Fun NEW Wellness Bulletin Board

Wow, I made it back after just a few weeks!  What an improvement! Ha ha!

I've really taken time this summer to create and it feels great!  Last post I mentioned wanting to tackle the list of ideas that I had for new resources to use in the gym... so here I am again with another resource.

I have to admit it was a bit prompted by the fact that I'm also in the process of starting my National Boards Certification again. Ugh!  My certification is up for renewal this year but since I've switched out of the classroom and my original certificated area was ELA I figured I might as well bite the bullet and make the transition into certifying in Physical Education.  I'm SUPER excited, but also completely overwhelmed and very anxious because it's no easy task.  It's going to be quite the year... but once it's done it'll be just as rewarding as last time.

Anyways, with that being said, this new resource I created will help to make the shift from the previous focus of physical education: Learning skills and sports concepts.  Not anymore.  Well, it's not the main focus.  We need to develop more physically literate students that are ready for lifetime fitness.  Therefore a focus on overall wellness is more important.  Hooray!  It's about time!  I mean c'mon, it's such a small percentage of students that even continue into sports, especially at any type of competitive level.  Instead students need to learn why it's important to make healthy choices, both eating and towards activity.  THAT will help them to be their HEALTHIEST self!

Insert perfect resource to help teach and review this exact idea here!

So I did. Unfortunately there's not a lot out there yet, so of course I had to create it.

Introducing my colorful, fun, and eye-catching bulletin board kit with Activity Sheets:

CLICK HERE for Link to TpT Resource

I enjoyed creating some 'kid-friendly' pictures to help introduce the idea of overall wellness and the benefits of fitness.  I can't wait to create another new bulletin board in my gym when I go back in August!  Here's a little more details of what's included:

I look forward to using the Activity Sheets as a pre/post test when assessing my students' understanding.  I'm hoping I might even be able to incorporate the lessons into my National Boards work since one of the components is all about assessment!  Two birds with one stone right?

Hoping someone might find it useful too! 

As always, continue to Find Your Balance friends! 

Shelby 

Summer Break is underway

I think of summer break in weekends.  

I have 10 weekends without setting an alarm Sunday night to get ready for another work week.  

Well, we're down to 7 weekends left.  I know that seems like summer has barely started, so let me clarify.  Three of these weekends are already planned, out of town for one and a little road trip for two of the others.  

Anyways, that means ONLY 4 WEEKENDS left of summer!  

I know, I know.  I'll slow down. I should be lucky that I get 10 weeks off in the first place, right?  Not going down that rabbit hole... instead, I'll look back on how summer has been going.

Soaking up the sunshine!

That's a typical 'Lake Life' weekend for me plus a lot of pickle ball too.  No pictures to show for that though. Too busy playing.  I love being able to move in so many ways over the weekend.  I recently, well, back in October, turned 40 so I appreciate that I CAN still move in these ways that I enjoy.  I look forward to many more years of movement too, and that's why switching into teaching Health & Fitness instead of just the classroom is so much more meaningful for me.  

I want to be able to share as much information about making choices to help enjoy the healthiest life you can is so important to me!  Which is why when I hear I only have 4 weekends left, it puts me in a panic.  I need the time to create!  I have a list of resources I want to create to help in teaching my content in Health & Fitness because much of the information is outdated, uninspiring, OR it's just not there!  

This week I was able to finalize my resource for teaching Essential Nutrients and I LOVE how it turned out!  I can't wait to create a new bulletin in the gym in August when I go back to school.  

Here's a peek into what's included in the resource:

CLICK HERE for Link to TpT Resource

This is just an example of what a bulletin board could look like with the resources included, but I'll try to replace it with an actual photo when I create my own in the gym. 

Cute right?

I'm looking forward to using these teaching posters when I start teaching our Nutrition Unit.  This last year I had some of the BEST questions asked by students when we talked about nutrients, but I didn't have any visuals to help support the information I was explaining.  So I'm SUPER excited to be able to have these to use when explaining each essential nutrient.  

Each poster has some simple information with food examples to help students understand food choices they can make to help them meet the needs of this nutrient.  Here's an example of the Proteins poster:

Again, cute right?  

I mean c'mon, look at that package of tofu!  It took what felt like FOR-EV-ER to create, but I'm glad I stuck with it because it finally turned out in the end.  

Notice how many plant based proteins there are compared to animal based... haha!  Sorry, I might have a bit of a bias there.  

#sorrynotsorry

For me, it's been a little over 2 years eating a plant-based (vegan) diet, so it's been interesting as I teach nutrition and being able to cover all the information that students SHOULD be able to know, but also being able to plant the seed of information that's often hidden and kept in the dark.  I don't think it's fair that the nutrition standards are very OUTDATED and funded by "agencies" that keep this unhealthy lifestyle circling year after year.  But THAT could be a whole post on it's own, so let's get back to the point of this point which is creating these NEW resources!

As I mentioned before, there's not a lot of inspiring resources to use when teaching nutrition in Health & Fitness so I created this next resource as a simple way to reinforce the food groups and the My Plate diagram. 

There's not much to it, but I didn't have something like it already so this is what I created:

CLICK HERE for Link to TpT Resource

Every My Plate diagram that I have already has the food groups labeled.  I didn't have a resource that allowed students to be able to place the pieces on the diagram.  I'm looking forward to being able to use the resource with different activities in the gym.  For example, a simple relay race where students have to run down and pick up a food group piece and then bring it back and place it on the My Plate diagram.  You can incorporate this with basketball, soccer, basic locomotor movements as a second layer of content. 

Actually, as I type this I'm thinking I need to already revise this resource to include pieces WITHOUT the food group label to allow another layer of understanding.  Can students associate the correct food group and color?   

So, I guess with that, I'm going to wrap this up so I can get to making that change and add it to the resource!  I'm also going to use this momentum to get started with my next project.  Summer starts to get away quickly, so hopefully it won't be so long until my next post. 

In the meantime, stay active and eating healthy. Do what makes your body feel good!  And as always, continue to Find Your Balance friends! 

Shelby 

 

Warm-Up Poster

Continuing from my previous post... here's my 2nd resource I finished over Winter Break.  I've been using this resource since the beginning of the year to help create a predictable warm-up structure for my students in the gym.  I wanted to have a way to quickly warm-up and stretch with a few exercises as well... and be EASY for students to follow.  Therefore I needed a poster with pictures!   I looked online for resources already available, and there wasn't much out there.  I'm noticing that happens A LOT with resources for the gym. 

There's just NOT much out there.  And if there is, the font and pictures aren't what I'm looking for in my gym.  Just like in the classroom... that means I have to MAKE SOMETHING MYSELF! 

Mission accepted. Ha ha! 

First off I started by drawing out the different stretches and exercises so I could have a realistic picture for students to use when following along.  Of course I stretch and exercise along side them, but sometimes I monitor effort by walking around and this allows students to still have a visual to follow along.  It also helps my students to see what's expected and minimizes the number of questions about what we're doing. 

So, what's the resource? 

PE Warm-UP Poster with Stretches & Exercise Cards

This resource includes pieces to create your own warm-up poster.  I like to use large chart paper on my easel that sits at the front of my gym.  I arrange the pieces and switch them out as often as I need to. I love how simple the pieces are to use.  I've also included some ready-to-print posters in case you need to just get started with something! 

Realistic pictures help students to see what the stretch and exercise looks like.  Personally I don't like all the cartoon-like clip-art choices that are out there. But that's just me.  I figure they see enough 'cartoon-ish' characters in their books and on TV, so in the gym I'd like it to be realistic.  Plus it'll help when we need to talk about topics like the skeletal or muscular systems.  I plan to use these pictures to help make connections.  (Of course I haven't worked on those resources yet, but they're to come!)

As of now, these are the stretches & exercises included for the warm-up poster:

I'm hoping to add more as I continue to see what we need, and of course I'll update the resource as I do!  But for now, that's it!  I hope you find it as useful as I have and enjoyable for your students.  

I love to see their excitement when I switch out an exercise to something new.  Who knew Tricep Dips could be so much fun?  That's one of the most recent ones I switched after coming back from our Winter Break.  Students were so excited to get into the crab position and learn this exercise.  Of course I squeezed in a little information about our tricep muscle which they were EVEN MORE excited about when I had them feel their own arm, bicep first.  They were so amazed to feel their own muscle moving as they made a fist and did a bicep curl!  They're such little sponges!  Soaking up ALL this learning about their body. I LOVE IT!  

It's moments like these that I know I'm in the right spot!  I enjoyed teaching in the classroom... but this is like 100 times more enjoyable for me!  Getting to demonstrate exercises and share my love of movement with students makes my heart happy.  It's like getting paid to play!  Ha  ha!  

I'm going to wrap it up here, and hope you find success with this warm-up poster resource in your own gym!   It helps to cut down on behaviors and gives students an opportunity for independence.  Did I mention it's SUPER HELPFUL when you have a guest teacher as well?  Easy to follow along or use student leaders to go through the already learned process of warm-ups! 

Let's continue to ignite that spark for movement and enjoying being able to move!  

Don't forget to check it out here:

 Warm-up Poster with Stretches & Exercise Cards

As always, continue to Find Your Balance friends!

Shelby

Roll & Exercise Activity

Thanks to our recent Winter Break I had some extra time to work on finalizing 2 new resources for TpT!  I've been using them in the gym since the beginning of the school year, but I finally finished putting them together to post on TpT.

So what are they?

Glad you asked...

First up, Roll & Exercise Activity! 

Click Here for link to resource:  Roll & Exercise Activity

This is such a SIMPLE way to get my students moving, and having some fun too! Who knew doing simple exercises could be so engaging?

I use this activity a couple ways.  It can be an easy relay activity using just a few pieces of equipment, or it works great at a station too! Start by creating the Roll & Exercise poster using the TpT resource posted above.

Relay Race Instructions:

Equipment:  Roll & Exercise Poster, cones, hula hoops, & dice

Instructions:  Arrange cones on one end of the gym to create the starting line for your relay teams.  On the opposite end of the gym place a hula hoop with one dice inside.  Hang the Roll & Exercise poster on this end so everyone can see.  I like to color coordinate the cones and hula hoops to help students see the different teams. 

Playing the activity:  One at a time students run down to the hula hoop and roll the dice.  Use the Roll & Exercise poster to see which exercise to complete.  Students complete a certain amount of the exercise they rolled.  For example, in the poster above #4 is Jumping Jacks.  If I rolled a #4 then I would complete five Jumping Jacks before running back to my team and the next student takes a turn.  Continue playing until you call time.  

GREAT activity to increase muscular strength and endurance too!  Kids think they're just playing a fun game, while you know they're getting great exercise as well.  WIN, WIN! 

It's also a quick and easy activity to use when you're short on time or need a lesson last minute for a guest teacher!  As teachers, there's going to be days when we need an activity that we know is simple and easy to use at a moment's notice, so this is PERFECT for that!  

Here's another way I use this Roll & Exercise activity.

Roll & Exercise Stations 

Equipment:  Roll & Exercise Poster (large or small), dice, & a cone (if using the Small Roll & Exercise Poster in a clear sleeve)

Instructions:  Set up various stations in your gym, with one area for Roll & Exercise.  Hang the Large Roll & Exercise poster somewhere in this area or use the Small Roll & Exercise Poster(s) included in this resource that can easily hang on a small cone.  Set out some dice next to the cone.  That's it!

Playing the activity:  Run stations as you do in your gym, when students arrive at the Roll & Exercise station they simply take turns rolling the dice and completing the exercise.  Decide on a certain number of reps for students to complete.  Continue rolling the dice and completing exercises until it's time to rotate to the next station.  **I like to add step boxes at this station to give them a little break between each Roll & Exercise.  Students complete 10 step box steps before rolling the dice again.  Talk about getting your steps in during class!

Super simple right?  My students have a blast with such an easy, minimal equipment needed or teaching beforehand.  Stations always work great with a guest teacher too!  

These are the different exercises included in this resource:

Simple exercises that can be modified if needed to meet your students' needs!  Here's what one of the ready-to-print Small Roll & Exercise posters includes:

Are you ready to include this resource in your gym?  Check it out and let me know how it works! 

Click here:

Roll & Exercise Activity

Need a resource to help structure your warm-ups in the gym?  That's up next!  Check out my next post on creating a fun and predictable warm-up that will help get your students get ready for any activity you have planned.  This warm-up works a bit on their cardio, flexibility, muscular strength, AND muscular endurance!  All components of fitness at once. WIN, WIN! 

Find your balance,

Shelby

Winter Break

I made it!  

Well, to winter break that is, but a much needed break. 

It's these small little breaks that always help me get through each school year.  It's going VERY well, don't get me wrong, but having something to look forward to makes it that much sweeter.

The holidays always bring with them a sense of happiness and craziness all rolled up in one.  The Christmas music, decorations, and snow glistening all around. And then of course, everyone in a panic to be out and buying ALL THE THINGS last minute!  

SO GLAD we're past the 'gift buying' stage. I don't miss that. 

Can you say, minimalism?  

Anyway, I'm enjoying being able to have some extra time to relax and dive back into some of my hobbies that get pushed aside once the school year starts.  I mean, 2 months since I last wrote a post, and even longer since I created a resource for TpT!  I have been able to keep up with my knitting though!  

I finished a blanket for a friend. 

Hard to tell in the picture, but it's a soft pink blush color:

It's the Horseshoe Cable pattern my mom taught me!  It's the first blanket I was determined to learn and I'm finally to the point where I'm not making mistakes while knitting!  I'm already almost done with another one too.  It's easier to sit and knit while we watch a show or binge watch a docu-series, than to work on my computer. 

I've found knitting to be very therapeutic for me, especially when my brain is spinning and I feel like I HAVE TO be doing SOMETHING.  It's hard for me to sit still. To do nothing.  And it's very rewarding in the end because I have a blanket to show for it!  

Although, at this point I think Ty is getting a little irritated with ALL the blankets we have now! Ha ha!  Good thing Mishka loves them! 

Moving on...

During this break I've also planned a quick getaway for us to Banff!! 

You've seen the pictures right?

Small little quaint town.

Gorgeous mountains all around.

Pristine blue lakes...

Shall I go on?

Fingers crossed it's not too cold and snowy, but I'm hopeful that'll be worth it if it is!  We don't usually travel by car on our 'trips', so it'll be an interesting 7ish hours of driving to get there.  It'll be fine.  

We'll be there for New Year's Eve which will be something different too.  In our old age (Haha- I know, Ty has a couple months until he joins the 40 club), but we usually just stay in and have to muster up the strength to even stay awake until midnight for the countdown!  

I know, lame.

So I thought I'd change it up this year.

I've planned a few hikes to fill the time, and hopefully distract Ty from the cold... and there's a gondola ride up to the top of Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station that has a pretty cool look out.  Fingers crossed it's a clear day, you look down upon Banff and out across all the surrounding mountains.  I'm excited.  It'll be something different, and I LOVE being outdoors and seeing new places. Even if every picture will have us bundled up and only our eyes poking through the layers.  

So yeah, that'll be fun. Hopefully! 

Switching gears from winter break, I've been working on some  TpT resources since the school year started.  Resources that I'm using in the gym myself, and constantly changing or making better.  I'm so grateful for being back at ONE school and getting to use my resources across multiple grade levels! 

Here's a little bit of what I've been using and working on.

This year we're doing our Fitness Testing a little different than in the past.  Usually you measure the kids in 4 different areas and they receive a score, or a grade depending on their result.  Well this year, we'll do those same measurements, but instead of getting a score for their result, the focus will be on the growth they achieve over the year.  More of a goal-setting focus and being able to monitor and analyze their own growth.  

So. Much. Better!

I mean that's what we do as adults right?  We set goals and work towards achieving them, or changing things if they're not working out.

And that's what I'm HOPING to teach them in PE, how to lead a healthy lifestyle that is LIFELONG, and not just while they're in school.

You know I love goal-setting!  That's like the epitome of me!  

As soon as I heard this was where Fitness Testing was going, I knew I wanted to start creating a resource that would not only keep track of these measurements, but be organized and efficient at the same time! 

These are the pictures I shared with my colleagues so they could use the resources as well:

I started by making a folder for EVERY student at school.  

Yes, I know, that was like some 300ish folders. 

Check out this reel I created as a joke:

Funny Reel Creating the Folders

It was quite a bit of work at first, 

multiple trips to Costco for ink cartridges, 

but now that it's done they work perfectly! 

Each grade level is color coded to help keep them organized too!

 

I use these enlarged recording sheets while we're completing our 

Fitness Measurements so it's easier for the kids to follow along. 

I also organized EACH class into their own crate 

(good 'ol IKEA magazine holders I had from teaching in the classroom.  

Much better use than in boxes in my basement!)

With cute labels of course! 

After they complete their Fitness Measurements the intermediate 

students will then need to choose an area  they're going to improve.  

They will write a SMART goal using this organizer sheet. 

I use my old easel from the classroom to hang the enlarged 

recording sheets and set out all the materials.  

It was a pretty efficient system and I'm happy with how it turned out! 

We finished our first round of Fitness Measurements before winter break, 

so after we get back it'll be time for the intermediate students 

to identify their area for improvement and write their SMART goal! 

Check out the resource here:

SMART Goals - Fitness Testing - Components of Fitness - Bulletin Board

And don't forget, 

that bulletin board that I posted in my previous post, 

is included in this resource too:

I'll continue to adjust and make changes as I use this resource myself, but I'm very proud with how it's working so far!  I hope it works for others too! 

Okay, what else?

Well, when I knew I needed to make a resource for our Fitness Testing I knew I'd need some posters to help introduce and constantly review the Components of Fitness (COF) that we'd be testing! 

I created some posters and a bulletin board (see previous post) for that too!

When I looked online they had some resources already, but nothing that really caught my attention.  A lot of resources use clipart that is mixed up between real images and cartoon-ish people.  Nothing wrong with them, I just envisioned something different for my gym.  I also wanted to use the cute fonts that would match the other posters in the space. 

Here's what I created:

I created these little 'characters' for each component of fitness.  

I use them throughout the gym when I label stations or activities 

that we're doing so they make the connection between 

what we're learning and which COF they're working on.

I also created posters with a short definition that I refer to 

ALL THE TIME 

hoping it'll sink in eventually!

Did you notice the little 'characters' are the same ones as on the 

Fitness Measurement recording sheets in the other resource?  

Yeah, I know. Super dorky.

It's the little things that make me happy. 

I love how it's all connected and as I make more 

resources I want them all to be cohesive. 

Check out the resource here: 

Components of Fitness - Health Related - Posters & Bulletin Board

Those have been 2 BIG resources that I've created this year now that I'm at ONE building and can have cohesive lessons across grade levels.  Did I mention how LUCKY I feel to be back at my 'home' school?  Okay, sorry, I just have to pinch myself sometimes because it doesn't seem real how it's all happened.  

Everything happens for a reason.

I'm such a believer of that.  Even though I sometimes don't appreciate it in the moment, I try to trust it's part of the process, and it's only after the fact, when reflecting upon a situation do I realize the weight of the moment. 

Wow, if you're still reading to this point, I'm sorry it's SO LONG!

Making up for lost time?

Maybe a good new year's resolution: 

Post more frequently so they don't have to be SO long each time!

I'm not usually one to create new year's resolutions.  I'm constantly working on and setting goals for myself.  I don't need a new year to remind me to do so!  Ha ha!  But maybe what I can do is create a reminder on my calendar to write a post. At least once a month.  I can increase if it's going well.  

So for today, I'll wrap it up.  Who knows, maybe I'll even get back on during this winter break and surprise myself with another post?!

Thanks for following along this far!

As always, remember to FIND YOUR BALANCE friends,

Shelby

Fall is here!

Can't believe it's already the end of October.  Tomorrow is Halloween and then it's onto a new month.  

November means holidays are JUST around the corner! 

Ugh! 

Bring on the rush. 

The busyness.  

The craziness of weekends and counting down until Christmas.  

Christmas!

Okay.

Let's pump the brakes a little bit. 

Before I flip the calendar into November, let me take a moment to reflect on these past two months. Starting another school year and all the resources I've been working on, while trying to FIND MY BALANCE along the way.

Okay, here goes! 

End of August... I started by COMPLETELY clearing out and reorganizing my PE office.  Literally pulled EV-ER-Y-THING out of the office and onto the gym floor.

Yes. 

It was A LOT!  

Right?

A LOT! 

I couldn't just rearrange all the equipment and make sense of ALL the stuff until it was OUT and I had a clean slate to work with. 

It was A LOT of work, but work and sweat well spent!  I'm so glad I bit the bullet so to speak and just rolled up my sleeves and got to work. 

Now I know EXACTLY what equipment I have, and where it is.  As I've been teaching for a couple months now, I can honestly say that it makes my heart super happy and content walking into my space and seeing it all organized.  Plus it helps save me SO MUCH TIME when planning my lessons and getting supplies organized. 

It looks like this now:

Doesn't that just give you a sense of... calm?  

Like take a breath. 

Ahhhhh.

As weird as it sounds, when things get crazy at school or behaviors with students start to bubble, I CLEAN.

I start to organize and clean.

Therefore, starting the school year with a clean slate helps me to find balance. 

Currently I'm working to organize and label these shelves.  I just printed the last of the labels I need and will put them on tomorrow when I'm back to work. 

As I cleared the gym of ALL the equipment it was then time to update the WALLS!  I had already cleared all the old posters and banners at the end of the school year in June.  

Again. 

Blank slate.

Being in the classroom I've learned that the more things I hang and have plastered on the wall, simply become camouflage over time.  

Knowing that, I wanted to go with LESS IS MORE in the gym space, and BIGGER is BETTER!

So I started to create big blocks of space that would be used for bulletin boards of information.  I wanted to incorporate some of the resources I'd been creating for TpT and that I thought I'd need for the school year. 

Remember, this is my FIRST year  being at ONE school and teaching ALL grade levels!  I knew I was going to be doing a little bit of 'building the plane while I fly'! 

It's still a work in progress, but I get that happy heart feeling each day I walk into my gym and I LOVE IT! 

Two months in, and I STILL find myself feeling happy when I walk in AND leave the gym each day. 

I really am blessed to be back at my 'home' school teaching PE!  Cheers to Year 14 being a fresh start and the beginning of my Health & Fitness journey! 

Phew!

Thanks for continuing this far... it was a lot.

More to come in another post!  I've been working on my PE resources for TpT and want to be able to share with others! 

As always, remember to FIND YOUR BALANCE friends,

Shelby