Week Two: Day Two

Week Two is off and running...

The Fitness Station activities were the same as yesterday with students doing sit ups, push ups, lunges, and running in place. When the students completed their activities, they were given the option to jump on the small trampoline or jump rope. Many students chose t o take turns doing both of these activities.

The Kinect Station spent their warm up time doing the Break It Down for "Evacuate the Dance Floor." Due to the short time for each station, the students only did the first two sets of Break It Down.

After warming up, the students played table tennis. The first group played a game with the two player mode. The second group played a game against the computer. The third group only danced because Ashley came to check out the progress and the group wanted to do the dances they learned for her. Finally, the fourth group did a mini game of table tennis.

I also sent home and had most returned, a media release so the students could be photographed or have video taken to place on the website.

Week Two: Day One

Yesterday would have technically been Week Two: Day One, however, it was an early dismissal day.

Today, at the Fitness Station, the students completed the activities on their logs. I also added some other activities for them to complete when they were done. They jumped on a small trampoline and took turns jumping rope. The students seemed to really like the jump rope!

For the Kinect Station, the students warmed up with a few of the Break It Down Steps from Lady Gaga's Poker Face that they learned last week. The students seemed to remember the steps and needed little to now assistance! I was very pleased.

After some warm up time, we switched to bowling. We bowing in a traditional sense, rather than the mini game we played last week. Some groups had more than the four player maximum for the game, so we just rotated through the players. While the students were bowling we talked about the different aspects of bowling: how players take two turns (unless there was a strike), strikes, spares, pins, etc.

The students seemed to like bowling, however, they seemed to be more into the dancing.

Week Two: Day Three

Today was Kinect with just the boys because the girls were swimming.

Warm Up today was Break It Down for Funkytown on the Easy level. The boys have a harder time dancing than the girls do, so they like to keep it on easy.

The sport for today was Table Tennis. The boys played mini games of Table Tennis. We have found it is easier to run a mini game than playing the full mode because it allows more play time.

Overall, Wee Two went very well. We are looking forward to Week Three...

Week One: Day Three

The girls were at the YMCA for swimming today, so I had only the boys. I split the bots into two groups. I took them down to the Kienct and they participated in the same activities the girls did the day before: "Break it Down" and "Perform It" for both Poker Face and Funkytown.

While the boys were not as receptive to the dancing as the girls were, tehy seemed to have a good time. I had to spend more time demonstrating dance moves for them. Overall, they also had a good time.

To end the week, the students completed surveys on SurveyMonkey.com about their first week of Kinecting with Physical Fitness. We will see how the results look!

Week One: Day Two

Ok...Day Two. Things will go more smoothly today, right? Wrong. When I got downstairs with my first two groups, someone was using the room. So we made some adjustments and had the Fitness Station in two large groups in the All Purpose Room of the school.

Later, when the room was free, I took a large group of girls down to use the Kinect because we were short on time and they would be missing the next day due to swimming. We played Dance Revolution as a large group. The girls first did a session of "Break it Down" where they learned the moves to Lady Gaga's Poker Face. Then, the girls did a session of "Perform It." The girls then did a session of "Break it Down" for Funkytown and a session of "Perform It."

The girls responded really well to this activity. They were giving each other high fives and really enjoying themselves. They had a very positive attitude.

Week One: Day One

Today was the first day the Kinecting with Physical Fitness curriculum was used in the classroom. We started with a small group lesson to discuss the importance of physical fitness. We also discussed some things you can do when you can't go outside to exercise. We compiled a large list that we hung in the classroom.

The students were arranged in five groups. There were 3 to 5 students in each group. Three groups worked in the classroom with the educational assistant and two groups worked with me in another room. When the groups were with me, one group was working at the Fitness Station doing activities like sit ups, push up, lunges, and running in place. The other group was using the Kinect.

Because today was the first day, and the whole Kinect idea was such a novelty, I allowed the students some freedom in the use of the Kinect. We played some simple mini games on Kinect Sports so the students could get a feel for the program. The overall reception of the idea was good. The students seemed to like the idea of using the Kinect at school and were enthusastic.