Chalk the Walk
By Carla Bowles, Athletic Director
As a nice way to end the year, Grade 9 Physical Education classes decided to ‘Chalk the Walk’ for the Junior school students to enjoy. During online learning, the grade 9 students had been learning about physical fitness components, with the end objective being about how you would train, in specific sports, to become better at aspects such as: reaction time, agility, flexibility, muscular power and endurance, balance, cardiovascular endurance and strength. Students learned about each of these aspects and did self-tests or challenges while at home, using their family members as classmates and test subjects.
In the sense of physical development, a Junior School Physical Education teacher plans activities to help young bodies develop these components in class and they are also naturally developed through play and recess. Our Grade 9 students learned about these components also deteriorating as they age and thus, the need to be aware of planning fitness regimes that cover the different fitness aspects. Our girls did plan a fitness video and were meant to finish the year by applying these training principles to the sport of Volleyball but due to social distancing restrictions we had to adapt. As such, we decided to do a bit of community service combined with some art skills to plan what is called a motor pathway. This means our young students had an opportunity to pass through the various fitness challenges for each piece of art on the pathway headed towards the exit gate at Jr school. Please see some of the included pictures and try to figure out the fitness component for each piece of art. An example would be kids using both balance and power to hop from letter to letter while trying to spell the word ‘brain.’
My thanks to the Grade 9 girls for their creativity and Mr. Mauro for helping with some of the art materials. We had at least one nice day for students to enjoy it before it all washed away with the rain. Please enjoy some of the pictures of the artists practicing their fitness components pathway.
