Use fun and games to boost your child's success Connecting healthy minds and healthy bodies

For parents of students in primary and junior grades

Imagine a child who continually struggles with How to help your child math or language concepts, who doesn’t favour As a parent, you play an important role in learning from a textbook, and who absolutely supporting lifelong learning in physical loves ‘hands on’ activities and being active. education by: Now just imagine the excitement on that  becoming familiar with the curriculum and child’s face when they have the opportunity to classroom activities learn math and language skills while being  reading some magazines and picture books active. about physical activities or athletes  demonstrating a positive attitude towards Benefits of physical education physical activities/education and Quality physical education programs are recognizing your child’s athletic necessary to increase physical competence, achievements health-related fitness, self-esteem and  taking your child to a variety of sporting enjoyment of physical activity for all students. events (Toronto Blue Jays (Major League Many studies reveal that physical activity Baseball), Toronto Marlies (American benefits children in a variety of ways, now and Hockey League), Toronto Maple Leafs in the future. Research indicates connections (National Hockey League), Toronto between a student’s physical, mental and Raptors (National Basketball Association), emotional health and their academic Toronto Argonauts (Canadian Football performance, as is often indicated by the League), Toronto Rock (National Lacrosse phrase “healthy students make better learners.” League), Toronto FC (Major Soccer League) (many are often discounted for ‘Thinking Outside of the Box’ children) When we think back to our own physical  enrolling your child in local community education experiences, most of us remember sporting events and activities (e.g., learning fitness activities and sports in the swimming, soccer, cricket, etc.) through gymnasium. Now you can take teaching and Parks and Recreation organizations learning to a new level by stepping outside of  participating at local parks and recreation that box and experience the joy of learning facilities (skating rinks, bocce courts, other subject areas while being active. cricket pitches, baseball diamonds, tennis Integrating other subjects into a physical courts, basketball courts, swimming) activity session is easier than you think – once  equipping a physical space at your home you experience this new way of thinking, where a variety of physical activity you’ll want to connect even more. equipment is available  playing a variety of physical activities/games with your child (from your own experiences and other cultures – e.g., playing tag, hopscotch)  sharing your own positive experiences in physical activities

More on reverse…

Activities To Help Develop Literacy READING Through Physical Education  using a set of word cards, move (hop, walk) to find the words one at a time, and place them in ORAL LANGUAGE alphabetical order  using a set of alphabet letters, select a letter,  collect the word cards one at a time, and have your child name an animal that begins challenge your child to create sentences with that letter and have them show how that  create a task card – show your child and have animal moves (e.g., ant, bee, chicken, dog, them read it and perform the task (walk elephant, frog, goat, horse, etc.) forward 5 steps, jump up and down 3 times,  place the letters of the alphabet around the jump up and shout ‘Hooray’) room and have your child move (hop, walk) to  read a picture book and move to the actions of find the letters (one letter at a time) and place the book (e.g., Children on the Move – An the letters in alphabetical order Active Living Alphabet – Region of Peel - Peel  collect the letters of the alphabet to spell your Health) child’s first name and your family members’  challenge your child to use a few action words names to create a dance routine  collect the letters of the alphabet to begin to  using the words, create an activity poem and form words move to it  challenge your child to form a crossword puzzle using the words they used WRITING  show a card with the word on it (e.g., a spelling  encourage your child to write to their favourite word) and have your child find the letters to sports hero spell the word  have your child create a new cooperative game  choose a letter and challenge your child to and write out the rules of the game and how it come up with a friend’s name, a city, or a food is played (e.g., A – Alex or Alberta or Apple)  create your own action charade cards and  using a soft ball or rolled up sock, pass it back perform the task and forth to your child and spell words out loud  participate in a physical activity with your child  using a rubber ball that bounces or a basketball, and have them write and draw a picture to play a foul shooting spelling game: each illustrate their experience successful shot means your child receives one letter to spell a word (challenge each other to see who can spell the word first) Action Words  while bouncing or dribbling a ball, have your  stop, go, run, climb, jump, swim, walk, shake, child spell the words out loud tip toe, skip, gallop, hop, crawl, shuffle, side step, balance, march, slide, spin, fly, reach,  while skipping, your child can spell words out dance, blender, robots, planes, tightrope loud walker, boxer, swing a bat, drive a car, chop  while skipping, your child can practice their wood, mow the lawn, wash the car, paint, math skills (counting by ones, twos, fives, tens,  Directions: forward, spiral, curved, backward, any addition, subtraction or multiplication circle, straight, sideways, zig-zag, diagonal, equations) winding, figure 8  create a new skipping rhyme  Animals: alligator, bear, cat, chicken, cow,  spend some time and talk about sports, game dog, elephant, frog, gorilla, horse, iguana, plays, rules of the games and fair play jaguar, kangaroo, lion, mouse, octopus, pig, REPRESENTING quail, rabbit, snake, tiger, wolf, yak, zebra  have your child create the letters of the alphabet using their body (eg., a lowercase ‘t’ Workshop delivered by Carol Scaini – Teacher at can be represented by your child standing tall Treeline P.S. and Instructor of Physical and Health with their arms out) Education Additional Qualification Courses at the  have your child act out a picture book (e.g., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education / move like the animals in the book) University of Toronto (OISE/UT)  have your child look at a book about weather and have him move like the wind or move and fall like the snow, etc. VIEWING and LISTENING watch and listen to community sporting events and discuss the game or activity