92 degrees outside: P.E.

I took kids outside for PE today, but only in the morning. It was actually breezy and better out there than inside the stuffy gym. But for the rest of the classes, we stayed in.
Nobody was required to play – many of them had already had outdoor or other exercise time and some were quite tired, so that was fine. As it ended up, most of the kids wanted to play for most of the time.

We did a round of “Last Person Standing” with Rock Paper Scissors as I hadn’t done that with this group before. Then I got out plastic hockey sticks and divided the class in half. I gave them each 1/3 of the gym and kept the other third in the middle as a no-man’s-zone. I got out a couple dozen whiffle balls, and each team was supposed to hit them to the other side of the gym. I appointed one person from each team to “sweep” the center area and keep the balls that stopped there moving. About every 5 minutes I would blow the whistle and everyone would put down their sticks and sit down and were NOT supposed to touch any of the balls (some were still rolling). Then I counted how many balls were in each end and gave points to the winning team. After a round or two the kids realized that they needed to pay attention to their back area where several balls had ended up just sitting unnoticed. It got especially competitive when I pitted the 3rd grade girls against the boys. 🙂   With so much space between the teams, there were fewer instances of someone getting hit with a hockey stick.  The kids seemed to enjoy it.

We also played “crab soccer” where the kids sit in a square formation and 5 at a time “crab-walk” out and try to kick the gigantic (soft) ball past all the other kids who are acting as goalies. Most of them seemed to like this game too. Since the kids were little, I really didn’t keep score, especially since they were kicking in every direction. 🙂

I have another PE class tomorrow. I have no work on Thursday and then I have a full day on Friday, the last day of school in Livonia: half in the RCR, and half helping pack up the teacher’s lounge. 🙂 I’m good at packing.

I’ve been taking some photos (without kids in them) because I plan to start writing my book about being a substitute teacher soon. Working title: “But My Teacher Said…..”   🙂