What’s Up in PE? – Pacer Scores: 6th graders have the highest scores but 8th grade improves the most. (click here to view a second PE article below)

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The challenge to see which grade could attain the highest percentage of students reaching the healthy level in the Pacer aerobic test was won by the 6th grade. Unfortunately the 6th grade showed no improvement over the course of the year. The real winners were the 7th graders with a 5% improvement and the 8th graders with a huge 14% improvement. The 8th grade was also the only class to improve in all five fitness tests including a whooping 23% increase in sit-up scores.

GREAT JOB 8TH GRADE!

Part of the 6th grade victory included Mr. Clinton having to shave half his beard.

The Class of 2013 Leaves for High School but Takes Lasting Impressions of Middle School Physical Education with Them

Each year as the 8th graders look forward to high school they are asked to look back at their time in middle school physical education. The following are some of their written responses to the question, "Which activities that you participated in during LMS PE will be the most useful to you later in life?"

"I would say that geocaching was, perhaps the funnest thing that we have ever done."

"I really like the idea of the Fitness Profile, it is a great way to check your health. If we never had the Fitness Profile I would have not tried hard to stay healthy at home."

"I think learning about the HIV\STD unit will help you know how to be safe and have a healthy relationship with your "spouse" or "partner"."

"I learned to do some dances that will help me pick up some ladies later in life."

"I remember playing tennis very clearly, it was a lot of fun and I learned some valuable skills."

"I think self defense will help me later in life because if I get in a bad situationn I'll be able to save myself from a whole load of danger."

"I think that 20 years from now I will be using power yoga so my spine will be able to make it so I will be able to move easier at a later age."

"Weight training will help me get stronger for basketball and football."

"Being slightly thinner helped and PE was pretty much the main reason that ever happened."

"I wish we would've gone into more detail in 8th grade about the dancing. I actually started liking it (just like my Mom said I would)!"

"I want to thank my PE teachers for my newly found athleticism and all my teachers for always believing in me and helping me on my way."

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Nothing but active fun this summer. See you in September ready to go.

LMS 6th Grader Uses School Science Project to Analyze Family Fitness

Jasmine M., a member of Mrs. Strand's 6th grade science class, decided to analyze her family's fitness for her science project. Her testable question was, "If I put my family on my WII FIT for five days, who will get the closest WII FIT age to their real age?" Her hypothesis was that her sister would win because she was young and good at the games. As is often the case in science she was surprised by the result; her father won. He was very focused and improved the most.

Jasmine M. and her project

Jasmine M. and her dad the family fitness champ.

The answer is YES according to the latest research. As reported in brain researcher Dr. John Medina's book Brain Rules, when inactive people were put on a program of aerobic exercise within as little as four months their mental abilities were measurably better. This result was seen for both adults and children. Now for the bad news. It appears that when people stop exercising their mental abilities decrease also.

So how much aerobic exercise is needed to increase your mental abilities? Here comes more good news, very little. A walking program a few times a week appears to be enough exercise to help your brain function. More is better but even a little aerobic exercise will help.

Want to increase your mental abilities? Get some aerobic exercise, walk, run, swim, ride a bike the choice is yours but the payoff is more brain power.

For more information on Dr. Medina’s research www.brainrules.net.

Did You Know?
Physically fit children on average perform better in school than those who are not fit. If you want to do better in school increase your fitness level.