NAEYC Conference

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the National Association for the Education of Young Children annual conference and expo with a group of St. Paul's teachers. The conference was a plethora of information, ideas, resources, and inspiring leaders in education. While much of the conference was geared towards classroom teachers, every sesssion there was an option for teachers looking to expand or improve the physical education in the early childhood programs. Obviously, I was very excited to see this, and even more so to take home some great ideas and new principles to help our kids here at St. Paul's inspire to be physically active for a lifetime.

While I wish I could type up all of my notes, I want to share with you 2 messages from the confererence that I believe would be most helpful to parents and to help your children play hard, have fun, and be active in life!

Energy In = Energy Out
Most adults understand this concept (or at least we try to!) but studies suggest that most kids don't! Kids need to learn from us what a healthy choice is (whole grains, vegetables, fruit), what gives them energy, and understand that when they eat more then their body needs, that they need to get the energy out.
While the focus should not be on burning calories, early childhood development suggests that it is not too early to help children understand what happens in their body when they eat. Starting in Kindergarten, learning the concept of 100, kids can learn about how our body uses 100 units of energy (calories). Running a mile, walking 20 minutes, biking for 20 minutes, Jumping rope for 20 minutes uses 100 units of energy.
There is a healthy way to teach this to kids to help them be aware of their health and body, and I hope to incorporate this into my program through fun games and reinforcing the energy we use during various activities.
Help your child understand how much energy (calories) is in food and fun ways to get that energy out!

Essential 8 Physical Skills


Traveling or Locomotor skills (walking, running, chasing, fleeing, dodging, hopping, galloping, skipping)
Jumping
Balance
Throwing
Catching
Kicking
Striking with body parts
Striking with implements



In the Early Childhood P.E. program at St. Paul's, we spend a significant amount of P.E. time learning and developing gross motor, stability, and manipulative skills. One of the biggest messages I kept hearing in all of the sessions I attended at NAEYC was the importance of nurturing these skills before moving on to organized sports. While the following skills may seem obvious to the developement of your child, I thought it would be helpful to pass on the skills we work on in P.E. here at SPEDS, and what one lecture refered to as "The ABC's of P.E.", in case you want to practice more with your child at home.