Today on the PE Express podcast, I’ll share a few tips on how I introduced literacy into the physical education setting.
This is a big event at our campus and involves lots of planning, not only with fellow colleagues, but with the whole staff. It starts with selecting a book that we’ll use for the whole year. We’d call it one school, one book. Last year’s book was “How to Eat Fried Worms” by Thomas Rockwall. This year’s book was “Wild Robot” by Peter Brown. Each one of these selections was selected by the Librarian to tie into our “One School, One Book” theme. We would read the book not only in the classroom, but I would read some passages in the physical education setting and we would tie in activities to that book. Each year, at the end of the book, the students would be allowed to choose a selection from that book that I would do as a challenge. The first year of course, “How to Eat Fried Worms” didn’t work out so well for me because I was eating fried worms at the end of the one school, one book this year.
I thought it would be much better activity with “Wild Robot”. I thought what can possibly be the challenge this year? The librarian gave the students three choices: I could dress like a robot for the day, I could make animal noises all day, or I could eat a meal fit for a Gosling. And of course you know what the students selected and once again this year, just last week I was consuming crickets along with seaweed. We do crazy things as physical education teachers, but remember anytime we can support fellow colleagues, especially when it comes to literacy, it’s a great thing. Remember reading is for the mind what exercises for the body.
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