Corevember (Gilman)

Corevember was a fitness incentive to promote core strength that I did at Gilman for my K-4 students during the final weeks of November and the first three weeks of December.

Right after the students got back from Thanksgiving break I informed them that we would be doing a fitness challenge from then until Christmas break. For this challenge they would be tested during their last PE class each week to see how many sit ups they could complete in 30 seconds. To do this I had my students in each class partner up with another student, set up a row of tumbling mats, and get in position. Once they were ready I would start the 30 second countdown on the basketball scoreboard and one student would do sit ups while the other held their feet and counted. Once the buzzer went off they would line up and tell me their partners score, then they would switch roles. After I had their baseline scores I totaled each class's total score and let them know how many sit ups they did in 30 seconds as a class. From here I had them all set a goal that they would like to reach by Christmas break and then made a poster so we could keep track each week.

In addition to the individual class goals I made another poster where I set an Elementary School for all of the students K-4. For this goal the students had to do at least 10,500 sit ups during their testing time by the end of the last week. Each week I would add up all of their scores and keep track on this separate poster. Finally I made the deal with the students that if every grade made their class goal AND if they collectively made the group goal that I would have a surprise for them. I told them that though we might do sit ups from time to time in class it would be largely up to them to work on their core strength at home if they wanted to reach their goal. I also made it very clear that this entire incentive was on an honor system since there was no way I could possibly count all of them, and made sure to partner up students who I knew might not tell me the truth about their score with students who I knew would never lie to me.

Over the course of the five weeks kids worked extremely hard and I had numerous students telling me that they were practicing every night before they went to bed. In addition I had several parents telling me that their kids were forcing them each night to hold their feet and time them so they could get better. Needless to say all of my classes made their class goals (some had to increase their goal multiple times) and as a group they far exceeded their goal of 10,500. As a result, on the last day of school before Christmas break I showed up dressed as an elf and sang and played an original song for all the Elementary students on my guitar about how amazing they did during the 5 weeks.

The final score for the K-4 challenge

The students' reward for meeting their goal