WEEK 14: CATCHING WITH A GLOVE

With the end of paddles comes a similar skill that is necessary to continue to build hand-eye coordination, catching with a glove. Our students will be introduced to gloves in week 14 and play a fun game for lots of catching practice. We will start with an introduction of the baseball glove and how to put it on and use it. We will catch our own tossed up fly balls and we will catch with a partner. The culminating activity, "Meteor Ball", will see two teams throwing pop-flys over a 25 foot middle area so that each team has chances to catch many balls. Students must throw high, no line drives, and they must have their own side of the activity area clean for bonus points at the end. Points are scored for every catch made during the game. It is a wild and exciting game giving lots of opportunity to catch with the glove.

Kindergarten through second grades will be rolling balls this week. They will learn the proper techniques, comparing the roll to the bowling movement and skee-ball in the video arcade. Students will work with a partner from different lengths and different rolling velocities. Students will then be put in groups of three and have a middle person as the target...well not really a target! The outside students will roll under the legs of the middle person and the middle person will have different skills they must do as the ball goes under thier legs. Groups will switch jobs. A target rolling game will end the class if there is still time!

WEEK 13: PADDLE BALL TOURNAMENT

Third through fifth grades will be continuing "Paddle Ball" this week and we will also be participating in an "one-on-one Paddle Ball" tournament. We will begin thew tournament with a single elimination bracket including every student in the class. Three games will be played at a time, all games going to 5 points. Students who are not intheir game or are eliminated are challenged to practice using the passles at their own pace; striking alone, with a partner, creating a unique game or even cheering their classmates on. At the end of class, the class champion will be named.

Listed below are the class champions of the 'Paddle Ball" singles tournament that each 3rd through 5th grade class participated in during week 13.

3rd grade - Wilson Peter - Jonah Thiele - Riko Mirti
4th grade - Akis Pardalos - Fred Carmen - Peter Sarmiento
5th grade - Paige Vermeulen - Allie Sourakov

Kindergarten through 2nd grades

WEEK 12: PADDLES AND HOOPS

3rd through 5th grades will continue striking but this time with implements...paddles! We will work individually with a paddle, trying to strike the ball up continuously, low and high. Students will be challenged to count how many times in a row they can strike the ball, a tennis ball, without it touching the ground. Students will also be challenged to move the paddle in different ways while continuously striking. Students will move to partner groups and try to strike the ball back and forth with unlimited bouces between strikes. This will lead into "PADDLE BALL". Four small courts, 10 feet square sides, are marked with a 2 - 3 foot net betweeen. Students will play doubles action with a few rules: the ball must bounce once and only once, serve must be bounce ball and then strike underhanded, students can only hit the ball one time on their side before it goes over. Games are played to ten and groups switch to play other teams. Teamwork and sportmanship is a main emphasis.

Kindergarten through 2nd grades are working with hoops this week. Mostly students will have a hula hoop for themselves and emphasis will be put on individual skills. These skills include: trick around arm, hips, neck, switching arms during spin, spin hoops on ground, walk the dog, drop over body, around the leg, jump rope, rolling hoop, chasing hoop, hoop race, and jumping through a moving hoop. An ending activity will be target practice throwing nerf balls through moving hoops.

WEEK 11: REAL VOLLEYBALL ACTION

This will mark the third and final week of Volleyball for our 3rd through 5th grade students. We will continue to practice our basic skills through partner work. The bump and set will be broken down into basic easy parts and students will be challenged to work with their partner to keep the ball up. Emphasis will be put on the height of the shot! Students will again be placed on a team and then begin real volleyball. Truthfully this is not real volleyball but it is closer! All volleyball rules are the same except you can hit the ball as many times as you like on your side to get that ball over the net.

Kindergarten through 2nd grades will be continuing scooter games. They will again go over the safety rules for scooter use and do a little free scooting. The court will be set up by placing treasure boxes (cones) in a wide 25 yard diameter circle. Students will take their scooter to a treasure box and prepare to play "Treasure Hunt". On the signal students will sail their scooter into the middle of the ocean and can grab one piece of treasure from the middle are, which has been littered with hundreds of assorted little treasures. Students must work quickly to grab a piece of treasure, bring it back to their treasure box and then sail back in for more. Some treasures will be assigned a different value to improve higher counting skills upon game completion.