WALKING FIELD -TRIP PERMISSION SLIP

There are times during the school year when the students take a walking field trip to either Maplewood Playfield or the Cleveland High School track/tennis courts. If your child has your permission to participate, please download, sign and return the completed permission slip to me ASAP.

WELCOME BACK LETTER

This is a copy of the letter I gave the students on the first day of school. It includes information about what we are going to cover this school year and when.

As a first year P.E. teacher, my ideas of how my class should be taught are slowly forming into what I think the best way a P.E. program should be run in order to maximize the success and enjoyment of the students. I would like to begin by telling you a little about how I run my P.E. classes, some of the activities we do, and why we do these activities.

The 1st graders making sure all of their major muscle groups are stretched before every PE class.

BEGINNING OF CLASS

P.E. begins the minute the children step foot into the gym. Each student knows they have a short time period (about one minute) in which they must change into their athletic shoes. The younger children then line up before they enter the gym, and the older students must run, touch the "Play Like A Champion Today" poster, and take their seat.

After the students are seated, I make a quick observation to see if any students are absent and I note these absences. We have a couple of stretch routines that we cycle through. On some days I pick a student leader who leads the class in a stretch routine that I have made into a stretch card. Other days we spice things up with one of my many P.E. based CD's which leads the class with their stretching.

Running with the parachute for a cardio workout.

After our muscles are loose, we launch into the cardiovascular section of the class. I usually try to tie in a specific sport into the workout. For example, if we are in the football unit of P.E., I will incorporate running with the football or running and throwing the football with relay races. If we are in the soccer unit, the students are separated into groups and I have them use soccer balls and perform dribbling relays, which get the students ready to work on soccer skills and also gives them a cardiovascular workout.

If we are not playing a sport that can be tied into a cardiovascular workout, we do a variety of exercises. For example, sometimes I set out four cones in a large rectangular shape in the gym. I play music while the students perform different movements such as running, walking, race-walking, skipping, hopping, or running backwards. When the music stops the students are to freeze, while I instruct them in the next movement to be performed. My main goal for the cardiovascular portion of class is to give the students an enjoyable and sometimes competitive way to get their blood flowing. If I were to simply blow the whistle and have the children run back and forth, or run laps, I would be just as bored watching them as they would be running.

Students pair up and line up across from their partner in basketball passing drills.

For our main section of P.E., I like to make sure the children have a solid grasp on the major sports such as basketball, soccer, football, softball, volleyball, badminton and ultimate Frisbee. I also like the students to have opportunities to play other games during P.E. that don't focus on the major team sports. I feel that games such as capture the flag, mat-ball (a fun version of kickball), sharks and minnows, battleship and galaxy ball can also reap some of the same benefits, such as a physical workout and team work skills, as do sport specific games like soccer or basketball.

In this day and age of high tech computers and video gaming systems, it seems to me that children have become more accustomed to sitting at home playing their newest video game on a sunny Saturday afternoon than playing a pickup game at the park. My goals for my P.E. classes are to pack as much learning and physical exercise into their 30 or 45 minutes as I can. In order to insure the students are getting this workout, I must make sure the class moves along as planned as well as doing my best to make sure all of the necessary equipment is laid out prior to class and ready for the children to get to work.

I enjoy seeing a student walk out of the gym with sweat coming off of his or her head and a smile on their face. That shows me that they worked hard and had fun in the process. I try to be the most upbeat P.E. teacher I can while giving the children a good, hard, but enjoyable workout.

I’m looking for a few adult volunteers to help out with field day events! Field day this year will be on Thursday June 10th. If you are interested in helping out and having some fun, you can e-mail me at mrittman08@gmail.com or come visit me at the school! Thanks, Mike Rittman

The coach of Cleveland High School’s tennis team has offered free lessons to any St. George students in grades 4-8. The lessons will be taught by varsity tennis players and overseen by the head coach. They will provide tennis balls and rackets. He said they would be willing to teach Monday’s, Thursday’s and Friday’s from 3pm-4pm. Contact Mr. Rittman if you are interested.

Individual Championships
On Saturday May 8th, St. George had 38 runners compete in the CYO qualifying meet. Of those 38, 26 of our runners qualified for the Individual Championship meet which was held on Sunday May 16th. Those who placed 1st-3rd at the Individual Championship meet took the podium and were recognized with a medal. Those St. George students who took the podium were...

Kamila Sanusi – 3rd Grade – 400m – Bronze Medal
Britanna Brown – 3rd Grade – 50m – Bronze Medal
Juan Villegas-Sotelo – 5th Grade – 200m – Silver Medal
Thomas Stowers – 5th Grade – 50m – Silver Medal
5th Grade Boys 4x100 Relay (Villegas-Sotello/Fujii/Stowers/Jackson) – Silver Medal
Richard Marois – 7th Grade – Shot Put - Bronze Medal
William Stowers – 7th Grade – 200m – Bronze Medal
Roy Balmaceda – 8th Grade – 100m – Bronze Medal

Team Championships
On Saturday May 22nd, Forty St. George runners turned out for the Team Championships held at Highline Stadium. Our runners turned in a superb performance! Here is how our team fared...

4th Grade Girls – AA 2010 CHAMPIONS!
5th Grade Boys – AA 2010 CHAMPIONS!
7th Grade Boys – AA 2010 CHAMPIONS!

2010 Greater Seattle Championships 2nd Place AA

This is the highest a St. George team has ever placed in CYO Track & Field! The CYO Track & Field director approached me after the meet and congratulated our team saying this is the fastest he has seen a team place so high in only its second year! Congratulations St. George Track & Field team!

Track & Field Records
There were 15 Track & Field records broken this year. Those records include...

Kamila Sanusi – 400m Aminat Sanusi – 75m Terryn Jordan – 400m
Ian Ferraz – Turbo Jav. Thomas Stowers – 50m Alosha Fujii – 800m
Elizabeth Gray – 400m Amanda Szeto – Turbo Jav. William Stowers – 200m
Roy Balmaceda – 100m Roy Balmaceda – Turbo Jav.
4th Grade Shuttle Relay (Sanusi/Brown/Ferraz/Marks)
Boys Sprint Medley (Palomo/Tonel/Stowers/Balmaceda)
Girls Sprint Medley (Szeto/Saturay/Nguyen/Payne-Jordan)

A Special thanks to the coaches: Amy Pollington, Chancellor Young and Melodie White! End of year Track & Field Pizza Party: Thursday June 3rd @ 5:00pm

2010 Presidential Fitness
Once again this year, many of our students took part in Presidential Fitness Testing in our P.E. class. To receive the Presidential Fitness Award, a student must be in the 85th percentile or above in the nation in each of five categories which test strength, speed, endurance and flexibility. To receive the National Fitness Award, a student must be in the 50th percentile or above in each of the five categories. Last year we tested in grades 5th,6th and 7th and awarded 2 Presidential awards and eleven National awards. This year in those same grades we are awarding EIGHT Presidential awards and TWENTY-ONE national awards! What a step up from last year! This year we also included in the testing 3rd grade, 4th grade, and 8th grade for a grand total of eight presidential awards and THIRTY-SIX National Awards!!!! Those who will receive awards are listed below...

Presidential award winners Alosha Fujii (5th)
Aleighja Harris (5th)
Cung Le (5th)
Aminat Sanusi (5th)
Ian Ferraz (6th)
Chelsea Villanueva (6th)
Bennet Vining (6th)
Tairah Payne-Jordan (7th)

National Award Winners

A big thank you goes to three of our St. George families that purchased flags which are now hung in the gym. Thank you to the family of Natalie Gulizia (1) who donated the Russian flag, the Sanusi (Sherifat -1, Kamila -3, and Aminat -5) who donated the Nigerian flag and also the family of Jonathan Luong (6) who donated both the Irish and South Vietnam flags. Thank you also to Antonio Pixton's family who donated the flag of Guatemala. You will see it hanging soon as I need to exchange it for another size.

Our gym now has flags representing; SOUTH KOREA, ITALY, POLAND, JAPAN, MEXICO, AMERICAN SOMOA, the AFRO-AMERICAN flag, RUSSIA, SOUTH VIETNAM, IRELAND AND NIGERIA. If you would like a flag representing your country to be hung in our gym, you can either buy one (I bought a few flags online for about $19.00 - $29.00 plus s&h) or you can donate the $25 it would cost to purchase the flag. All flags are 2'x3'.

This year I hope we have a fun and energetic year full of a variety of sports and games. As you may know from last year, my main objective is to have everybody involved and everybody doing their best. I admire the student who tries hard every PE even though they may not have the athletic skills of others, and encourage others to do their best. Below I have included a tentative schedule for the entire school year. As you can see, I have planned out the school year based on some main sports we will cover.