Chapters 8 and 9 cover nutrition, and personal health and physical activity. Physical activity is very important to learning with studies showing improved academic performance with physical activity with studies even showing improved pass rates with hands on learning (1,2). Not only does it wake the body up, but motor activity has also been shown help executive functioning skills (3) It also integrates health concepts so you can multitask your education requirements!!
This week, you will integrate physical activity into a learning activity. It is important to be able to accomplish two things at once to meet the requirements of education standards in this busy time of required curriculum.
Dont get too stuck on this! Think fun. First think of physical games that require some taking turns or can be done in place so it doesn’t get too crazy! Catch, shooting baskets, Simon Sez, Yoga, Freeze dance, deep breathing, stretching etc! Then pick a lesson and make it work.
Here is my example: We all have the same content area so that part is easy!
Content area: Nutrition and Physical Activity (this is the same for everyone this week)
Age level: 2nd grade (you can pick any of the grades that have Nutrition and Physical Activity AND physical goals)
Standard/Sub GoalLinks to an external site.: 1.9.N Explain how both physical activity and eating habits can affect a person’s health. (You can pick any standard in the grade you chose)
Academic Skill: Spelling, math (hashtags, counting by 5)
Activity with Action!: I will make a giant “bingo” board with carpet squares on the floor. The squares will be filled with pictures of body parts (heart, lungs, legs) and foods (fruit, veggies, and less nutritious snack foods). Each picture will have a corresponding spelling word lightly taped up on the wall, a bit higher than overhead reach. Kids will have bean bags to toss and take turns. When they hit a square, they hop to the board to find the matching spelling word of the picture. They have to jump up to get it. The whole class has to spell the word out loud and do a jumping jack for each letter. For example, a-p-p-p-l-e would be 5 jumping jacks! Then the teacher asks if the body part is helped by exercise and how and leads the answers. If it is a food, a conversation if it is an “anytime food or a special time food” happens. (It is not recommended to do “good” and “bad” foods any more due to eating disorders (4)) If everyone gets it right, the square is checked off. This repeats until bingo is given.
For the math part, I make hashtags to see how many tosses it took us to get bingo. The students learn the hashtag method and count by fives.
***The lesson does not need to reinforce a health concept, although mine does. For example, the bingo could just be done with regular spelling words and address the goal of 7.5.N Participate in physical activities with friends and family.
Or you could accomplish a physical goal AND another core health goal. An example of this is to have the squares be pictures of safe and unsafe situations and safety equipment that the children need to identify and accomplish goal 7.3.S Explain appropriate protective gear and equipment AND 7.5.N Participate in physical activities with friends and family. Add in the math part and you have THREE things accomplished.
You can even add more with one activity!! As a busy teacher, this is a great skill to accomplish what we are required to AND to get our students learning actively!!
A late post reduces your score by 5 points. Please grammar and spell check your work before submitting.
Respond to a minimum of 2 other students. Write a minimum of one paragraph for each response.
Your post should have:
Content area: Nutrition and Physical Activity (this is the same for everyone this week)
Standard/Sub Goal:
Age level:
Academic Component:
Activity:
As this is a course for teachers, be prepared to offer constructive criticism, in other words, pick out some good things about another student’s post, and then offer suggestions, personal experiences, or your own opinion about the various topics. This is an opportunity to collaborate, learn new things, and help other students in their learning
Grading:
1 pts Standard/Goal:
1 pts Age level:
3 points: Academic integration
4 pts Activity: Must be active!
1: peer reply
1.Frontiers | Does Learning Through Movement Improve Academic Performance in Primary Schoolchildren? A Systematic Review (frontiersin.org)Links to an external site.
2.Is Hands-On Learning Better? – Build Your Future (byf.org)Links to an external site.
3.Executive functions in learning processes: Do they benefit from physical activity? – ScienceDirectLinks to an external site.
4.‘Healthy eating’ curriculum can do more harm than good | CNN