Physical Education

Physical Education for Children with Moderate to Severe Disabilities

March 21, 2019 By Annette1 2 Comments

Staying physically active is an important part of life. Moving our bodies helps us think through problems, gets our blood moving, helps us stay physically fit, and is simply just good for us. For some people staying physically active proves to be a challenge, not only for themselves, but for the people working with them. Physical Education for Children with moderate to severe disabilities is the help that educators need. Let me walk you through this book I am currently reviewing.

Physical Education for Children with Moderate to Severe Disabilities

From the cover:

For students with moderate to severe disabilities, instruction in physical education can be a challenge. Many teachers struggle with understanding these students’ complex needs, selecting appropriate content, and finding ways to motivate these students. While many educators consider the social aspects of inclusion a priority, the authors in this text stress active engagement with the curriculum and the use of grade-level outcomes to adapt learning for students with a range of abilities. One thing is certain: The keys to making physical education a positive learning experience are the physical education teachers and adapted physical education teachers who work with these students. This text is for you!

What You Get:

Like all books from Human Kinetics this book is aimed at educators and although written with technical language is easy enough to read. Meaning that if you are a parent looking for inspiration you will have no issues receiving the help you need.

172 pages divided into three parts, 14 chapters in all.

Part One: Best Practices for Engaging all Students

Understanding disabilities and universal design for learning
Collaborative processes in Physical Education
Assessment Strategies
Communication practices that enhance participation
Peer tutoring
Paraeducators in Physical Educators
Creating Accessible Equipment

Part two: Participation for all in Sports Activities

Foundational skills and sensory integration
Disability sport in physical education
Modified programming in physical education
Transitioning to recreational opportunities beyond school
Aquatics for students with disabilities

Part Three: Sample Lessons using universal design for learning

Team sports and target games
Lifetime and health-related activities

Each chapter, as you can see, has the contributors names clearly identified along with the objectives. A great way to help you pinpoint the need you have and get it addressed quickly.

Numerous pictures dot the pages, and you will also find table to help you assess what is needed to help your student assess different sports, figures to draw attention to different information and much more.

This is a very informative book designed to help the teacher (and helpers) to create a good physical education program for their students.

As an additional help you will find review questions at the close of each chapter. There is no point in reading if you don’t really understand what you are learning. These review questions help bring to bear the skills you need to help your students better.

My Thoughts:

I just love a well organized book don’t you? To have the background given to me so I understand the reasoning behind statements made. Then to have practical helps given to me. It’s a wonderful thing to have. Physical Education for children with moderate to severe disabilities is one such book.

I loved the sample lessons, consider an alternative to a fencing lessons… can your student take a rolled up newspaper and hit a target? Can you use a simpler bow mounted horizontally, to teach the fundamentals of archery? Can your student, with the help of a peer buddy, use a wedge net to play soccer? I loved how the teacher is encouraged to look at the core skills aimed for with physical education unit. Then to find ways to modify that to include students with disabilities. An excellent book to help teachers think outside of the box.

Physical Education for Children with Moderate to Severe Disabilities.
Michelle Grenier & Lauren J. Lieberman (editors).
Human Kinetics
Softcover, 172 pages
Physical Education, Disabilities, Special Needs, Teachers
Reviewed for Human Kinetics.

Other Human Kinetics Books reviewed:

Phys Ed Encouragment

June 1, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

When my son was younger, it was sometimes hard to get him to focus, I learned fairly quickly to have him do something physical if I wanted him to practice most anything. Like the alphabet, or addition/subtraction facts, telling me the names of the Great Lakes and such like. I had this balance circle that he would often stand on. Working to keep his balance seemed to free up his mind to think about concrete facts. Therefore as part of my “want to learn” series, it seemed appropriate to focus on physical education as well.

Crew Recommendations

I asked members of the crew what they did for fitness and Holly pointed me to these cards she uses.

Deann pointed me to a site that I’m not sure about, because quite frankly I’m really leery of mindfulness stuff, as it doesn’t seem to sync well with being a person of faith. BUT I’ll let you take a look at it and see what you think. It’s called Cosmic Kids.

On a regular basis I get emails from Faithful Workouts. Build your faith, work your body, and eat well. I can’t say that I read all of the emails, but I do read enough to feel confident recommending them. Her emails are geared for the adults as opposed to children, so more like something to motivate mom, so then she can motivate her children! Her latest email contained this quote:

Why is it so difficult to remain dedicated and faithful to diet and fitness when our health is at risk? What has to change in order for you to succeed?

I have to believe the answer is found in the commentary of 2 Chronicles in the NLT Study Bible;

“The secret to victory is first to admit the futility of unaided human effort and then to trust God to save. His power works best through those who recognize their limitations. It is those who think they can do it on their own that are in the greatest danger.”

For Students:

Get out and get busy really, that’s often all there is to it. Children from 5-17 need at least one hour of physical activity every single day. Amazing isn’t it? So get out and explore the world! Get up and explore your house. There are so many ways to get busy.

From working with a balance board, to doing tippy-toe races across the dining room floor, to running along a trail as you get in the fresh air.

Perhaps you have a boy who likes karate

Or a girl who loves playing tag

Dance, jump, balance, rock climb, go for a hike, smell the roses, look for birds, and take in a round of golf. The point is to get off your seat and on your feet.

Did you know that in one school district they have a rule. For every 45 minutes of learning, the students get 15 minutes of exercise? By doing so they have cut down on the reported cases of various learning disorders. Amazing isn’t it? The students are more focused, and better able to learn and retain information, making for less homework and more productive in school time. Imagine what that could do for OUR children schooled at home!?!

In what ways do you encourage physical activity in your students? Do you have a favourite go-to activity? In house we like nerf guns, walks around the dam, fishing, biking, shooting slingshots, karate and archery. Mixing it up is a good thing to do eh?

Want to learn series:

Coding.
Math.
Foreign Languages.

Promoting Active Lifestyles in Schools

April 7, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

In a day and age when physical activity seems limited in many of our youth (due the love of technology and busy parent lives) having a book to assist teachers in promoting a healthy lifestyle seems a goodly thing no? Primarily written to the teacher in the public or private school system, Promoting Active Lifestyles in Schools, is also some benefit to homeschooling families as it gives parents talking points about having an active lifestyle with their children.

Promoting Active Lifestyles in Schools has been produced by Human Kinetics. Human Kinetics is focused on helping teachers teaching health and physical education to the best of their ability. Their whole goal in life is to produce quality literature to help you, the teacher, help your students be more physically active.

What do you get?

128 page softcover book divided into three sections with a total of 11 chapters.

Section One: Promoting healthy, active lifestyles in UK Schools
Recommendations for nurturing healthy, active children
Whole-school approaches to promoting healthy lifestyles
Physical education’s contribution to promoting healthy lifestyles

Section Two: Monitoring Health, Activity and Fitness in Schools
Monitoring health in schools
Monitoring physical activity in schools
Monitoring physical fitness in schools

Section Three: Health-Related learning in Physical Education
Involving all children in healthy, active lifestyles
health-related learning for 5 to 7 year olds
Health-Related learning for 8 to 11 year olds
Health-Related learning for 11 to 14 year olds
Health-Related learning for 15 to 16 year olds

Comes complete with glossary, references, and index. Each chapter starts with clearly delineated goals.

Authors Jo Harris and Lorraine Cale have produced a good book, geared to the teacher to help them to monitor the physical education levels of their students. Web-resources are included (with a password) to help teachers with quizzes, worksheets, and other helpful information. The physical book includes questions to ask their students, questions to ask themselves and much more.

Four themes are covered throughout:

Safety issues
Exercise effects
Health benefits
Activity promotion

Pictures dot the pages, helping to bring clarity to concepts.

Web resource images are provided throughout the book, the code presented in the opening section.

My Thoughts:

Though I haven’t read every word in the pages of this book, I have read much of it. I appreciated the discussion questions based on helping children see the need to be more physically active. How the questions to help the students changed depending on their age and level of understanding. Good to have help in that regard eh? I spent most of my time in the 11-14 year old category (as that fits my lad’s age). I thoroughly appreciated the huge variety of questions given to be able to assist my lad in understanding why being active is so important (it’s a good reminder to me as well eh?) Get off my derriere and get out walking or biking! All in all, an excellent book to help your students/children understand the benefits of physical education.

Promoting Active Lifestyles in Schools book cover

Promoting Active Lifestyles in Schools
Jo Harris and Lorraine Cale
Human Kinetics 
182 pages, softcover
fitness, physical education
Reviewed for Human Kinetics
Where to buy: Amazon Link.

Other Human Kinetics Books reviewed:

Elementary. Middle School. Highschool.

Review: Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education

January 11, 2018 By Annette1 2 Comments

So I’ve reviewed Lesson Planning for Highschool, and Moving with Words and Actions, today I have for you the middle school version. Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education is a great book for the teacher of middle school physical education, covering the gambit of the what and why, to the how and where. Filled with instructional tasks, and the break down of a variety of middle school physical activities, to make teaching easier and in line with the national standards.

Shape American, along with Human Kinetics, has come out with a thorough treatise on teaching middle school students their physical education requirements.

What do you get?

Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education is a 778 page well written manual on teaching physical education to your middle school students. It is broken down into 11 chapters divided into two sections.

1. Planning to Student Success in the Middle Grades.
+ The Importance of Teaching for Student Learning in the Middle Grades.
+ Teaching to Standards.
+ Meeting the National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes in Middle School.

2. Lessons Plans for Middle School Physical Education
+ Applying Students’ Skills and Knowledge to Dance and Rhythm
+ Applying Students… to Invasion Games
+ Applying Students… to Net and Wall Games
+ Applying Students… to Fielding & Striking Games and Target Games
+ Applying Students… to Outdoor Pursuits
+ Applying Students… to Physical Participation
+ Applying Students… to Program Design and Fitness Assessment

I like how even in middle school we are encouraged to help our students plan out their physical education even outside the classroom. Isn’t it great when they want to be involved with something? I look at my lad and his interest in Karate. This is Shape America is all about… helping our youth make wise decisions. They start in the classroom with the encouragement to take it beyond the doors.

Ergo introducing a wide level of sports/physical fitness options that you might not have considered before. Such as dance, handball, something called ultimate .. where the student needs to show proficiency in a wide range of activities: catching, throwing, defense and more, learning disc golf, in-line skating, biking, backpacking and more just to name a few. I have to admit, as I read through the list I wondered… where is ice skating? I suppose though it would be impossible to list every activity that youth can engage in (as they don’t have karate either).

Each lesson accredits the teacher who designed the program, as I looked through, they came from all areas of the United States. Each lesson has a number of tasks it is broken down into. For instance, Pickleball as 8 separate tasks from how to hit the ball, learning game play, playing with a partner and more. The authors have endeavored to make this treatise and ready to use as they can.

My Thoughts:

A great resource for the physical education teacher of middle school. Broken down into different grade levels this is a wonderful aid to helping your students learn some of the many ways that physical education can take place. I love how each lesson is broken down into smaller tasks to ensure the sport is taught well.

Lesson Planning for Middle School Physical Education
 - Meeting the National Standards & Grade-level Outcomes.
Strategies for designing student lessons, plus 22 modules
   and 176 Lesson plans
Robert J. Doan
Lynn Couturier MacDonalad
Stevie Chepko
Shape America
Trade Paperback, 178 pages, resource, middle school, 
physical education

Reviewed for Human Kinetics. 

Where to find it?  Amazon Link.

Review: Lesson Planning for High School Physical Education

January 4, 2018 By Annette1 Leave a Comment

Do you remember when I reviewed Moving with Actions and Words? This was a physical education curriculum for young children. Today I have one for High School students entitled “Lesson Planning for High School Physical Education”. Put out by Human Kinetics, this is an amazingly detailed book to help high school age youth get the exercise they need, as well as teaching them valuable new skills, setting them up for a healthy adulthood.

So what do you get?

In Lesson Planning for High School Physical Education, you get a 770 page book divided into two main sections.
1. Planning for Student Success in High School.
+ The Importance of Teaching For student Learning
+ Teaching to Standards
+ Meeting the National Standards and Grade-level outcomes in High School
+ Developing an Electives-based program for High School Students

This first section gives you all the nitty-gritty details about why phys ed is important for high school students as well as giving the instructor the needed facts about what the national standards are for each grade level. A challenge is then issue to offer students a choice in what they want to learn, what sport most interests them. This may take some creative thinking on the part of the physical education staff, but where there is a will there is often a way.

2. Lessons Plans for High School Physical Education.
+ Extending Students Skills and Knowledge to outdoor Pursuits
+ Extending Students…. to individual Performance Activities
+ Extending Students…. to Target Games
+ Extending Students…. to Dance and Rhythms
+ Extending Students…. to Fitness Activities
+ Extending Students…. to Designing and Implementing Personal Fitness Plans.

This section breaks down each physical activity into a number of lessons. For instance aquatics takes you through 16 lessons ranging from how to swim, rescue, endurance, aerobics, diving, water polo and more. Each lesson is broken down into parts like fitting a life jacket, swimming underwater etc. Each Lesson as you can see, lists the equipment needed, outcomes, goals etc.

One of the things I very much appreciate is the goal to help high school students internalize what they are learning and finding a sport (or sports) they like and want to take part in whether it be water polo, dance, or fishing.

My thoughts:

This is a highly organized and very thorough approach to high school physical education. Each section is well-laid with numerous lessons to help you to teach the sport involved. The sports aren’t all the normal ones that I was expecting like soccer and volleyball, but also included sports such as fly-fishing, rock-climbing and dance. This book is geared to the adult instructor.

Lesson Planning for High School Physical Education:
 - Meeting the national standards & Grade-level outcomes
 - 16 modules, 248 lesson plans
Shape America
Human Kinetics
Lynn Courturier MacDonald
Robert J. Doan
Stevie Chepko
Trade paperback, 771 pages
exercise, physical education, lessons, planning, high school

Reviewed for: Human Kinetics. 

Where can you find it?   Amazon Link.

Review: Moving with Words & Actions

November 11, 2017 By Annette1 4 Comments

Do you work with preschool or primary aged children? If so, Shape America has come out with a really neat book for promoting physical literacy in children, from preschool through primary grades. This book is called Moving with Words & Actions.

Quick Book Synopsis:
Moving With Words & Actions will help you develop physical literacy
and language literacy in your preschool and primary-grade students. The
text offers more than 70 lesson plans that are aligned with SHAPE
America’s National Standards and Grade-Level Outcomes for K-12 Physical
Education. The plans use an interdisciplinary approach and are adaptable
for various settings.

Each lesson plan includes three learning tasks that help children apply a variety of action words and movement concepts to the moderate to vigorous intensity physical activities prescribed in the tasks. Most tasks are easy to implement, requiring no equipment or specialized setting.

The Book’s Purpose:
Moving With Words & Actions is geared toward helping a teacher equip their students with confidence in using their bodies well in a variety of environments. The students will be taught good action words as they learn to use their bodies better.

Fun activities to help the children under your care learn actions and words.

Set Up
The book is divided into two sections.

Section one to help you the teacher with
1. Selecting Age-Appropriate content
2. creating ad implementing lesson plans
3. making the most of every lesson
4. Assessing Children’s ability to move with words and action

Section two contains 70 lesson plans
5. Moving with Words & Actions to create healthy bodies
6. Moving with Words & Actions in our community
7. Moving with Words & Actions like living animals
8. Moving with Words & Actions in Science and Math
9. Moving with Words & Actions in Language Arts

I found the lessons to be thorough and working across disciplines, for instance “building structures” had children learning about arches, what they are, how they look, how to build one with their bodies of different heights and widths, and then how to move through them. The lesson then closed with helping the children think about what they did. What was easily or hard, how they moved through the arches…how they used their bodies to move through high arches or low ones.

A thorough excellent book that will be of aid to anyone working with young children and is interested in helping them develop better body awareness with the language to go with it. Recommend as a resource for preschool and primary teachers.

Moving with Words & Actions
Rhonda L. Clements
Sharon L. Schneider
Human Kinetics
Shape America
272 pages
Adult, teacher, resource, physical education

Reviewed for: Human Kinetics

Where can I find it?
Amazon.ca: Moving with Words & Action.
Amazon.com: Moving with Words & Action.

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Review: Way of the Warrior Kid

August 5, 2017 By Annette1 2 Comments

Written in the style of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Way of the Warrior Kid was an interesting read. It was also thought provoking and I am going to have my 12 year old read it as well. In fact, if I can wrap my brain around it, I’m going to see if I can turn it into a book study, with relevant scripture and such like to go along.

Watching a child go through a mental change in his outlook, training hard with his uncle and becoming the person he discovered that he truly was. Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy Seal Way, speaks to how using the Navy Seal mind set works well for helping youth make incredible differences in their lives.

It’s making choices and sticking with them…even when it’s hard.

This book, oh.. it made me laugh. The kid in the book, he’s a delight, his honesty, his wanting to do what’s right even though it goes against what he thinks, his fear, his desire to be like his uncle. It’s all there, right in front of us. Able to watch him think, learn and develop more into the person he’ll be as an adult.

The images in the book brought Marc to life.

You could just see his delight, his fear, his concerns,and his joy within them.
It was so good to see the metamorphosis…not only externally, but also internally.

My Thoughts:
For parents who want to fight the laziness and apathy so prevalent in the younger generation, this book will be yet another tool in the arsenal of lighting a fire under our youth. To get them up and active and realizing their part (taking ownership) in the battle to be better than what they currently are. It was great to see the mentorship from Uncle Jake with Marc. Inspiring, challenging, encouraging, teaching…being right there pushing and helping a boy to make the right decisions. Good stuff.

Way of the Warrior Kid
Jocko Willink
illustrator: Jon Bozak
Feiwel and Friends
192 pages
8-12 years.

Type: trade paperback

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy SEAL way: A Novel

Amazon.com: Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy SEAL Way: A Novel

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This post may contain affiliate links – using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool – thank you!

Physical Education