Active Home Week 2020

Well done to everyone for the phenomenal effort you made during your very first (and hopefully last) Active Home Week. We are all blown away by the variety of activities you managed to squeeze in and to be honest we are all a little bit jealous we were not doing them too! You are as fit as fiddles and great little advertisements for staying fit and having fun!

Take a look at the photos and see how many friends you recognise!!

Keep up the great effort .

A healthy heart and body = A healthy Mind

D.Tyrrell

Below is an excellent poem Erin wrote  for Active week.    Maith an cailín!!

Here are some additional photos from AHW. What a fabulous place we live. Farm work , the bog, bouncing castles, construction ,  cycling,  country  walks and beach walks! Beautiful!

                           

Active Home Week 2020

This week would have been our Active school week (and is also National Active Schools Week) and while we as a staff are gutted not to be celebrating with you all, we know that what we are doing, staying apart, is much more of a priority right now…and we know you are having heaps of fun and activity at home too!

We look forward to doing the activities we had planned for this week another time. Activities such as Tug o war competitions with Tug of war Ireland, visit to Kilcommon gym with workout, rowing with the rowing club, aerobics with Barbara and of course parent netball game amongst many more activities.

However, there is no reason we cannot all stay fit and healthy and sweat it out in our own nests to mark this special week and share our photos with each other.

For Active Home Week, we ask everyone to complete 4 activities a day which will culminate in at least 60mins a day exercise. So this can be anything from a game of soccer, frisbee, hula hooping, joe wicks workout, cosmic yoga, toys in a box tidy up races (love that one for the end of the day), walking, dancing..the list is endless. See above picture for more ideas.

We would love to share your great effort and engagement on our blog so please don’t be shy in sending in those pics to our school email address by the end of the week for us to display for everyone to see. Did you know our blog is visited by people from all over the world?!!!

If you would like to complete a grid such as one below, we can email you one if you wish and you can return it be email at end of week. (Or you can draw up your own..no pressure)

Keep up the fantastic effort at home. You are amazing! D. Tyrrell

Run around Ireland challenge

 

We are are very excited to be starting our Run around Ireland challenge next week.Each class in school will aim to reach various landmark destinations around Ireland, while also sharpening our Geography Knowlegde. Each lap of our Astro pitch will equate to 1km for this particular challenge and as a classroom, we will decide where we would like to visit. Keep an eye out on our Active board in the hall to monitor each class’s progress, which will be marked with coloured threads.

Thank you to the active committee and other pupils in the senior room for working out the distance from Inver to each destination!  Let’s get moving!

This month, while we continue develop the strand of Games in P.E. , we will be do using on the fundamental movement skill of Dodging. See picture below.

 

Climb the heights challenge – We are an Active School!

  Well done to all of the children in the Senior room who partook in the Climb the heights skipping Challenge. Thank you so much to Barbara, our parent volunteer who organised and supervised the event for the week.

Playground leaders

A huge thank you and well done to our playground leaders. For the past 6 weeks they have organised activities for both the junior room and the middle room on Thursdays. Activities ranged from stations with rockets, target practice, penalties and cooperative games to soccer and rounders also. You were so patient with the little ones and each week they looked forward to your guidance! Well done. Be proud!

Active School Update

 

This week the senior room are taking on the Pedometer Challenge . The children’s steps will be recorded after each lunch break. Prizes  will be given to the child with the most steps accumulated over the week but also to the child with the biggest %age increase between Monday and Friday.. So your only competitor is yourself!

Next week the Middle room will also get their opportunity to participate in this challenge next week if weather is on our side .

Each classroom has started their Active break challenge which will also run for the whole week. Each class will aim to complete a run break, a dance break and an exercise break each day.

We continue to work on the strands of Dance and games in P.E. Last month we focused on the Fundamental Movement Skill (F.M.S.)of balancing . This month we will focus on Jumping for height.

Later on this month, children in the senior room will take on the Climb the heights skipping challenge, which will link in nicely with their Geography knowledge .

Thank you to all the pupils and parents who completed the Active Flag Questionnaire .

A summary of most popular suggestions is posted on the Active School board in our hall.  We will endeavour to tick some of these suggestions off during Active week!

Active Flag Schedule of Events

As part of our Active Flag Initiative, we have a few activities scheduled for the coming months. Please see table below . If you feel you have something to offer (a skill/qualification in any area of fitness or health and wellbeing) and would like to help out, we would only be delighted to have you on board.

As you are probably aware by now, all children have P.E. homework on PE days, so please, if you can at all, make this a family activity and join in, in the fun! (Each child received a PE Homework Grid)

Our ‘K a day’ initiative is up and running and will continue right through January. Each class aims to complete a kilometre walk around and inisde the school  grounds on our Active Walkway, at least 3 times a week and at least 1 class every day!  Children are encouraged to ‘Do your talking while you’re walking!’ On rainy days, however, running/exercise takes place within the classroom, so as to avoid unnecessary illnesses. I would like to say a huge Thank you to Gerry Sweeney (B.O.M) for erecting and measuring the Inver Active Flag Walkway (and the many other jobs also!) and invite you to join us on our K a day, if you spot us out and about.

Remember to stay updated on many aspects of school by checking our blog, on a regular basis. Anyone interested in helping out with the skipping challenge, please let us know.

Thanks again for your support.

Deborah

September ·         Committee meetings

·         Yard Rota established and duties for Active Agents

·         GAA with visiting coach

October ·         GAA with visiting coach

·         Active Meetings

November ·         Active Walkway launched

·         60 minute challenge Part 1 (3rd to 6th)

·         Committee meetings

·         What club are you in Survey?

January ·         Km a day on our walkway – (at least 3 days a week for month of Jan, each class does it in their own time, children encouraged to do their talking as they’re walking)

·         Pedometer Class challenges ( pedometers sponsored by Western Strands Hotel)

·         Committee Meeting

·         Playground Leaders (children in Senior Room) lead/guide stations on Thursday at big lunch, for 6 weeks working with Junior/senior infants initially.

·         GAA with visiting coach

February ·         Climb the heights skipping challenge – Senior Room

·         Active break challenge  3rd to 7th Feb– All classes

·         Committee meetings

·         Walk to School week 24th to 28th Feb . Children encouraged to walk/scoot/cycle to school. Reminder closer to time.

·          Walk a mile with a smile @ 2.15pm on Friday 28th. All  Parents invited to join us. Reminder closer to time

·         GAA with visiting coach

March ·         Run around Europe challenge (all classes, 3 days a week at least for 4 weeks, in own time. Starting March 2nd to 27th.

·         Committee Meetings -TimeTable for Active Schools Week

·         Equipment Audit

·         Seachtain na Gaeilge – Céilí

·         60 minute challenge Part 2 (3rd to 6th) sheet will be provided at time

·         GAA with visiting Coach

April ·         Committee meeting

·         Easter Hunt

·         Active Schools Week 27th -May 1st -Staff /Pupils to wear sports gear all week. PE homework every day this week

·         Gymnastics with visiting Coach

·         GAA. with visiting Coach

May ·         Spring Clean around School (date tbc)

·         Committee Meeting

·         March for May – All children encouraged to walk to school

·         School Tour

·         Gymnastics with visiting coach

·         Aquatics (If available)

·         GAA with visiting coach

June ·         Active Break challenge Part 3 (3rd to 6th)

·         Walk to school Month (Cycle/Scoot)

·         Presentation Day

May be subject to slight adjustments

P.E. homework grid

On P.E. days , every child has P.E. homework. Below is a copy of the grid each child in school has received, which is like a menu. Every child can choose and combine a variety of activities to make up at least 20mins of exercise. Lots of fun if all of the family join in. Let’s get fit together!

P.E. – Dance – Junior Room

This month  we are focusing on the strand of Dance in P.E.

We had lots of fun today exploring all the different ways our bodies can travel/move.  We had fantastic suggestions from the children which included hopping, walking, crawling, bum shuffling and skipping to name but a few. We also moved with some parts of our bodies awake and some asleep. We had to use our magic dust for this one! We discussed and explored changing the level, direction and pace of the way we moved also and finished up grooving out to smooth criminal… so much fun!!

Active Flag Initiative – Great start to the year!

Below is just a little snapshot of the level of activity in school today.

Our Playground leaders kept Junior And Senior Infants super busy with stations at lunch time. They will now  plan new activitites themselves for each station next week . Playground leaders should be very proud of themselves because their words of encouragement and patience with the little ones was admirable!

We also had Finn from 2nd class keeping the entire school fit with our active line after break exercise. Finn chose Jumping Jacks as today’s exercise and everyone joined in.

The entire school also did the K a day so we have all certainly contributed, if not exceeded ,the recommended 60mins a day!

Well done everybody.

 

K a Day on our Walkway

We had  lovely weather today for our ‘ Km A Day’ which the school will do for the month of January. We are all trying to increase our level of fitness to stay healthy and increase our concentration, while having fun at the same time! We did our talking while we were walking! Did you know that all children need at least 60minutes of exercise every  day? Have you exercised today? Let’s get fit and healthy together. A healthy body = A healthy mind!