Yes, every Friday children are given three PE choices. (This is not Free Play) They must choose one of those choices and must stay with the choice once they have picked the activity. This is done for several reasons:
1. Teaches children how to make good PE choices
2. Gives them something to look forward to (a reward after a week of work)
3. Distributed practice on skills taught
4. A time to focus on sportsmanship
Choice day is vitally important to the PE program. If children don't practice skills why teach skills? If children don't learn how to apply what they have learned, why teach skills? If children don't learn how to make PE choices, when will they? There are two goals for the PE program this year. Have fun and learn new skills. One upper girl who doesn't like PE or the yard said it best: "I wish we could go back to free play like we did last year." Another girl after her first day in discs said, "Discs are hard." We can either teach skills and practice good PE behavior on "choice day" or we can go back to "free play like we did last year," with no accountability and no practice and no skill development.
If you want to see the results of "choice day" come out and count how many intermediate students choose kickball at lunch. Last year: 0 This year: most of intermediate. Choice day works! Kent
Hi, I noticed that Ella S. was not able to serve the ball over the net so I pulled her out of prisoner and took a few moments and worked with her on how to hold and hit the ball with power. Then I put her back into the game. After a few minutes I drifted back to watch the play. All of her teammates were in "jail." and there stood Ella in the middle of the court ready to to hit the ball over the net. I thought to myself, go Ella. She called, "jailbreak!" and hit the ball directly over the net (uncaught) to the cheers and screams of her team who flooded back onto the court. A precious moment. CoachG