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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Instant Activity

Lazy Mary from Gretchen Jessel on Vimeo.

When students enter the gym they are ready to move. They want to move. As they get off the bus in the morning they are yelling across the black top asking "What are we doing in PE today Mrs. Jessel?" or "Do I have PE today Mrs. Jessel?" They do not want to come to the gymnasium and sit.

I found instant activities provide the students with moderate to vigorous movement options which help the students focus before the lesson begins. I teach a variety of instant activities in the beginning of the year and rotate through them. Some of the activities are linked to the daily lesson while others are random.

Instant activities I've used in the past include cooperative challenges, ball throwing challenges, fitness and low organized games like Lazy Mary. Once taught and reviewed two or three times, the students are able to organize and start the activity with little assistance from me.

During instant activity time I take attendance, reset the daily lesson, and talk with the students.

7 comments:

Alicia Lopez said...

Gretchen,
Thanks for posting your instant activity to the PE blog. I enjoyed watching the video - Lazy Mary. Your directions were to the point - safety and play zone. Students were involved and active.

Schultz said...

This is a great idea, it looks like the students are really enjoying themselves. I might put a no-babysitting rule in for the highschool where they would not be able to stand right over the buckets. My thought would be that it would promote more movement?? I would have to try it out and see :)

Nighthawk said...

That is a really cool game! It seems like the students are having a great time and using many different movements to take a bucket and run to the safe zone! We would need to modify a bit in the high school such as adding a "physical requirement" for those that get put in jail. All in all, very cool.

Gretchen Jessel said...

I agree, for secondary the students should be made to stand further from the buckets. This was actually a secondary game that I adapted to the lower levels. When played with 6-10 grade students there was only one 'Lazy Mary' and he/she stood further away. I think developmentally, this will naturally occur. My little ones tend to get very nervous and overwhelmed. This is one of the reasons I place two of them together. The addition of a physical task would be a smart idea.

You did not see it in the video but, if a team has all their buckets stolen, they then can join forces with another 'Lazy Mary.'

Anonymous said...

Very Cool! I liked the music. It seemed so happy and I felt myself moving while watching. It seemed to add to the climate in the room. I also liked that Nighthawk would add some movement for the kids in jail. Thanks for sharing.

Stacey said...

Loved the Instant Activity! The kiddos seemed to understand what was expected of them and did a very good job with the IA! I would agree.... maybe some jumping jacks or other physical exercise might work well using up their "jail" time until they get out of jail! Great job Gretchen!!!

Jen Kurtz said...

Gretchen-

What a great way to get the kids instantly moving when they into the gymnasium! I liked that there were more than one group of "Lazy Marys" - makes sense to spread out game and make the students more successful. I like the others' suggestions of adding "physical" elements to get out of jail - especially so that they too are getting movement and exercise and a concern at the middle school level that jail doesn't become a place to "hide out" until the activity stops. Very cool!