St. Mary's Lab 1 and 2

St. Mary's Day 3 (running, hopping, and galloping)

Today at St. Mary's our main purpose at the school was to formulate games the student's could play where we could watch and evaluate their galloping, running, and hopping skills. My lab group watched two different students first, one boy and one girl. Overall I found no particular pattern in the development of the girl compared to the boy. The boy was a better galloper than the girl. The girl would do more of a running motion than a gallop. When it came to running though the girl was more physically advanced than the boy. She ran on her toes and was off the ground with both feet at sometimes. On the other hand the boy ran for the most part flat footed. When it came to hopping both the boy and the girl for the most part were equally skilled. Both were able to hop on one foot fairly well. They both only did not use their other leg with a ton of force using momentum to force themselves forward far. After evaluating the boy and girl it was my group's turn to do our games. I went first and the game I introduced was called Come to My Tabe.l I felt the game went pretty well but some of the kids seemed to have a hard time listening. Come to My Table worked as follows. I split the group into two teams. I lined them up on either end line of the gym. One was team fruits and the other team vegetables. Each round I would call both teams into the center where I was standing and said "fruits and vegetables come to my table." Once both teams were lined up facing each other in the center I called out either a type of fruit or vegetable. If I called out a type of fruit. The fruits needed to run back to their safe zone and the vegetables tried to catch them. If I called out a vegetable them the vegetables needed to run back and the fruits tried to tag them. If a vegetable was tagged by a fruit and visa versa the vegetable would join the fruit team and the fruits join the vegetable team. Each time I would change it up and say either gallop, hop, or skip to the table so that all the students could use different skills in the game. After doing my game one of my other group members did their game and then we went down to the cafeteria. In the cafeteria on girl showed me her book she was making and I played Mancala with some of the other students. Everyone seemed to get along today and no one fought over rules like last time. Then after Cafeteria we went upstairs back to the gym and played some more tag games. This week seemed to go a lot better than last because everyone was more prepared with a game to use. Next week should be even better than this week because we will be even more prepared. I can wait till it's time to go back to St. Mary's.

Dodgeball Variation That Can Be Acceptable

This is a variation to the most commonly used game of dodgeball that I came up with that I believe can be used and used effectively in physical education classes. Before the class or at the very beginning of class I would assign the students to partners. This partner would be their only teammate throughout the game. Of each group of partners one partner in the group would be given a dodgeball. They would be the shooters and the other partners without a ball would be the dodgers. The partners would stay teammates throughout the game. The object of the game would be for the players with balls to attempt to throw their ball at another player who was not their partner and did not have a dodgeball. If their partner without a ball was to get hit by another player that individual would be frozen instead of being out, until their "shooter" hit another player from another team of two. The game would function as almost a form of a dodgeball/tag game where everyone is involved and running around at all times. In order to be fair, halfway through the designated time for this game the partners would switch roles and the shooter would become the dodger and visa versa. This would allow both players equal opportunities at each role and they can also work on their skills needed for each part.

Through playing this game students will be working on their cardiovascular fitness and spacial awareness when playing either role, as well as teamwork because both players need to work together and help each other out to be successful. When being a shooter in particular you are working on throwing skills, aim/accuracy, agility, and speed. When being a dodger you are particularly working on quickness, agility, quick jab motions to fake out shooters, and strategy to stay "un-hit." The students through playing this game would be learning how to cooperate and work well together as well have using their teamwork skills to help out their pair of two. Students will remain active throughout the entire game and I don't see why this game would not be an acceptable form of dodgeball in physical education classes.

St. Mary's Day 2

Before going to lab we were told to come prepared with some tag game ideas. I had a ton of ideas ready to use but it all changed once there. I didn't end up using any of the tag games I had ready, but overall the day went well. Once again I started in the cafeteria with the same group of kids I had last time but instead of puzzle and Mancala, we played battleships. I was on a team with one of the 3rd grade boys and on the other team were two girls. The game was going well but one of the girls was not playing fairly. I didn't exactly know how to handle to situation. When I confronted the girl about cheating and stressed the idea that we all have to play fairly she was basically yelling back at me. I felt in an awkward position because I'm not the girl's teacher and wasn't quite sure how much authority I had but at the same time the boy who I was playing with was getting very upset and frustrated with how she was cheating. Eventually I got it under control and convinced the girl that what she was doing was unfair which also allowed the boy I was playing with to forget the bad encounter. After games in the cafeteria we moved upstairs to the gym again. In the gym we got to use some of our tag games. Each of my group members and I took turns introducing the tag games we could play. One of the first games we played was blog tag with worked out pretty well except the children had a little trouble deciding with direction to go in to strategize. The second tag game we played was Octopus tag where once you were tagged you had to stay still but could tag other players that were still in the game so that they would become an octopus as well. Another tag game we introduced was turtle tag where once a player was tagged they had to go onto their backs and could only re-enter the game if another member of their team tapped both their feet and hands. The game I introduced was not one of the ones I had planned but was a game the kids requested. It was Red Rover. In this game there was one person who was it in the middle of the gym and would call people to attempt to reach the other side by saying, "Red Rover Red Rover if you are wearing ___(a certain color)___ come over." This would determine who had to race to the other side of the gym based on what color clothes they were wearing. If you were caught you became one of the taggers. The game finally ended when there was only one person left un-tagged. It's a fun tag game and all the kids seemed to like it. After introducing our tag games the kids were given free time. During free time my group and I did a lot of jump rope with the kids. They really seemed to enjoy that. Once jump rope seemed to be getting boring I introduced and game Mississippi River where you take two jump ropes and start they close together and have the kids try to leap over the "river" made of the jump ropes. The more the kids kept jumping over the ropes the larger the space between the ropes would get. For the day something interesting that I witnessed would be the imagination some of the kids have. They are very good a pretending and when you pretend the more interested they are in the activity. I saw this especially with the Mississippi River game because it was like they really considered it a river and did not want to fall in. Using their imaginations makes them much more interested in the games I find. Once again it was another successful day at St. Mary's.

First Day At St. Mary's

Monday January 25th was the first day of lab for me in PED 201. I had no idea what to expect but just knew that I would be working with children at the St. Mary's Elementary School. I was actually a little nervous going there and was hoping that I would do well interacting with all the children. At first I was given a quick tour of the facility and then thrown right into the mix with the kids. The first place I was, was in the cafeteria where I immediately did a bunch of puzzles with the kids and also played Mancala. I really enjoyed spending the time there with the kids and really getting to talk to them in a calm environment. After doing the puzzles and playing the games, the other members of my group and I moved into the gym to have free play with the children. This was my favorite part. In the gym I played basketball for most of the time with some boy and a couple other members of my group from my PED class. First we played knock out but eventually some of the boys got bored with it and played touch football. I stayed with basketball and introduced the game of around the world to one of the boys to help him practice his shooting. Overall I had a really great time interacting with the kids at St. Mary's and the time just flew by. I'm excited to have more labs and get to know the children more!