Longfellow Elementary students in Clintonville have been hitting the hill this past week, enjoying the snow as part of the District’s Physical Education curriculum.
Students in K-4 enjoyed sledding and quickly realized that climbing the hill gave their hearts and their legs a great workout! Students in 3rd and 4th grade also started their snowshoe unit, learning the history and the care and safe use of the equipment. These classes were also challenged to the fitness circuit, which includes safely climbing a hill, traversing the upper ridge, zig-zagging down the next hill, and then running back to the start…all on their snowshoes! These classes also recognized snowshoeing as an excellent way to train cardiovascularly.
Our first set of snowshoes was purchased for Longfellow Elementary students with donations from several local groups/businesses in 2001: Longfellow PTO, FWD, Dr. Connelly, Greentree Health Care Center, Walker Forge, Theda Care Physicians, Spectacular Visions, Fox Community Credit Union and the Clintonville Lions Club. We have been using these snowshoes for the last 12 years and they are still in excellent condition, as the kids have done a great job of respectfully taking care of the equipment.
With our 2002 PEP Grant Award, we were able to expand our winter Physical Education Curriculum and purchased snowshoes for our Middle School and for our High School, as well as broom ball equipment and cross country skiing equipment for our High School Physical Education program. Our Middle School classes will be snow-shoeing next week, and the high school classes are currently involved in broomball and cross country skiing. Our Winter Curriculum addresses all six state standards with special emphasis on four of them: State Standard 1 (Demonstrates competency in motor skills), Standard 3 (Particpates regularly in physical activity) Standard 4 (Achieves health-enhancing fitness) and Standard 6 (Values physical activity for health, enjoyment, challenge and social interaction).
Our K-12 students are fortunate that they have the opportunity to experience a nice variety of lifetime fitness activities. From the smiles and screams on the Longfellow hill, you can tell that they also enjoy them!