Metrics and PE Working Together

written by Kim Nygaard, Peninsula Heritage School, Rolling Hills Estates, California

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In a world of constant change, and especially the way PE and physical fitness has changed, one thing remains the same and that is the metric system around the world.

PE Metrics is the standards-based, cognitive and motor skill assessment package from NASPE that uses valid and reliable evaluation tools to measure student progress toward achieving all six National Standards for Physical Education. The PE Metrics package includes books, professional development and a Web-based application; everything you need for comprehensive, high-quality physical education assessment.

Each year Peninsula Heritage celebrates Metrics Week (the second week in October) with a theme. This year's theme "London 2012 Olympic Games" was an excellent way to teach and have the children experience metric race events. Using the Olympic Games slogan "Inspire a Generation" was a great way for me to introduce the Olympic events I was going to have the children participate in.

The math department and PE department collected ideas of how to bring another successful event to the children. For one week we decorated the school with flags from around the world, British and Olympic decorations, set up "measuring" work stations using Olympic venues such as: Earls Court, Olympic Park, etc.., and used punch cards/Olympic tickets for these stations, a couple of Olympians as speakers, and had a Victory podium set up for medal ceremonies, Olympic torch run, pin exchange, and a sample of foods like scones, fish & chips, and tea. The morning included:

1. Capacity: Here we had the children measure the capacity of different containers in L and ML.
2. Length: We measure height in cm at the Big Ben Wall.
   • Used a cricket bat to hit the ball a particular distance (30m)
   • 50m race walk/discuss throw
   • Toss the willies (English rain boots)
   • Used a trundle wheel for measuring distance and calculating feet, yards to meters.
3. Mass: Measured the children's mass in kg
   • Covent Garden Market: Weigh British food & other items (tea bags, medals, jewels) Using triple beam balance scales.
4. Temperature: Measure the Celsius temperature on thermometers.
5. Physical Activities: My PE classes in the afternoon were centered around Olympic events. We Practiced for 1 week and competed for 1-2 weeks.

PE Olympic events: I divided the school and grades up into 3 teams: USA, Great Britain, & Sweden I decided to bring back some of the Olympic games/events from the 1900's including Tug-Of-War and Polo. These are the events used in competitions:

• Track Events: Long Jump, Shot put, Sprint Relay, and Distance relay, Race Walking (measured in meters)
• Polo: I made Horses on Sticks and the children rode the horses and used mini hockey sticks to score goals.
• Tug- Of-War: Countries competed against each other. 2 out of three tries
• Boxing: Had a stationary boxing bag with boxing gloves. Counted the repetitions using a right-left jab motion.
• Baseball: We played whiffle ball and each country played each other. In case of a tie we held a Homerun Derby with 2 batters from each country to declare the winner.
• Hockey Shoot: Machine shoots out the balls. Children have to time it right and try to make goals. 4 balls are used for this.
• Triathlon: I used scooters for the swimming (lay on stomachs and use arms in a swimming motion to move across the cement). I used tricycles for the biking portion, and ran 1 lap (125 meters) for the last running leg.

Handouts: Discontinued Summer Olympic sports & Meters to Medals Metric Week Olympics

It is a different world, but PE is still (in my opinion) the most important gift we can give any child. Self-esteem building, self-confidence, conflict resolutions, cooperation, and competition are what all children learn and continue to grow as they mature. Hopefully from the lessons physical education instructors emphasize, children will have valuable tools to help them mature into excellent community members through their character and hard work.

As Physical educators our job, for educating not just our students but our parents and communities, has become quite difficult. While we try to get the support and motivation to teach not only skills and sports skills but the realization that life-long fitness is essential to every child's life, we sometimes run into roadblocks. As long as you believe what you are doing is the best you can do for the children you teach, you can enjoy your lessons and setting goals for yourself and classes can make the biggest difference in the world of a child.

My professional goals I set are to get children involved. Physical Education doesn’t have to be about the popular sports that are offered but about a journey that each child takes to get them on or keep them on the path to lifelong fitness. I have had success with the adventures I bring to my classes which include:

• Metric Week Challenges & Competitions
• Survivor Tribe challenges, cooperation and competition
• Tour de France tricycle 21 stage adventure
• The Amazing Race/Passport to Play Cultural adventure
• Iditarod Dog Sled Race learning about the “Great Race” through Alaska
• Summer/Winter Olympics Cultural and competitions
• Dances from around the World cultural, rhythms, cooperation

Other fun and exciting programs I look for and our school was excited to do:

• WSSA Cup Stacking Guinness World Record each year
• JAM World Record 2012 Team ( jamworldrecord.org )
• National Geographic Kids breaking world record for most people doing jumping jacks in a 24 hour period

This year's walking club theme is "Water is Life…Pass it on!" Each year I set up a walking club at my school which supports fitness through walking/running before or after school and during recess time. This year we are combining our walking club with a fundraiser I found on Blue Planet Network. The children will be busy collecting pledges per mile or flat donations as they walk with their friends, teachers, and staff trying to raise money for our third world countries, and bringing safe drinking water to families. Unsafe drinking water is the world's leading cause of sickness and disease.

Knowing that our school can make a difference, I decided to team up with Team Blue from the planet network and we are excited. Our walking club will go from Nov. 1, 2012 to Dec. 7, 2012. Info on this program is found at: www.blueplanetnetwork.org. I also included a letter to my parents explaining this wonderful opportunity for the community to get involved in both fitness and fundraising.

Handout: 2012 Peninsula Heritage Walking For Water Club

The world is changing and so must we. How is your PE program affecting the way you teach, and the motivation of your students? Are we teaching "In the moment" games or are we teaching lifelong fitness and movement lessons those children can take with them? Each year I find ways to capture enthusiasm in my classes. At the end of the year I can reflect back to the goals I set and accomplished, and what I need to "change" for the following year.

As you continue to educate your students, I wish you success and enthusiasm along the way.

Please feel free to contact me anytime.
Kim Nygaard (kim_nygaard@msn.com )

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