The Junior High PE 2022 Winter Olympics wrapped up this week after daily competitions - including Biathlon, Curling, Skeleton, Speed Skating, Ski Jumping and Bobsledding.
“The idea to plan and put together a Winter Olympics Unit came from my love of the Olympics and the importance of broadening our students' knowledge of worldwide events. Personally, we have never taught a "Winter Olympics" unit before, so it was a learning experience for us as well. The idea is built from allowing our students to dream big, even if they are from a small district like Sherrard. We have two Sherrard Alumni, Dan and Darrin Steele, who also happen to be my cousins, who are Winter Olympians. It was great to teach our students about Sherrard history while also introducing new sports to our youth,” said JH PE teacher Paula Zigler.
She said the planning to put together and prepare six events was time-consuming. “It allowed us to use our creativity and imagination to correlate the equipment we had to mimic the Olympic events. Of course, the fun part was the opportunity for the Jr/Sr high school PE department to test out our creations of each sport. We made demonstration videos for each activity so the students knew how to perform each skill.”
They got creative for each event. For speed skating, students used paper plates as skates... and ski poles were pool noodles in Ski Jumping. They used scooters for Skeleton.
For Bobsledding, students chose their groups and their own strategy to complete the course as quickly as possible. Zigler said they suggested students sit with their feet on the mat... some had different ideas.
Zigler and JH PE teacher Brandon Oelmann kept the whole unit a surprise - but told kids if they followed the news they would figure it out.
“After we introduced the unit to our students, they were excited to participate and were trying to guess the next sport we were going to compete in. We tried to keep the next day's activity a secret so there was some anticipation. For each sport, we listed the best score or time on our board so each class could see the time to beat. It was great seeing students try to earn a gold medal! We even had some other teachers bring in their classes to watch and participate. Although Mr. (Alex) Johnson and Officer Mendoza had the best time in the Bobsled, their score is under video review!” she laughed. “We did, however, give them a participation award and told them, Good Luck next time!”
The Olympic unit concluded with a medal ceremony. “I purchased Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals along with a treat for our winners. We made certificates and had them stand on our medal podium. It was great to hear the students talk all week about how much fun they were having.”
Zigler said students thoroughly enjoyed the week of unusual PE activities.
“Throughout the day, I would see our medal winners still wearing their medals around their neck! The junior high staff were "Gold Medal" teachers for allowing us to have our ceremony for the first 10 minutes of the school day to award the winners. This activity was inclusive for all students because they are "non-traditional" activities. This leveled the playing field when vying for a medal. I was pleased with the variety of our medal winners, we had so many different students earn a gold, silver, or bronze medal!” Said Zigler.
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