Ready, Aim...FOCUS!

Sometimes so much is happening all around you that it is hard to concentrate upon one thing--even if you are supposed to.  It's true for adults, and it can be especially true for kids.  

So, how can you help them?  

You can click on any photo to make it larger.

One way is to remind them about places in their lives and their minds that are calm and quiet. Some times, we can learn to go to our real life places (like a closet or a bed) in our minds.  It's a great way to relax and be able to focus on what's important wherever you are.

It's not always so easy.  Practice, however, can help.  A lot. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. let us introduce you to some of the kids who have made it into our Focus Hall of Fame.

Healthy Teeth are Happy Teeth

There are so many different kinds of learning that happen in school: math, reading, how to get along with each other, meeting deadlines.  These are skills that people use their whole lives long.  Learning to be healthy is another skill, one that helps us make our lives longer.  Mrs. B, our wellness coordinator, has been doing an extra special job this year.  She has been making sure that our kids know about everything from fun ways to exercise to good diets.  Now, she is even tackling their teeth!

Mrs. B found someone from Boston University's Dental School to come talk to all the Perkins' students about their choppers.  

 

Ms. Krissie Gibson taught our kids how to keep their teeth healthy and happy.  It all starts with brushing them frequently--and, correctly.  Brush down from the gum, both sides, and don't miss any spots.  Each tooth-brushing session should last for two whole minutes.  

How long is two minutes? If you don't have a clock handy, Ms. Gibson suggests singing the alphabet song to yourself four whole times.  Do it in your head, though, or you will get toothpaste all over the place!

Also there are foods that are tooth healthy, she explained.  High-fiber fruits and vegetables scrub your mouth while you are chewing, for example.  Dairy produces, like cheese, milk, and yoghurt, provide calcium, which helps keep teeth and bones strong.

Ms. Gibson knew that sometimes the best way to teach something is to make a game out of it.  That's why some of the older grades learned about dental heath by playing a quiz game that was like Jeopardy.  She divided other classes, such as, like Ms. Hardin's fourth grade, into two groups to compete against each other in a trivia match.  

 All the third grades did word search activities.  Who did the best on this exercise?

It turned out to be a three-way tie!

The Money's In!

"That's a big check!" one student exclaimed.

"Sure is," another replied.  "Is that even REAL?"

The answer is "no" and "yes."  The check isn't actually real.  What would the bank do with such a big one?  The money that it is giving to the Michael J. Perkins School is quite real.

Why are we getting FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS?  Take a look at last month's post that explains how the kids won it for their physical fitness.

Now all we have to do is wait for spring--or, at least the worse of the winter weather to pass--so the kids can use some of the new sports equipment it bought.  What will they be playing with?  A wealth of games and physical fitness:

*A new badmitton set

*Lacrosse sticks

*New tennis rackets

*12 potato sacks

Hurry up, springtime!

We Won!

Mrs. B's Wellness Warriors have done it again.  The kids entered a contest sponsored by Boston Moves for Health.  The Perkins School only has five pedometers (a pedometer is a little gizmo that measures the distance a person has walked or ran), but five were enough.  The kids shared them to measure how much they moved in gym class.  Sometimes they were running.  On wet or slippery days, they walked around the schoolyard.  They even measured the push-off steps they used to glide when they were learning to ride bicycles with the Boston Bikes program.

Do you know what?  A little bit of skipping here and jogging there really adds up.  Getting exercise and feeling healthy is prize enough, but the Perkins School managed to come in second place in the contest. 

Here is the chart of how many steps we managed to take in a month.  Finding the total would be a good math problem for our upper classes.  Yes, this is just addition, but those numbers of steps are really large!  Okay kids, those of you who are learning estimation, is our monthly total of steps more or less than a million?

 























One thing we do know is that our average of 832 steps per student got us a prize of $500.  

What is going to happen with that money?  According to Mrs. B, our gym teacher, it might go to buying hockey sticks for the school. Another possibility is that Mrs. B will buy enough pedometers for all the kids to use them.  It's fun to measure your steps and makes you want to take more of them.

Also, says Mrs. B, "our kids really wanted to participate.  They are team players.  They wanted to win for their school."

So keep up the good work, kids.  Maybe you will be able to win again and buy both!

Eating Our Way to Health

Mrs. B, our gym and wellness teacher, is on a roll.  Boston Bikes, track team, pedometers AND another essential part of wellness--nutrition.  After all, it's not just moving your body that makes it healthy; it's what you put in it as well.

Mrs. B signed up for a program offered by University of Massachusetts Extension Nutrition Education Program.  As a result, Ms. Carole, a Nutrition Educator, came to the Perkins.  She spoke to all the kids about the magic in food and the need to eat right.  Protein, grains, vegetables, beans, seeds and nuts, dairy, fruit--these foods that are good for you are called "everyday foods," she told them. Treats are fine too, but in much smaller amounts.

To remind the kids of the foods they should eat most of (and in what proportions or amounts), Ms. Carole gave each student in every grade a picture to color.   

All too often drawings and pictures get thrown away, even when they contain important information.  

Not this time. Mrs. B made sure that every one of those pictures were laminated.  That means it was covered by plastic so it wouldn't bend too easily and would stay clean.  In fact, it became the perfect placemat for lunchtime.  Now the kids have a daily reminder of the foods that will make them healthy--and, keep them that way.

Great Things Ahead

Yesterday was Columbus Day, so the kids were out for vacation.  Most holidays they may not be thinking of school, but, changes are, this time lots of kids are looking forward to Tuesday.  Yes, they will be learning the usual math, science, reading, and history.  There are also many special events starting up.

As you can see by this sign, Boston Bikes is coming to the Perkins with a fleet of bicycles to teach kids how to ride.

Other kids are going to have their first day of track practice after school.

All the kids are learning about good nutrition with a fun project we'll report on later.

As you can see, the Perkins kids are getting healthy.   

More about all these events later.  And the project that's starting on Tuesday in Ms. Murphy's class...

A Schoolyard is More than Concrete

Some people may see the Perkins schoolyard as a place to cross to get into the building. Others think of it as a basketball court. Still others use it to meet and chat with their friends.

Mrs. B's Wellness Warriors see our schoolyard as all these things and more!























To get the kids to see all the fun physical fitness opportunities in a field of concrete, Mrs. B asked them to draw their own maps of the schoolyard. In those maps, each kid charted some of the sports and games played in it.

If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can see that different students think of different activities. Some draw a hopscotch court, others a basketball court. Hockey is listed on map, the track labelled on others. No matter, they all add up to running, stretching, jumping. That means physical fitness and fun!