Thorson Elementary Wellness Corner- December : Emotional Wellness

Thorson Wellness Corner

December: Emotional Wellness

In today’s fast-paced society, students are faced with an enormous range of stressors to navigate in their young lives. It is important for students to develop strong resiliency skills throughout their childhood to help them learn to cope with change, hardships, and challenges that will help foster a strong level of emotional wellness they can tap into throughout their lives.

Kenneth Ginsburg, M.D., MS Ed, FAAP, a pediatrician specializing in adolescent medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP),  and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) authored A Parent’s Guide to Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Your Child Roots and Wings. Their book provides a great resource to help parents and caregivers build resilience in children, teens, and young adults. Dr. Ginsburg has identified seven “C”s of resilience: competence, confidence, connection, character, contribution, coping, and control.

One of the C’s that lends itself well to many community, home, and school activities this month is Contribution. Whether it is through the Thorson Elementary School/Kapco Toy Drive, helping a neighbor shovel their sidewalk, or through spending quality time with loved ones, students can gain a sense of emotional well-being from contributing their time and/or resources to helping others, through random acts of kindness or otherwise. “Children need to realize that the world is a better place because they are in it. Understanding the importance of personal contribution can serve as a source of purpose and motivation.” Children learn how to contribute by:

· Understanding that many people in the world do not have what they need

· Learning to serve others by observing others modeling generosity

· Having opportunities to contribute in some specific way

http://www.healthychildren.org/English/healthy-living/emotional-wellness/Pages/Building-Resilience-in-Children.aspx

Winter Physical Activity Tips for Thorson Students and Families

Thorson Elementary School 
Physical Education

Building a Strong, Healthy, and Fit 
School Community

Making Family Time an Active Time

Tips for Getting Kids More Physically Active

Children and teens should be moderately active for at least 60 minutes on most, if not all, days, and vigorously active at least 30 minutes 3-4 days a week. One of the best ways to to encourage physical activity is through active family time!

When the whole family is involved in physical activities together, children learn that being active is fun, healthy, makes them feel good, and helps improves their academic learning.

Thorson students have been busy learning about the benefits of physical activity throughout the school year.  

Physical activity:

· Increases fitness levels and keeps the heart and lungs strong and healthy.

· Builds and maintains healthy bones and stronger muscles.

· Increases overall strength and endurance.

· Helps control weight to decrease the risk of many diseases.

· Stimulates the brain and contributes to academic success.

· Boosts energy and promotes sound sleep.

· Helps you feel good about yourself and promotes positive emotional well-being.

· Relieves stress and provides a way to connect to family and friends.

Thorson's 10th Annual JRFH/HFH Event = Huge Success!

2013 Thorson Elementary JRFH/HFH Wrap-up

Thorson students did an OUTSTANDING job participating in this year's Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart event! 

It was so much fun! Glow in the Dark shooting, hula hooping, and jump roping continues to be a big hit with Thorson students, along with all the other great basketball and jump rope activities! 

A very special thank you goes out to Melissa Stowers, Michelle Pries, Stacy Mose, Kristen Hurt, and John Winter, as well as the CHS Varsity Basketball teams and ALL the fabulous parent and student volunteers who came to help out! Thank you so much for helping to make this a great event for our students! 

During this year's JRFH/HFH event, Thorson recognized and honored six students and younger siblings who have already had to deal with heart health issues/surgeries and stroke issues in their short lives. These families and all the other loved ones that we jumped in honor and in memory of are a big part of why it is so important to share JRFH/HFH at our school. Students learn some fun facts about their heart, how it functions, and why it is so important to be active, get enough sleep, and eat healthy. Upper elementary students learn about risk factors for heart disease and what can be done to prevent the factors they can control. They also use pedometers and heart rate monitors to help understand the connections between physical activity and heart health, and to learn more about resting and target heart rates.

This year Thorson students and families raised $12,457.50 for American Heart Association! Truly awesome and beyond words! Jack Z., Kale K., and Maddie M. were the top three fundraiser for Thorson this year, and will have the opportunity to attend the Milwaukee Bucks game on March 24th as well as participate in the pre-game festivities. Congratulations, Jack, Kale, and Maddie! Mrs. Gibson, Thorson Elementary Principal, and I will soon be dressing up like the AHA Super Hero Duck to congratulate the students for their efforts!

After ten years of participating in Jump Rope and Hoops for Heart, Thorson Elementary School has raised over $115,000 for American Heart Association! 

Encouraging Kids to be Physically Active

Third-Fifth Grade PE Physical Activity Calendar
Third, fourth, and fifth grade students are currently working on tracking their physical activity outside of school. They have received a 4 week physical activity calendar to help keep a log of activities they have participated in, and students also have a daily suggested activity to try out as well.

Check out the calendar to learn more about the physical activity assignment. Physical Activity Calendars are due by Friday, January 4th. Be sure to keep them in a safe place during winter break!

SPARK PE recently shared a blog post about how parents can encourage kids to be physically active. Check it out!                 SPARK PE- Encouraging Kids to be Physically Active

Family Candlelight Snowshoe Night

Family Candlelight Snowshoe/Hike Night

Friday, January 11^th     6:30-8:00pm

Come explore Thorson’s Nature Center and enjoy the stars at night while participating in a family candlelight snowshoe night. In the event of no snow, the featured activity will be a candlelight hike.

Dress appropriately for the outdoor adventure with a winter coat, hat and mittens, snow pants, and a pair of boots. Chili, cornbread, and juice will be served that night.

Sign up for the event ASAP so that we can plan to have enough snowshoes and chili available for all who are interested.

Cost to participate is $5 per family. 

Save the Date- Family Wellness Night Friday, February 1st

More information to follow! 

Mark your calendars!

Cooperative Learning in Physical Education

21^st Century Skills in Physical Education- The Cooperative Activities Unit

In education today, all curriculum areas in school encourage 21st century skills with students. 

Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, or the four C’s, are one aspect of 21st century skills we strive to teach our students. Educators also focus on making learning rigorous, relevant, and meaningful for students.

In physical education this quarter, Thorson Elementary students had a chance to develop 21^st century skills in the Cooperative Activities unit. Through a variety of cooperative, problem solving challenges, students developed their communication, problem solving, and collaboration skills. Students learned that there are often many creative solutions to problems/challenges, and had multiple opportunities to practice appropriate conflict management skills. Students had a chance to develop and build their leadership and people skills, as well as demonstrate social and personal responsibility.

Through multiple cooperative activities this past quarter, students learned what it takes to work through challenges as a group, and how to manage and learn from situations that arise. It was awesome to see creative problem solving happen before my eyes, as I watched students work together to find solutions to challenges they were given! These activities provided some of the most important teachable moments that I can share with students about how choices and decisions they make and follow through on affect more than just themselves, and how important communication and problem solving skills are for all areas of their life. 

Communication and critical thinking skills are essential tools that helped Thorson students succeed in these cooperative activities in PE, but even more importantly, students have begun to build a foundation of thinking and problem solving skills they will be able to use throughout their lifetime.

To learn more about the Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, check out this link.

Fall, Apps, and Halloween

Happy October!
It has been a great fall season for getting outside for Physical Education class! Thorson Elementary School has the BEST playground ever to use for Physical Education and recess. The Nature Center foliage is simply amazing at this time of year! I hope your family and you have had a chance to enjoy the great outdoors this fall!

(App)les for the Teacher :)
I am SO EXCITED to be using the new iPad I have for physical education. There are so many great educational apps that I have already been able to take advantage of, and students have already benefited from it as well.
Here are a few of my favorite apps so far that may be of interest to you as well:

• CoachMyVideo- This app is great! It is my go-to tool for helping students visually see what their skills look like when they perform a task, and after giving them feedback and having them try again, I can share a side to side progression for them to see the positive changes they made. This has been very exciting to share with students! I also use CoachMyVideo to videotape students doing their skill assessments, and then take the time later to view it closer as I evaluate their skills. Very useful!!
• Educreations- This app is similar to a whiteboard presentation, but has some cool features that have allowed me to drop in a picture of a soccer field this fall. We have used it to label the field markings, draw x's and o's in different colors to discuss offsides rules, and to explain how the ball is inbounded during various parts of a soccer game.
• Keynote- This app is like powerpoint for the iPad. We planned our social contract while I typed in the  students' responses. I was able to print out the social contract for my classroom from this Keynote activity.
• Heat Pad HD- No, this app is not meant to "warm up" your fingers when you type :), but rather it has some really cool color features that change colors to the pressure of your fingers as you move it along the screen. I use this app to motivate my special needs students after a great SDPE session. It is a GREAT app to help kids get excited about spelling out letters/words with their fingers. Very cool...check it out!

Have a Healthy Halloween!
I subscribe to a blog with SparkPE, and this month they have an awesome article I would like to share with you:

http://www.sparkpe.org/blog/happy-healthy-halloween/

Enjoy the rest of the fall season and get outside before the snow flies! :)