Warrior Wellness: An inside look at Willowbrook’s freshmen and sophomore physical education classes

Willowbrook students are working hard every day to become more educated with their health and wellness, and we are thrilled to feature those accomplishments through this monthly column.

In this edition of Warrior Wellness, the Physical Education Department is proud to highlight freshmen and sophomore PE classes. It has been an exciting start to the school year, and one of our primary focuses has been to get students back into the habit of moving every day. This past year provided us with the opportunity to look closely at our curriculums and make enhancements, specifically the incorporation of a mental health unit and mindfulness activities.

The freshmen and sophomore PE classes began their year with fitness testing. Each student participated in the FitnessGram assessment, which is comprised of four areas: push-ups, curl-ups, sit and reach and the Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER). These tests will be repeated toward the end of the semester to determine improvement and growth. We also have hosted class outside as much as possible.

Freshmen played soccer, tennis, football and kickball. As we look to move indoors during the winter months, we will begin our units of gymnastics, badminton and the fitness center. Freshmen also completed Unit 1 of our cognitive content, Cardiovascular Fitness. They learned how to take their pulse, the difference between resting heartrate and target heartrate and the significance of blood pressure on overall health. We are now starting Unit 2, Muscles. We will identify 14 of our major muscles, including the location, function and specific exercise to target each one. This will be a great lead-up to our fitness center unit, where students will have the opportunity to implement these exercises into muscle-specific workouts.

After fitness testing, the sophomore classes started their tennis unit. They then continued to stay outside, participating in kickball, flag football and pickleball. Pickleball is a new unit this year that combines elements of badminton, table tennis and tennis. Many students have never played pickleball and have enjoyed learning a new lifetime activity.

We are now starting our fitness center unit and will be working on all components of health-related fitness. Students will design their own workout plan, based on the goals they set at the beginning of the semester. We also will incorporate and introduce the use of heartrate monitors in this unit, and students will be able to track their target heartrate zones. Students will be able to use the information from heartrate workouts to better assess their personal fitness and create more goals for self-improvement.

The sophomore PE classes are in the classroom every Monday. Students do not dress on Monday and are required to bring their Chromebooks to class. They have been reviewing information from last year and learning about skill-related fitness and the different stages of their target heartrate zone. All cognitive lessons have been converted to online assignments and are available on Google Classroom.

As we approach the end of first semester, we will continue to emphasize the importance of daily movement to overall health and well-being. Students will be encouraged to continue to develop and maintain healthy habits as they transition to the health and driver education classrooms for second semester.

• The Warrior Wellness column provides an inside look into the physical education, health and driver education classes at Willowbrook. This monthly feature highlights what students are working on in class, as well as student successes in those departments.