Our Tricky Classroom Elves

This week we had some special visitors in the gym - Charlie, Jingles and Candy Cane.  

We noticed that Charlie was missing Monday morning, he was not in the classroom. To our surprise, he was hiding in the gym!

Charlie made a huge mess is the gym! He put bows everywhere. We decided to help him and cleaned them all up.

 

Candy Cane must have been talking to Jingles and Charlie because he also left us a big mess in the gym. He wrote a note asking us to watch the gingerbread man; we had to make sure he didn't run away. We did a great job keeping an eye on that tricky gingerbread man.

 

Jingles, Charlie and Candy Cane were at it again! Yesterday they put snowflakes all over the gym floor. We decided we would help them by picking all of the snowflakes up. Candy Cane and Charlie said they were trying to bring some snow into the gym - how silly!

 

 

Playing with the Parachute

This week we had the opportunity to play with the parachute. It's a great way for students to develop endurance and coordination. Children had to cooperate and work together as a team. 

We also had to follow multistep instructions in order to create a giant "snow fort" with the parachute - we were all able to fit inside!

Frozen Statues

One of our favourite warm up activities in the gym is called frozen statues. We do various movements on the spot like jogging, running, marching, hopping, etc. When we hear the whistle blow, we freeze into any statue we want. We are very creative and use our imaginations to think of interesting poses.

 

 

Daily Schedule

We have introduced a new daily schedule in the gym. At the beginning of class we review together what we will be doing in the gym that day. Children have the chance to see our daily games and activities and the structure of the class.

Healthy Foods

This week we talked about healthy eating and the benefits of nutritious foods. We discussed how healthy foods have vitamins and nutrients that give us energy and help us grow.

Our task was to identify and sort different foods as either healthy or unhealthy choices. We had two hula hoops set up at opposite ends of the gym. We placed the healthy choices in one hoop and the unhealthy in the other.

We also made a group fruit salad! We took turns choosing different types of healthy fruits. We pretended to pick and chop them and we tossed them into our giant bowl. It was fun to use our imaginations. Click here to watch and listen to a catchy song about fruit salad by the Wiggles.

Practicing Bouncing a Ball

At the end of last week we learned how to bounce and dribble a ball. At the beginning of the lesson we practiced bouncing the ball from different heights and levels; we bounced the ball from a sitting, kneeling and standing position.  We also bounced the ball with two hands, our left hand and our right hand.

Students experimented and moved throughout the gym as they bounced the ball.

Healthy, Happy Days for Early Learners

Click here to read an article entitled Healthy, Happy Days for Early Learners taken from the OPHEA website.

The article discusses various things that can aid in creating a healthy, happy environment for our kindergarten students. The ideas presented in this article are all applicable and relevant to our gym program at St. Anne.

The gym is a perfect place to help children develop self-regulation skills. Self-regulation is the ability to control and direct our own feelings and actions. In the gym students are learning to follow activity and class rules, take turns, cooperate with peers, listen to both teachers and peers, share their ideas and make safe choices when playing. All of these things help children to further develop their ability to self-regulate.

Snow Day Fun

On Wednesday we had the opportunity to explore different equipment in the gym. We used the ribbons to move - we made large shapes and designs in the air. We also got to use our leg and arm muscles when playing with the scooters. Some of us even experimented with the skipping ropes and learned how to skip!

It was neat to watch how we used our creativity and imaginations when playing with the equipment. Some of us pretended the hula hoops were cars and drove around the gym. Some used the ribbons to write letters in the air while others pretended they were tails and transformed into different animals.

Bonkers for Bowling

This week we practiced rolling a ball from a sitting, kneeling and standing position. We are working on developing balance, flexibility in movement and hand-eye coordination.

Afterwards we played a large game of bowling. Each of us got our own bowling pin. We had two jobs in this game: we needed to watch our own pin while trying to knock down some pins too.

Sponge Warm Up

This week we played a new warm up activity in the gym. It was a lot of fun because we got to use sponges! We placed all of the sponges on the floor around the gym. Some of us were on the green team and some of us were on the yellow team (we noticed one side of the sponge was green and one side was yellow). We explored space and travelled around the gym flipping the sponges to either the yellow side or green side.

Every time we flipped over a sponge someone would flip it back shortly after - this game really kept us moving!

How to play safe in the gym

As a class we discussed what the important rules and guidelines are in the gym. We worked together to make this list. We always want to make sure we are taking turns, being kind and playing safe.

Have you seen this monster?

Your child might have mentioned to you that there was a monster in the gym....they were right! On Halloween our tricky gym class monster went missing. He decided to hide all over the school and play tricks on us. He left us clues and activities to do in the gym.

 One day he left pictures of himself all over the gym. We had to collect all of the pictures - they were on the walls, near the equipment and even under the benches!

 Next he must have been playing with the balls because they were all over the gym, what a mess! We decided to help the monster by collecting all of the balls, we sorted them by colour.

 One day he left us a bag of magic monster seeds. We took turns planting them in the bowl.

The next day, to our surprise, the monster seeds grew into pencils!

 

 

 Lastly that tricky monster of ours posted pictures in the gym of his adventures. He was in the library, the office, the halls and even decided to hide in someone's boots!

 

 

We found our monster! He left us a map to guide us to his hiding spot. We all worked together to read the map and finally we found him. He was hiding in the lost and found!