Get in the Zone!

How hard should I be working? That's a question I get asked quite regularly by my learners. This is an age old problem that PE teachers face: How do we teach Target Heart Rate Zones in an engaging way? Thankfully, the amazing people at The Physical Educator put together an incredible learning tool for our intermediate learners, the Heart Rate Zone Viewer. How can you use this tool to better inform your exercise?

Never Stop Exploring!

This weekend I had the pleasure of exploring Muriwai Beach. After hiking up the trail to see the gannets, it was time to explore the numerous tide pools on offer. There was a plethora of wildlife on display: snails, crabs, starfish, and even an octopus!

Throughout my entire time there I was making connections to science concepts and Kaitiakitanga. Where do you like to explore? How can you make connections between PE explorations and other parts of your learning?

What are we LEARNING today?

The question I get most often is, "What are we doing in PE today?" I've always wondered why people say "do" and not "learn". How do we learn in PE? How do we want to learn? What learner qualities do we use in PE?

Stonefields ActivityDex

Has the thought, "What is there to do this weekend?" popped into your head? What about, "I'm bored. There's nothing to do here!"? I know I've had those thoughts a time or two. Then my good friends at The Physical Educator came up with this phenomenal idea: An ActivityDex!

What's an ActivityDex? It's an interactive Google Slides template to help us keep track of all the fun ways we can stay active throughout our lives. How cool would it be to have our own Stonefields School ActivityDex to Build Our Knowledge on activities we have in our own backyard? I bet we can have it filled out be the end of the school year! Which Hub will have the most creative entries? Add in your entries on our Stonefields ActivityDex!

Feel free to make a copy of the original template to do one with your own family!

Our Body Machine

Our body is a machine that we need to fuel through healthy foods. What are some healthy foods you like to fuel your body with?

How are you building your house?

We all know that a house needs four walls to stand strong. Have you ever thought of yourself as a house? What four walls do we need to help us stay strong? NZC uses this house analogy to explain Hauora, or wellbeing. The image below shows the four parts of Hauora.

Health and Physical Education in the New Zealand Curriculum, Ministry of Education, 2007, p. 22.

How are you building your house? What are you doing to make sure those walls stay strong? What areas do you need help in?

Physical Literacy? What?!

"Physical Literacy???? I thought we just played games in PE!" This is a common comment when learners come to PE class. However, PE is more than just fun games. It's about learning about how our bodies move and improving our skills. Below is a great video friends from OPHEA Canada made to introduce Physical Literacy. What does Physical Literacy mean to you?