The year after I graduated college, I worked as a substitute teacher, and also as a paraprofessional in a
special education classroom - for students with Autism. I learned SO much through that experience. In particular, I realized how important it is for students with disabilities to have the same quality education as students without disabilities.
I remember going to P.E. with the class and being disappointed. We did the same thing every week - jogged around the gym for 2 minutes, then spent the rest of the class period pulling kids around on scooters.
I knew that someday when I got a teaching job, I would try to do so much more for students with disabilities. I know it can be challenging working with this population of students...... it takes more time, preparations, and planning on your part. However, it is worth the effort! Do not underestimate what this group of students can accomplish in your P.E. class! The Golden Rule is a good thing to remember: "treat others as you would like to be treated"..........if you were a person with a disability, how would you want teachers and other students to treat you? If you are struggling for ideas to use with your special education students, please see the videos below for a few suggestions:
For the month of March, the students will be focusing on Basketball Skills. We are doing the Minute
Club Warm-Up, and 3rd-5th graders are practicing curl-ups and push-ups in preparation for their Fitnessgram fitness testing. The minute club is really motivating students to jog and maintain a steady pace! They have been excited to earn these Minute Club certificates!
These are some of the activities the students participated in this week:
1) Ball Handling Drills (K-5th)
2) Dribbling Drills (K-5) - Poly Spot Dribbling (K-2) Dribbling Tag (5th)
3) Shooting (2nd-5th) - Shooting Game "Hot Shot" (3rd-5th)
4) Gold Coin Exercise Game (for St. Patrick's Day) - this is something I made up this week after buying a ton of plastic gold coins from the dollar store. It was fun and the kids got a lot of exercise!
This is a video of the game HOT SHOT - players had 1 minute to shoot baskets, trying to score as many points as possible. Four people were at each hoop.
Video of "Poly Spot Dribbling" idea from pecentral.com
2nd grader playing "poly spot dribbling". Players walk or jog and dribble throughout the area and stop at poly spots to dribble on knees (there are numbers written on my poly spots with permanent marker).
These are the gold coins I purchased from the Dollar Store and used for the GOLD COIN EXERCISE GAME.
GOLD COIN EXERCISE game - Students earned a gold coin by doing 10 exercises on the poly spots. They placed their coins in the "girl bucket" or the "boy bucket" and continued earning more and more coins. I stopped the game every 2 mins to change exercises (picking berries, jumping jacks, push-ups, etc).
Before we begin our basketball unit in March, I decided to have a fun week and play one of my favorite games - SINK THE SHIP from http://pecentral.com/
When possible, match up colors of ships with lifeboats - green ship with green lifeboats (mat and scooters). This helps the students understand which team they are on and how to clean up when game is finished.
Because of mid-winter break this week and half days for parent-teacher conferences, I only saw my K-2nd grade students. I took them to the upper level gym for center activities. We have a wrestling mat upstairs, which is very convenient for teaching tumbling. The new skill the students practiced was tumbling: Log Roll and Pencil Roll. I also introduced the somersault (forward roll) and they will practice that next week.
When I asked the students why they thought it's important to learn tumbling, they had some great answers: 1) In case your body catches on fire - stop, drop and roll. 2) If you fall playing sports - being able to roll helps protect your body. 3) If you fall off of a bike or roller blades - rolling helps protect your body. 4) To know how to roll down a hill - it's fun! 5) If you take gymnastics class you use these skills.
The other center options this week were an Obstacle Course, Hula Hoops and Jump Ropes. See pics below!
I set up two wedge mats and made signs to tape to the cones for Log Roll and Pencil Roll. Next week students will practice somersaults and backwards somersaults.
I taped a real pencil at the bottom of the sign to show the kids the "pointy top and eraser feet".
Student practicing the pencil roll.
This is the obstacle course I set up - begin on the low balance beam, touch the top of the small cone, crawl through tunnel, go through the "ring of fire", weave through bowling pins, hurdle and touch top of small cone, 2 more hurdles, jump inside 2 tires and cross the finish line (and touch the STOP button like on American Ninja Warrior). They loved it!
Check out this warm-up idea that my friend and co-worker, Mrs. Bradley, thought of a few years ago. We call this the "Minute Running Club", and it's a great way to teach jogging, pace, and endurance to elementary students.
We use this warm-up for the month before our fitness testing (March). Begin by explaining to your students that they will be working on building endurance by jogging (without stopping to walk) for a specific time. On day 1 you will have the students jog for 1 minute. Day 2, the students will jog for 2 minutes, day 3 for 3 minutes, etc. We build up to a 5 minute jog.
Watch the students as they jog to see who is able to jog without stopping. At the end of the warm-up, any student who does not stop to walk may sign the poster (pictured below is the 3 and 4 minute posters). Also, I give these CERTIFICATES to students at the end of class if they earn them. The certificates are a GREAT motivator!
The top (white) certificates are the minute club certificates. The bottom are other certificates I have for sale: click here. I like printing certificates on bright colored paper!
This week the students participated with long ropes and Chinese jump ropes. K-2 grade students learned some long rope games such as Snake in the Grass, and Waves. 2nd graders learned how to twirl and jump with the long ropes. Kindergarten-2nd grade students also learned a "Valentine Relay" and "Valentine Tag". Another fun Valentine game is "Hide and Seek Valentine Hearts".
3rd-5th graders learned
a new Chinese jump rope pattern called the "criss-cross" (video of this below). Some groups also practiced long rope jumping with rhymes, and a fun long rope game called "Elimination". A few of my classes had time to play a fun game called "Guard the Cookie Jar". Did I mention they had FUN?!
P.E. Easter Egg Hunt (Relay) 
