I love getting to know the students and finding out what they know at the beginning of the year and where they want to go…
Here’s a little something from the start of our time together!
Beginning our year
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Start of year
Whew! We are in our second week and time is already flying by! Our grade 8’s are adjusting well to high school and finding their way around the gym. This is great to see!
Last week we began with some fun games by joining the other gr. 8 and 9 classes. This week we jumped into our invasive games unit. Students are playing a variety of games and working on concepts and tactics within each. Games like 4 corner soccer, handball, speedball and floor hockey are explored. We begin each class with playtime and then move into fitness and then our main activity. Each class ends with a 5 min mindfulness activity to wind down before the transition to their next class. Students have been enjoying this quiet time and taking a few minutes out of their busy day for themselves. This week we also discussed the role that music plays in exercise and overall well-being.
Next week we are out of the gym and will be exploring a variety of workouts and fitness programs. I hope to be outside in the fresh air as much as possible, fingers crossed for good weather. Have a great rest of the week and be sure to check the google calendar for what is coming up each class.
Sports this year!
See below for meeting times and days for volleyball and field hockey teams! It would be great to get gr.8’s on teams and have 9’s finally get a chance to play school sports!
Getting to know our community
This week has been full of fun! We began the week with Lacrosse and continued on the learning. Our big takeaway this week has been that ‘Learning involves patience and time’ which is from the First Peoples Principles of Learning. Quite often students asked ‘why are we spending so much time on lacrosse?’ – this First People’s Principle explains just that, because Learning involves patience and time.
We had a very intense game of lacrosse yesterday and so today I thought that we needed some time for connection, grounding and community building. We explored the Castlegar Sculpturewalk and students enjoyed experiencing something new in their local community! Not only did we get in some good exercise, but we spoke about the sculptures together along the way. We finished the day with some yoga before engaging in our last lacrosse discussion. The yoga was very beneficial for students to have their hearts open to the learning experience.
We finish the week tomorrow with some games and activities at Kinsmen park and maybe even a quick splash in the waterpark if it gets too hot out! Only a few more days left, let’s keep up the positivity and engage in the learning and celebration of our quarter together!
7 days left…
We had another super fun week and finished off with our field trip to Little Bear golf course. Students enjoyed golfing the course with their friends and a fun bus ride there! It was a beautiful day with perfect weather and just so nice to get off campus and do something active together.
We also explored Lacrosse this week and will continue on with that next week. This was our last week in the gym and weight room as some construction in there begins next week so we will be outside. Let’s hope for good weather and I look forward to exploring some local parks with the students!
ParticipACTION Community Better Challenge
Who will be Canada’s Most Active Community? Download the free ParticipACTION app, track your minutes and support your community in the #CommunityBetterChallenge – June 1 to June 30. The grand prize is $100,000! Every move counts. #CommunityBetterChallenge
• https://bit.ly/3fSDE21
This week we started the Community Better challenge! Each day we log our activity minutes and are working towards being Canada’s most active community. Join us in the challenge, it will help keep you motivated 😊! I know that I am really enjoying the challenge and the sense of community it creates.
This week we had a choice week where students chose the activities for the week. This included beach volleyball, modified basketball, slo-pitch & flag football. We finished our week with a Traditional Knowledge Keeper visit and then with the school’s Relay for Life event which was a huge COVID safe success!
Looking ahead to next week we begin playing lacrosse as well as continue with our weight room workouts. Only a few short weeks left. Don’t forget to log those activity hours on the ParticipACTION app!
Last week
We sure are moving along in this school year. It is hard to believe it is almost June! Only a few short weeks left, wow.
On Friday report cards were posted. If you have any questions or concerns please email me. I am very impressed with the learning and work ethic in this class. We have come a long way as a group. I mean this class participates in physical activity for the full 3 hours of class with one 15 minute break, it is VERY impressive! I often wondered how a 3 hour PHE class might look and this class continues to impress me with their energy and commitment!
Last week we continued on with our personal fitness goals and working out in the weight room in small groups. Students learned and played some ultimate frisbee and we finished off the week with slo-pitch and a Fun Friday playing pickleball and enjoying the weather. This week is a choice week where students get to choose the group activities that we engage in for the week. Each class is split into half personal fitness goals and half group activities. Flag football has been an interest and I’ve had many requests for it, so I foresee that being one of the choices!
Don’t forget about our upcoming field trip to Little Bear Golf course and to please return the signed field trip forms and $9 for the golf fee. I’m really excited to take the students off-campus and get out in the community this year! After a long year with restrictions it is nice to get out, have some fun, get some exercise and do something safe together. Looking forward to another full week!
Has summer arrived?
This week has brought some very hot summer-like weather!! We enjoyed our week learning about and playing various target games. Students had a chance to try some golf, frisbee golf, bocce among other target games. We ended our week participating in Ms.VanYzerloo’s career class castle building competition at Zuckerberg’s island! The students loved this outdoor learning activity and took on the role of being survivors in the wilderness!
Next week we begin striking/fielding games (weather dependant) and continue on with our personal fitness goals. Have a great and sunny weekend!
May fun!
This past week the grade 9’s began their cooperative games unit. We explored some games as a class and then the 9’s were challenged to create their own games. I purposely mixed up the groups and students had the opportunity to work with someone they may not normally connect with. The results were super impressive! Each game was creative, engaging and fun. They each contained an element of cooperation. I was especially impressed with a game called ‘Score’ which was similar to 4 corner soccer, but was outside and very COVID safe! Grade 9’s also continue to work on their personal fitness goals each day and spend their time lifting weights in the weight room, running, or working on flexibility exercises. Due to COVID we can only have 8 people in the weight room at once which has forced some new creativity into our space and I think we are making it work. The grade 9’s are helpful, flexible and patient as we navigate these structural barriers.
Students also had the opportunity to self assess their learning and while we work our way through this quarter students will become familiar with what this means in PHE.
This week we begin our target games unit which includes things like golf, bocce and frisbee golf. Often these target games are inclusive activities that we carry on throughout our lives and keep us moving through all ages & stages! Let’s hope for good weather and being outside as much as possible.
End of the week update
We have been so lucky with the weather this week and were able to spend our classes outside. This week we’ve explored net/wall games and began setting personal fitness goals. The grade 9’s especially enjoyed our days at millennium playing volleyball, pickleball and using the outdoor gym. PHE during a pandemic has been challenging and I want to thank the grade 9’s for their flexibility and positive attitudes as we began this quarter.
Next week we will begin to look at cooperative games and spend time working on our personal fitness goals! Have a great weekend everyone!
Ms. Mervyn 