Hello, all!  I’m faced with a huge challenge this year-I have to implement a PE program for my third through fifth grade class of 10 students.  We’re a private school, and they’ve never been asked to break a sweat.  My husband and I LOVE our Crossfit world and I thought it would be a great way to get my students moving.

Our school is right next to a park and we have a large movement room.  We have equipment.  I have knowledge of the program.  All the pieces are there except… how do I ‘sell’ this program to the kids?  How do I initially bring out intrinsic motivation in 7-10 year olds that even my 30 year old friends can’t find when I bring them to my gym?

I’m thinking we’ll start with games and the animal movements, play fun music and make some sort of data log.  But I’d love advice on how to work in the timed challenges, encouraging students to push themselves to the next level without getting too competitive with each other/leaving the younger kids out, ect.

When students have to be there, but don’t HAVE to do it, how do you introduce them to this and get them psyched??

I can’t wait to hear suggestions and offer my own in a month or so.

Jem - 17 August 2010 09:21 PM

Hello, all!  I’m faced with a huge challenge this year-I have to implement a PE program for my third through fifth grade class of 10 students.  We’re a private school, and they’ve never been asked to break a sweat.  My husband and I LOVE our Crossfit world and I thought it would be a great way to get my students moving.

Our school is right next to a park and we have a large movement room.  We have equipment.  I have knowledge of the program.  All the pieces are there except… how do I ‘sell’ this program to the kids?  How do I initially bring out intrinsic motivation in 7-10 year olds that even my 30 year old friends can’t find when I bring them to my gym?

I’m thinking we’ll start with games and the animal movements, play fun music and make some sort of data log.  But I’d love advice on how to work in the timed challenges, encouraging students to push themselves to the next level without getting too competitive with each other/leaving the younger kids out, ect.

When students have to be there, but don’t HAVE to do it, how do you introduce them to this and get them psyched??

I can’t wait to hear suggestions and offer my own in a month or so.

You should seriously consider getting to a CF Kids cert if you haven’t been already. You’ll learn a lot that can help you teach the movements to kids quickly and effectively and see how the classes are structured in the gym.

Also I’d suggest a subscription to the CF Kids magazine. It’s had articles from people in your position describing how they solved the same problem most months for a while now. Check out the back issues.

I’m just killing time until some of the CF Kids HQ staff get back to you. The illustrious leaders are still travelling back from the UK or are trying to get their backs working again after doing so. You’ll get better information when they’re back online.

I watched part of a cf kids class yesterday ... They played dodge ball with burpee penalties for getting hit . . Kids were also getting pelted when they did their burpees ... Not sure that was supposed to happen ... But it did ...

I mean, you don’t have to sell fun.  

TP

Jem,

This is exactly what I do in my schools and I actually brought up that very question to Jeff at a recent CF Kids cert.  Metric is correct in saying get yourself to a Kids cert.  It will open up heaps of opportunities to motivate and enourage kids!

The only advice I have is to make the classes as FUN as you can, that is key!

Look at the CF Kids site get some ideas and design a programme round it, keep it simple, so YOU understand it and keep the classes to a maximum of 10 so you dont lose control of your class. Once the kids start to get an idea of what they are doing they will love it because it is so different to all the normal core PE classes.

Good luck.