This week in Physical Education students are learning about the St. Louis arch. We talked about the history of the arch and how it was built to commemorate the western expansion through Thomas Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase. St. Louis was the largest city to the west before the new territory was purchased from France, so it became known as the Gateway to the West. A wonderful museum underneath the arch is dedicated to the history surrounding the westward expansion. It was fun for students to watch a quick video about the arch and learn that a very unusual elevator ride can be taken to the top where groups of people can look over the Missouri or Illinois sides through very small windows. It's quite a picturesque view.
In PE we are doing a couple of activities for the arch. One is working on the concepts of over, under, and around by working on the Frisbee throw. I made a circuit using tall and short arches and students threw over or under, depending on the sign in front of the arch. The around activity was a short jog circling a cone. Students were encouraged to work on good form when throwing. They stood sideways to the target and, using the dominant hand, placed the thumb on the top, fingers on the bottom, and pointer finger on the side of the Frisbee. They then touched the opposite shoulder with the Frisbee and stepped towards the target with the foot closest to the arch. As the weather warms, this will be a good activity for parents to work on at home with their children.
Our second activity was a rainbow arch that I made from colorful boxes. Students worked on the underhand throw and, using correct form, attempted to throw yarn balls into the boxes from a short distance away. We divided the class into two groups to see which side could get the most yarn balls into the arch. Students enjoyed this colorful activity.
The orange Frisbee flies UNDER the arch.
The red Frisbee flies OVER the arch.
This student jogs AROUND the cone.
This student steps with the foot closest to the arch as he throws OVER his target.
This student follows the sign that says UNDER. She steps out and reaches towards the target with the hand closest to the arch.
Students started close to the arch so they could concentrate on correct form on the underhand throw.
Lots of yarn balls head towards the target.
It was fun dividing up into teams for the throwing challenge.
