Parents, I hope all is well! I wanted to share updates here at Liberty. There is SO MUCH going on with Wellness inside our doors here at Liberty and ,just as important, OUTSIDE our doors (it has been VERY COOL hearing the stories of students active outdoors during these cold months, finding creative ways to get active inside their houses, and all of the students who participate in sports over the Winter). FITNESS/HEART MONTH RECAP We are ending our Fitness/ Heart Month next week. Mr. Henderson has done a GREAT job (co-teaching with me) cardiovascular health using the PACER assessment, (and teaching under my supervision) muscular endurance, muscular strength, and in his final lesson, core strength. Your child may have a little soreness with their muscles. We talked with them how when we 'work out' our bodies that tiny muscle fibers are torn and our body repairs them BETTER and STRONGER than before (which is why muscle is built). We also talked about the importance of not stopping (unless there is an injury...) but to keep the habit of these exercises going! Please have them share the exercises with you - the exercises are excellent for the body for ALL ages. Consider a workout time at home each night. Our PACER numbers are in! 72.26% of our students improved their cardio endurance at the midpoint of the year (this is encouraging especially with the Polar Vortex we have been through over the last couple months)! Consider that 41.7% of students improved over the summer (when comparing May scores to August scores). We can see that school really makes a difference in their health and wellness!! PTA WELLNESS NIGHT Our PTA did a VERY NICE job hosting Wellness Night in February. Cooking demos of healthy foods, workouts with students AND parents in the gym, students climbing the HIGH wall in front of their parents, GREAT EFFORTS in the qualifying events (rings, tornado cargo net, pullups, climbing rope, and the ripstick) for the Liberty Warrior Challenge, and ending with Erica McCague and Zach Ostheimer getting an opportunity to do the WHOLE course climbing our new treehouse as the final obstacle. Thanks PTA for encouraging our students to be active! LITERACY NIGHT Thursday, February 27th is Literacy Night. Mr. Henderson will be hosting a "Just Dance" station while the parents learn about ways to encourage and help their children to read! Very cool!!! I will miss this night:( - as my son is in the Worthington Hills Elementary 6th Grade Play of "The Wizard of Oz" - wow, how time flies! I am excited to see him and all of his classmates perform. A NEW OSU STUDENT TEACHER WILL JOIN US Logan Schuss will be joining us at Liberty for his student teaching experience. Logan is also a professional lacrosse player (he played for OSU and I am told he was one of their best ever in the program). He will be sharing his teaching skills by leading a lacrosse unit (I am excited to learn from his expertise and add this growing sport to our curriculum) as well as a First Tee golf unit! Through OSU I was able to meet Dr. Li (he supervised Mike Henderson in his experience here). Dr. Li and I are going to work together this summer in designing initiatives for Liberty (for next school year - 14-15). His research is focused on motivating children to live active lifestyles. I am excited to work with him in initiatives that we hope will last a lifetime for our students. BIKE UPDATE I finally reached 100 days of biking to school and can't wait for my Rita's Water Ice in May - I plan to keep going (currently on 104 days and 416 miles) as 30 degrees feels like 90! I am SO IMPRESSED of the number of students who continue to walk to school through this cold winter. I HOPE it will warm-up for our Walk to School Wednesdays - I miss those days VERY much. As always, please share the great stories you have - I LOVE to hear them. Also, feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Mr. Smith ***Don't forget the S.E.E. principle - Sleep the right amount every night, Eat power foods, and Exercise 60 minutes a day. The picture above is of Olympic Ski Jumpers and one of their power foods - chocolate milk (yes, power foods can taste GOOD)! I LOVED watching the Olympics - Cross Country skiing was my favorite!! What was yours? Read this article that shares research on healthy living and academic scores: Students' Health Habits Tied to School Success
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Mr. SmithWellness 4 Life Teacher at Liberty Elementary; Player Development Director with Worthington United Soccer; and dad and husband to an awesome active family. Archives
March 2017
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