Hi. I am a first year teacher in Ontario, Canada. The school I am working for gave me the Grade 1 Gym class assignment. I have never taught gym as a student teacher since my placement schools had gym teachers. I have no idea where to start. The school is asking me to play low organizational game, but I believe that 1 hour of game is not a good idea for grade 1s. How can I construct/plan 1 hour of gym lessons for Grade 1? (any idea to include stretch, and other components?) Is there any recommendation you can make as an experienced teacher? Please help me. Thanks.
Check your school library, or wherever the professional resources are kept in your school, for the OPHEA document--everything is laid out for you. I used it exclusively 2 years ago when I taught grade 1. There should be a binder in your school for each grade.
I am just going to give you a couple of quick ideas that our gym teacher uses:
* when the kids come into the gym, they go to their assigned gym spot along the wall of the gym. Each spot is about 6 to 8 feet away from another kid. After they gather there, they wait until the teacher's signal and do warm-ups. I am not exactly sure what these all are, but I know it includes jumping jacks, pushups, running in place, etc for bit to increase heart rate and get them warmed up. next she teaches them the rules of what they will be doing... such as how to stay safe and how to make it fair... then they do the activity. I am not a gym teacher, but I am thinking that to finish up your gym class, you could use about 10 minutes at the end of class to do stretches, or yoga type movements.
Finally, here is a game I get the kids playing any time they earn a free-gym class which I have to supervise... it is good for about 20- 30 minutes:
I call it "Not in My Backyard" and learned it when I was in college (Phy Ed for Elementary Students) class.
Supplies:
Foam balls, bean bags, or cushy balls (at least ten, more is better) If you have no such supplies, I am thinking you could even used some crumpled balls of paper.
A whistle for you
Directions:
Divide the gym in half
Divide the student group in half. One half of the student group goes to one side of the gym, the other half goes to the opposite.
Put all of the soft items for playing (balls, mini bean bags) on the line that divides the two teams.
The purpose is to get all of the items on the other team's side... in their "back yard." The kids have to keep grabbing and throwing when they see a ball has landed on their side. As a teacher, you watch to see the moment all of the items are on one side (and it is usually just a moment... before it is no longer the case) Then blow the whistle and award a point to that team. Then play can start again. Have the balls lined back up on the first dividing line again and blow the whistle to start the process again. The kids haven't quite figured out that it usually ends up in a tie score! Hmmm.
I taught a non-sports class a couple years ago for an hour each day. I copied games and put them on large recipe cards in a recipe box. I labeled them like recipes. Holidays, pen and pencil, team games, relay games, music games, finger plays, math, magic and etc. I taught them some simple magic tricks. After we played a game I put it to the back and if the students really liked it and I thought I'd use it again, I put it in favorites. The recipe cards let me pull a game quickly and really kept me organized.
***If you want a copy of my game list and instructions. Send me an e mail and I will share my game doc. Ask for game doc...
Games: Follow the leader, mirroring, Simon Says, Mexican Hat Dance, Hokey Pokey.
Stretching activities (like for warm up and cool down)
Circuit
Dodgeball
Duck, Duck, Goose or Goose Goose, Duck
kickball
Tag Games-Blob, etc
Target Games-Frisbee Golf, hoop toss, bowling, etc
Invasion Games-steal the flag, soccer, hockey, etc
Gymnastics- Crawl, Bear walk Crab Walk Bunny hop, Mule kick, Cartwheels etc.
human obstacle course-students are the obstacles
thunderstorm dance-discuss parts of a thunderstorm, students create dance with movements representing each part
relay races
juggling-use scarfs for beginners
step aerobics
line dancing-(think the pepto bismal commercial!)
parachutes-popcorn, undersea monster, etc
tug of war
SAFE PLAYGROUND USE INSTUCTION!
PIGS FLY-leader calls out various animals that fly, and students, FLY. when leader calls out Pigs fly, or another animal that does not fly students must stop flying.
dance to the beat- teacher beats drum (or tambourine) students must change the speed of their action based on the speed of the beat.
At my school we do not have a gym teacher. We teach all subjects including gym. I start with warm ups. We walk, skip or hop around the gym 3 or 4 times. We do other warm up also. The big thing in 1st grade is learning to play games. Children just don't play games anymore. This also helps when they are out at recess time. They start to organize their own games.
Thank you very much for all of your responses. I really appreciate it. Unfortunately, since the school I work for is private school, they do not have much professional resourses at school. I was really having a hard time planning gym lessons since I have never taught gym before and also PE is not my best subject. I will plan my lessons by incorporating your ideas, and see what will happen. I will let you know how lessons go with students. Thank you for all of your help.
P.S. Hello hescollin, thank you very much for your e-mail with the document. It will be very helpful. Great ideas. Thanks once again.
Hello everybody. Now, I would like to share my experience with Grade 1 Gym class for the last one and a half week. It has been going OK. Yesterday, it was great. I have incorporated some creative dance as a warm-up and cool down activity, and we have been playing dodge ball and soccer. The school has been asking me to change what we play constantly. So, I decided not to teach them all the rules, but rather teach them basic skills, such as catching a ball, controlling a ball, understanding the lines of the gym, travelling around the specific space, etc. We are playing tag games on Thursday, and I am hoping that students will enjoy them. Unfortunately, my school is not that resourceful, and there are not so many teachers around who can really give me some guidance. So, this discussion board was very helpful to get some ideas from all of you and apply it in my class. Thank you very much. I appreciate all of your insights.
Gr. 1 - Gym Class Ideas Please
Thank you for all your ideas.
