Service Learning - part 1

I haven't been posting much lately because we've been so busy working on our Service Learning Project!

Around the World with Fitness

We're building a fitness trail!!

Earlier this year, one of my team members & I attended a Learn & Serve training.
Learn & Serve offers a unique opportunity for students to get involved in their community in a tangible way by integrating service projects with classroom learning. My teacher friend & I came away from the training with lots of ideas & lots of motivation.

Our school community is for the most part isolated. There is little opportunity/facilities for families to participate in structured fitness activities. Also, given that our community has seen a very rapid increase in hispanic population, we wanted to do something that would help teach a bit about other cultures.

SO....we designed and are building a fitness trail in which the activities are based on games played by children from around the world.

My kiddos have done such a great job on this, and learned so much! I LOVE how skills are so integrated into projects & that the kids are so engaged in their learning because of the projects.

I'll share more detail later, but here is the first step in the process:

1. We went on a field trip to the National Institute for Fitness & Sports, & used that as our launch pad for the project.













We held a meeting the next day & talked about the things they liked, & then guided the conversation.

"Too bad we can't do something like that here at school....."
"We can, Mrs. Frady!"
It was so exciting to hear their ideas & see their little minds just whirring away.