up with your own twists and creativity!
If you need more activities or would like to try other things please check back to previous posts, there are many resources and ideas! Anything I have shared this week can be indoors OR outdoors. I challenge you to get outside for at least an hour a day this week!
Active Activity of the Week
The first activity is a card game! Do not worry if you don’t have a deck of cards there is another way to play and those directions are below!
Each participant will pick 5 cards face down and place them on the floor in front of you. Now you will flip each card one by one! On each card you will see a suite, Heart, Diamond, Spade or Club. Each of these suites will have 3 activities you can choose from. There is also a number that coordinates with your card.
Coach Sadie flips her first card. The card is a 10 of spades. I will look at this chart and see my options!
I will choose to do 10 seconds of either a Bridge, Squats, or Lunges. I choose Bridge. Now I perform that activity for 10 seconds, that’s counted as Mississippi’s !!!! Now if I am playing with other people the next person will now go. You can all perform each other’s cards OR simply stick to the 5 that you draw. Notice that face cards have a significance too!
If you do not have a deck of cards, grab two bowls. Inside one bowl place 4 separate small papers with the drawings of a diamond, a heart, a spade, and a club. Inside the other bowl place separate pieces of paper with the following letters and numbers: A, K, Q, J, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Don’t forget to write JOKER on one of those! Now you can pull one paper from each bowl to create your own cards! This game should take about 10 minutes, play for longer if you wish! This is a great way to re-energize throughout the day as well as use some of the energy you have!
If you are unsure what each of these exercises are- check out the new Exercise Library located at the top of the page!
Hello everyone! Today is Friday, and we are going to do a little alphabet movement!
F is the 6th letter of the alphabet, we are going to do 6 forward lunges, make sure to switch legs every lunge!
R is the 18th letter of the alphabet, we are going to do 18 seconds of running in place
I is the 9th letter of the alphabet, we are going to do 9 Inchworms
D is the 4th letter of the alphabet, we are going to do 4 donkey kicks! Be aware of personal space from people AND objects!
A is the first letter of the alphabet, we are going to do 1 arm circle, forwards and backwards
Y is the 25th letter of the alphabet, we are going to hold a yoga pose for 25 seconds. Let’s do Child’s pose! Sit with your bottom on your legs, lean forward with your arms and torso. Place your forehead on the floor if you can. Count to 25, remember to take deep breaths!
Have a healthy, active weekend! Tune in Monday for next week’s activities!
