Play Behaviors-Gym Class

Yesterday, (3/17/09) I observed a gym class of 2nd graders (7-8 year old) and then a gym class of 5th graders (10-11) with a mix of both male and female. I observed for about 35-40 minutes. The diversity included Caucasian, African American, Asian American, and Latino in both classes. In the 2nd grade class, there were 2 boys and 1 girl with disabilities, but they were mostly cognitive disabilities, not physical.

In the 2nd grade class, they had centers available and there were 4 of them. They included spin-its, hula hoops, scoopers, and jump rope. The only designated station that you had to do one particular activity was at the jump rope to practice the skill of jumping rope. This station of the jump rope they were learning the concept of how to stay on one spot and jump over the rope to the rhyme "Blue Bells". This is a very hard concept for the students to learn because it is putting so many skills together, while staying on spot doing it. This was very hard for some of the children to just jump over, but then adding the second step of staying on the same spot while jumping and landing.

The first station that she said follow the gym rules/school rules, but you may do with it what you wish was the spin-its (which are the same things as skip its). The children used these toys to practice their counting, making it into a competition of what student can get the highest number of skips. They then started to make it into a game of snakes that were chasing you and if you got hit by the snake, then you were sent to the castle to see the king which was another person with a skipper. After that game was finished, the students turned the game into a game where they had all 5 students at the station jump from the same rope and they were incorporating what they learned earlier in the week with teamwork into their classroom. The students also just practiced skipping at this station, but when they made a scenario, they seemed to truly enjoy the situation more then they did when they were just jumping.

The second station for the 2nd graders was the hula hoops. Some of the students just hula hooped, but 3 students that I saw made it a game of "juggling" where they would pass the hula hoops by throwing them in the air, and that caused them to pretend like they were in the circus. The students really enjoyed preteneding that they were performing a show, and this encouraged them to practice hand-eye coordination and also different activities that include teamwork but also really emphasize the differences in the imagination level that the students have. The students who did play circus made up names for each of them and a name for their circus while still doing their juggling act for their friends. This one tool turned into a game later at recess that they shared with all of their friends, I found out from their gym teacher.

The thrid station was the scoopers, which is a wiffle ball and cut open gallon milk jugs. In the gym teachers eyes, the student should just be using this as a way to practice their throwing and catching skills, but these students really emphasized their imagination and with each group that was there, it was some type of food shop. They took a wiffle ball and made it into pizza and ice cream and cake and the milk jug was the counter or the cone. It was so interesting to see the students practice this skill but they aren't aware of doing it. I believe this is the best way for the student practice the skill is when they don't even know that they are doing it. The issues behind this with the gym teacher was that they were not paying attention to what they were supposed to be doing, but they really did continue to play the game and also the students were using teamwork with all 5 members in their squads/group to make this restaurant work.

In the 5th graders gym class, I saw the ending and they were having a dance class. It looked like so much fun especially because the students were all smiling and into this dance. They were learning the cupid shuffle and really emphasized what the importance of teamwork was to make the whole class learn the dance and how cool it looks when you put the 24 students together doing the dance for a group. There was not much play in this class besides of course the dancing, but the students each took this experience of learning the cupid shuffle and making the dance their own their a little twirl or spin here or there.