G5 Rhythmic Gymnastics

Last week we kicked off our Rhythmic Gymnastics UOI in G5.

Beforehand, I asked learners to think about this question:

How do We Move our Bodies More Efficiently and Safely?

You can click on your child's class to read their thoughts:

Ms. Michelle's Class
Ms. Lou's Class
Mr. Garrett's Class

During the week, learners have been practicing several gymnastics skills such as balances, rolls, and jumps. This is the first time for them to have a rhythmic gymnastics unit, however, they can connect their prior knowledge gained from learning and practicing these floor skills in artistic gymnastics in previous years.

Below you can see a provocation for student's learning. They watched the short clip of the Worlds Championship of Rhythmic Gymnastics to get a better picture of what this sport looks like.

Our central idea for this unit is:
"Body control, smooth transitions and a variety of elements, helps to enhance a gymnastics performance."

This week, G5 gymnasts will inquire into how to use different equipment, such a ball, a ribbon or a hoop and to combine it with different gymnastics skills.

I will be adding more pictures and short videos of learners as the unit goes on.

Student Led Conferences

Thank you, parents, for coming to the gym today to see your child's growth in physical education this year.

It was great to see many parents playing different games with their kids, asking them questions about their learning and practicing all sort of skills.

You can see some pictures of today's SLC clicking here.

Making the most of Student Voice with Flipgrid in G5

I recently started to use an app called Flipgrid in my physical education classes. This app allows me to listen to students who are usually quiet in class or who struggle sharing their thoughts with the whole class.

Often times I feel like if I ask open-ended questions, I always get answers from the same few students who are used to share their thoughts out loud and feel more confident about their learning and knowledge. A lack of vocabulary may also stop EAL ( English as an Additional Language) learners from sharing with their peers.

Flipgrid allows students to create short videos to talk about any topic. During the Net Games unit, I created several topics to have students inquiring, thinking, and communicating their learning with me and among themselves.

You can have access to the different clips by clicking on the links below.
Students used shared iPads and created the videos in between games while others were still playing.

The quality of the image and the sound might not be great as it wasn't the priority at this time.
As I mentioned earlier, my goal is to be able to listen to student's voice and use it as a way to assess their learning in an authentic way.

Feel free to click on the links below to listen to G5 students

Ms. Michelle

5M Badminton Self-Assessment
5M Badminton Intro Game
5M Volleyball Games

Mr. Garrett

5G Badminton Self-Assessment
5G Badminton Intro Game
5G Volleyball Games

Ms. Lou

5L Badminton Self-Assessment
5L Badminton Intro Game
5L Volleyball Games

G3 Movement Composition (Dance)

As a frontload of the How We Express Ourselves unit, G3 learners have been inquiring into the choreographic concepts of time, force, levels, and space.

Our central idea was: "Perfomances with a message can influence thinking."

In PE, learners got together in small groups of their choice and started planning what they wanted their final performance to look like, what was going to be their message, and how they were going to share that message with their audience.

Together we created the success criteria and during every lesson, learners would plan and start creating their performances following the success criteria we agreed on. At the end of each lesson, each group would show what they had worked on during the class and would get feedback from their peers and from me. Based on feedback they would keep working on their dances and make the necessary changes.

It wasn't an easy task for some groups as a few students were not always engaged or willing to help their team. Learners understood that in order to create their very own performances with a message, they had to collaborate, be open-minded and communicate their ideas with their peers.

Students were given the opportunity to choose the way they wanted to perform, as well as the music they wanted to have for their dance.

They also decided who they wanted to be their audience and where to perform.

We agreed on using a green screen app called "Do Ink" to have different backgrounds for their dances.

I filmed most of the groups on the field to get the green as the background. That idea was both, innovative and challenging as there are some natural factors such as the wind or the sun that are not helping while filming.

One group decided to do a shadow dance instead. They will be performing tomorrow for their class and their video will be soon added it to the shared folder.

Click on the link below to watch your child's dance. Can you guess their message?

Ms. Anita's class

Mr. James's class

Ms. Lisa's class

In addition, please listen to the reflection of this learner where she is trying to explain why her group was successful.

Here you can see a few pictures of students rehearsing or getting visual feedback from recording short clips on the iPads.