Best Practices-PPEP-PALS

Anatomical Stop & Go:

The purpose of this best practice is to familiar students with the muscles and bones of their body. Each week the teachers have a bone/muscle of the week and during PE that anatomical feature is used as the start and stop signal to begin and end activities. In addition to the start and go commands students are asked to locate the muscle/bone of the week and identify the types of movement that are produced from that muscle or bone. Students are expected to associate how that muscle/bone moves within the activity(s) being taught.

Merry-Go-Round:

The purpose of this best practice is to provide skill and fitness components in a station teaching format. Since PE involves 2 classes this teaching format is most effective for providing students with practice repetitions, introductory opportunities to several types of skills, and limited equipment for large class sizes. Class set-up involves 4 stations in which students are divided up into groups of 8-12 students. Two stations have different health-related fitness components and other the two stations involve two separate skills/activities. Over the course of 50 minutes students rotate to each of the four stations having ample opportunity to practice and receive feedback. On occasion students are sometimes allowed to select the two fitness stations from a list of previously performed activities.

Are we there yet?

The purpose of this activity is to provide students with an integrated academic/activity experience in setting and accomplishing a physically active goal. At the beginning of the semester/year students select a destination that they would want to visit after which they calculate the distance between the point of origin and completion. There are restrictions on distances above a certain mileage due to the possibility of not completing the goal. Then at the beginning of class during warm-up or on fitness day's students keep record of their distance walked, run, or activity and plot their progress on a map as well as a graph. Activities distances are calculated with pedometers by figures steps per mile. At the end of the semester/year students hold an awards ceremony (class party) for completing their goals.

Student of the week:

The purpose of this best practice is to reinforce teacher/class expectations in regards to respect, cooperation, sportsmanship, and personal/social responsibility. Each week a student is selected to be the warm-up leader and/or decision-maker regarding choices provided by teacher for activities. Students are given the criteria for selection the week before and are observed/monitored based on those criteria. At any time during each lesson the teacher rewards student behaviors by documenting their performance. At the end of the week the teacher announces who the student leader of the week was and identifies the behaviors that were observed.

Survivor Series:

The purpose of this activity is to build cooperation, sportspersonship, and personal & social responsibility. Over the coarse of 8 weeks (1-lesson per week) students take part in challenge activities designed to somewhat resemble the popular reality TV show. Students are divided up into two teams and participate in a series of activities that become progressively more difficult with each new lesson. Each lesson has a script that sets up the story line and parameters of the activities. All activities require students to problem solve and cooperate in order to complete the given tasks. The points system rewards cooperation, sportspersonship, and personal and social responsibility as opposed to winning or losing. Total points are kept and the team that has won selects the next physical education unit based on the other team's choices.

Perceptual Motor Obstacle Course:

The purpose of this activity is to teach locomotor, non-manipulative, and manipulative skills to elementary children. Students are divided up into 4 groups containing 4 to 8 students per group. The classroom format has 3-perceptual motor obstacle courses and 1 station that involve either manipulative skill or fitness component. Each obstacle course contains a different series of locomotor and non-manipulative skills that are arranged in a sequence of simple to complex. Each student performs the necessary requirements for the obstacle course and the next student can begin when the half-way point has been reached. Upon completion students are expected to use a set locomotor skill to move back to the line. All 4 stations are visited during the physical education class with enough time being allotted for adequate practice attempts to be performed.