PE, Health & Wellness

November Newsletter

A Look Into Virtual Physical Education & Health

Welcome to a new physical education, health, and wellness experience -- virtual PE & health! The Wellness department welcomed Ms. Celina Patten to our department for the Fall 2020 semester. Ms. Patten is completing her student teaching practicum through Bridgewater State University and is working closely with Ms. Glencross' classes.

The fall 2020 semester has been off to a strong start in all physical education and health classes, read below to see what all classes have been up to!

Health & Wellness - Mr. Trant

Health and Wellness classes have gotten off to a great start in our remote setting. Students opened the semester exploring different aspects that go into our overall health. Students have discussed elements of physical health, mental/emotional health, and social health. Each of these aspects of health will be discussed in greater detail with more specific examples as the semester continues, and students have already begun to identify how these areas of our health interact with each other in our lives on a daily basis.

Students are currently identifying different components of fitness, and learning about the heart and blood vessels. Students have discussed the benefits physical activity can have not only on our physical health but also on our mental/emotional health. Students have learned the skill of calculating maximum and target heart rate, and how this skill can be beneficial when monitoring workout intensity. As you work through this month’s “Workout Challenge” or through your individual exercise plans, keep track of your exercise intensity by calculating target heart rate!

Looking to remain active during these times? Try incorporating a variety of exercises with your family members based on the components of fitness!:

Muscular Strength: Push-up competition; “Workout Challenge: Planksgiving”
Cardiorespiratory Fitness: Family walks around the neighborhood (masks up!)
Endurance: Increase the frequency, duration, or mileage of your walks!
Flexibility: Someone in the family can lead a yoga session

Stay safe, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Wellness - Mr. Joyce

Wellness classes have started off great. We started off the year discussing the different types of wellness and developing fitness SMART goals for ourselves for the semester. From there we spent some time on stress management and how to keep ourselves organized to decrease stress in these uncertain times. Recently we have been covering yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises, and students are currently creating and videotaping their own yoga routines.

Reach Out PE - Mr. Joyce

What an amazing start we have had to the school year. We have started out learning different forms of exercise. From there, we have a wide variety of options to choose from to warm up with each class. After that, we moved onto our first unit of the year which was a modified cornhole. This was a great opening activity to see what PE could look like socially distant. This week we have moved onto our second unit which is miniature golf which we are all excited about.

Personal Fitness & Wellness - Ms. Glencross & Ms. Patten

The year has started off learning about the various dimensions of wellness and how this semester of physical education will expand outside of the traditional focus of just physical wellness. To help students get adjusted to a remote learning environment, stress management, and organizational techniques and strategies were explored to help set students up for success in all of their classes.

The course has progressed into learning about muscular strength and muscular endurance. During the strength and endurance unit, students were asked to get creative with items they had access to around the house to be used as resistance. The most commonly found items were: cans of soup, gallons of water, textbooks, and filled backpacks to be useful forms of added resistance for when they did not have access to traditional free weights or machine weights at home. Engagement doesn’t stop when the Zoom call ends, for students and families looking to engage in more strength and endurance activities, we challenge you to check out the November Planksgiving challenge!

Currently, Ms. Patten has taken over fully and is engaging students in a yoga and meditation unit. Students will learn about various types of yoga, different poses, and the importance of breathing through poses. As students learn more about yoga, they will be asked to create their own yoga flow; this assignment will be done individually or with a partner through the use of breakout rooms during class time. As the unit concludes, students will be asked to present their yoga flow during our Zoom calls - we cannot wait to see what students design!

Fitness & Wellness - Mr. Flynn

This semester has been off to a successful start. We started the semester with Ice Breaker activities to get to know one another. We did self-introductions through a variety of activities to build community and relationships. From there, we started to identify ways to live an active lifestyle while engaging in at-home workouts. We talked and studied the benefits of being active on a daily basis. This is of added importance, as our students remain in the remote learning phase.

Since then, we have introduced the 5 components of health-related fitness and continued to explore at home videos to remain active. The first component of fitness we introduced was flexibility. Some of the aspects we studied were dynamic warm-ups, static stretching, foam rolling, yoga, and best practices for implementing all of these aspects into our daily lives.

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Wellness Tip

Did you know that walking at least 6,000 steps a day improves your cardiovascular health, depression, cholesterol, blood pressure, and resting heart rate? People who walk tend to adhere to their workouts and physical activity. So, if you find yourself sitting down more during remote learning and you are trying to start some sort of workout routine, but don't know where to start, start by improving your daily step count! Walking with others also has some great benefits, so take the family out for a walk & enjoy the fall weather!

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Health Tip

Did you know that apples are:

Good for your heart as they improve your cholesterol
Boosts your brain health
Helps to lose & maintain weight
Lowers the risk of Type 2 Diabetes
Helps to fight cancer

This is the best season to get some fresh apples in New England! How will you incorporate apples into your daily diet?

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Workout Challenge

As a family, we challenge you to engage in the Planksgiving Challenge!

The challenge asks you to engage in different variations of plank exercises. Every day has a different number of rounds for the plank challenge! Share your family experience with the Planksgiving challenge on Instagram by tagging us @WatertownPhysEd and using #Planksgiving

Community Engagement

Instagram

Follow us on Instagram and tag us in your at-home workouts! We look forward to seeing the sights from around town while on a run/walk/bike ride. Additionally, we hope to see some great photos from this months Planksgiving Challenge, don't forget to tag us (@WatertownPhysEd) and use the hashtag #Planksgiving!