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