1D Inspirational sports day

Lesson: Physical education

Thursday 30th June 2022                  ASPIRATIONAL SPORTS CAROUSEL

Today we had an absolutely fabulous sports day. It was full of new sports and experiences that we thoroughly enjoyed. What a wonderful day! We all moved from one activity to another and we were never stood still. Every child in the school was involved at all times throughout the whole day.

Year 1 started their day off with an African dance session. This was a wonderfully energetic session during which the children experienced learning a traditional African dance from our special visitor. This was so much fun! But, it wasn't as easy as it looks. Take a look at the videos.

We then went on to the playground to learn some cricket skills from Jordan, who is a South African first team cricket player.  He taught us how to throw over-arm and under-arm. He also showed us how to have our hands ready and to keep our eyes on the ball so that we could catch it.

We had another visitor, Pete, who is a rugby coach at Birkenhead Rugby Club.  We learnt how to pass and catch a rugby ball, which uses a different technique to other sports e.g. netball.  After cricket we went down to the field where we met with Pete. He is a rugby coach at Birkenhead Rugby Club. He told us that we have to hold it like a tub of water and pass it as if we are going to get our team mate wet!!! Once we had practised these skills, he then explained the rules of the game and we had a go! This was tricky. We worked in two teams and had a mini match, we had to pass the ball to a member of our team and then run as fast as we could without getting caught. If a member of the opposing team tagged us, we had to give the ball to them. If you didn't get tagged and you made it to the line, that is then called a try!!! (which is a point). Pete said that we were really enthusiastic and played brilliantly.  

We had another visitor who taught us tennis.  We learnt how balance the ball on the racket to help us with our control.  Also, we practised hitting the ball to our partner using the racket.  This took a lot of concentration and coordination.  We had to keep our eyes on the ball at all times!

Dodgeball was a game that we had never played before and we loved it! We had to race our partner to try to get the ball first.  This helped us to develop speed and hand eye coordination.  We learnt how to play in a team against another team and we had to avoid being hit by the ball.  We got better and better as time went on.  We also had to learn how to lose gracefully!  

 After netball, we were all ready for lunch.  The kitchen staff supplied a delicious sandwich, healthy fruit, a packet of crisps, a cookie and a Freddo along with a refreshing fruit juice for a drink. This ensured that we had enough energy to take part in some more sports in the afternoon.  

Our next activity was in the woodland where we were learning all about compass directions.  Here we had to choose a card from three piles; an action, a compass direction and a number. For example, South, 15, star jumps. We had to check the compass and turn to face the correct direction and complete 15 star jumps. We did lots of different physical challenges such as; front and back lunges, hops, squats, star jumps and many more. After this we had a bit of free play using the trim trail. Thank you Mrs Hancox.

 We then had a very exciting event in the hall with a real Team GB gold medalist!  Jaydon Paddock has won a gold medal for Great Britain in gymnastics.  He is a brilliant tumbler and is still only 20 so hopefully has lots more medals ahead of him to win.  He told us all about how he became a tumbler and how he became so good. He was so inspirational to listen to.  He told us all about how important it is to be resilient, determined, dedicated and hard-working - all of these things are so important to us at Townfield.  He also shared the importance of a good diet and lots of rest.  He showed us his gold medal and answered lots of our questions.  We then did some circuit training with Jaydon so that he could show us what his training workouts are like.  

We had an amazing day and this is what the children thought about it -

"I have had the best day ever!"

"Can we do this again tomorrow?"

"I want to try some of these sports again!"

"I'd love to win a gold medal!"