The Connected Physical Education Classroom

Making Quality Observations Around School

In this lesson the students will be moving around the classroom and around the school as they make quality observations. They will use tape measures, meter wheel and estimation to describe the classroom and school setting. After observing they will learn how to quantify and qualify their observations. They will make drawings that need to be to scale.

This is a map we drew that shows how to get from our room to the book room. The students used a meter wheel to find the distance. They also used a stop watch to keep track of the time.The map on the left is from 1st hour. The map on the right has been modified by the 3rd hour class. The 3rd hour used an existing map that one of the students had from their orientation paperwork. In our classroom discussion we talked about how the red map was more detailed showing the distance and direction of each phase of the trip. By leaving the maps up we could compare and contrast the maps.
I used this activity to speak to making quality observations. I could have easily brought in vectors and calculating speed.

Connected Math- Throwing at Targets

Today we used the targets from first tee and footballs together. The goal was to integrate math and football in one lesson. The objective was to let the kids write down how many throws it took to hit the target. We used a golf format so wherever the ball came to rest that is where the next throw must be made form. Once the target was hit the student would write it down in their journal or for the younger kids to write it with chalk on the ground.
I set up nine targets of varying distances and numbered the lanes one to nine. After the kids finished throwing at all nine we then went back to evaluate the numbers. We pointed out the least and most attempts to hit the target. We looked at the mode. Next we will calculate the average.

Math Integrated PE Lesson

This week in pe we have been increasing the distance we run. Monday, Wednesday and Fridays we are running laps and doing our strengthening exercises such as pushups, situps, burpees. On Tuesday and Thursday we are running 60 foot sprints.

We take a small group and let them measure the distance using either a measuring wheel or a tape measure. They place a sign on each cone showing the distance.

We review how many laps and how far that lap is. This is the students’ homework question that is also their ticket to play the next day. An example of a daily question is, "We ran 5 laps. Each lap was 560 feet. How far did we run?" or “We ran 28 sprints. Each lap is 60 feet. How far did we run today? We also  asked them, “How far did you run for the week?”