PM Wellness Volleyball Clinic Starts January 4th!

Would you like to learn more about the game of volleyball? Do you think about trying out a new sport? Would you like to be taught the basics of the game in a smaller setting? Would you like to:

1. increase your fitness levels
2. get stronger and have more flexible muscles
3. improve hand-eye coordination
4. improve agility, speed, & balance

Then you need to.....

Join PM Wellness Volleyball!

Learn the basics, play games,

meet Wayland High School players and have fun!  

Wear sneakers. All grades welcome. Come for it all or stay for a bit.

Meets Mondays, 2:30-3:30pm for six weeks

(1/4, 1/11, 1/25, 2/1, 2/8 and 2/29)

STARTS FIRST MONDAY AFTER HOLIDAY BREAK!

About the Coach:

Pam Kainz has coached kids volleyball at the Happy Hollow Elementary School for three years, and at the Wayland Middle School for two years through the intramural program.  She is an active volleyball player herself.  By continuing to offer her program at the middle school this winter, she hopes to teach the basic skills to students who may be potentially interested in playing volleyball in high school and beyond and to introduce more kids to this lifelong team sport.

Any questions please see Ms. Riddle.

6 on 6 Soccer Tournament was a Success!

PM Wellness (formerly known as intramurals) hosted a 6 on 6 soccer tournament before Thanksgiving. Some students showed up wearing coordinating uniforms with their team already made, as some students showed up as "free agents." 7 teams in total participated in a Round Robin style tournament. Highlights included multiple matches that had to go into "golden goal" extra time because of ties, a team of 6th grade girls notching their first victory of the tournament against an older team of all boys, and an exciting full court championship game.  Coach A and Mr. Wood would like to thank all that participated for having such great spirit and sportsmanship.

Full court game for the finals!

Fans filled the gym to watch the final match against Mini Madrid Vs. Squadzilla.  After a nail biting overtime, the game remained 0-0 and went into penalty kicks.  Mini Madrid prevailed in the overtime shoot out!  
CONGRATULATIONS!!

Look out for our next tournament.....STUDENT/FACULTY DOUBLES BADMINTON after vacation!! Start thinking about which faculty member you want to play with. Ask early so you get the faculty member of your choice!

Annual Operation Gratitude Candy Drive!!

The wellness department would like to announce our 5^th annual Operation Gratitude Halloween Candy Drive from Monday November 2, 2014 through Thursday November 5, 2014. Coach A. will be in the front lobby from 7-7:30 am to collect candy. According to their website:

Operation Gratitude annually sends 150,000+ care packages filled with snacks, entertainment, hygiene and hand-made items, plus personal letters of appreciation, to New Recruits, Veterans, First Responders, Wounded Warriors, Care Givers and to individually named U.S. Service Members deployed overseas.  

All the candy will be dropped off at Wayland Dental located at 131 Main St.  According to Dr. Michael Putt, army veteran and owner of Wayland Dental, receiving care packages while deployed provides a connection to home and can help lift the the soldier's spirits. Dr. Putt is able to participate in Operation Gratitude due to the generosity of Mark Silverman, president of  Mark's Moving & Storage. Mark and his employees will take all the donated candy and ship it to Van Nuys, CA where it will be used to assemble care packages for our troops. 

Coach A collecting candy last year. 

Candy is just one of the ways we can help. Operation Gratitude welcomes donations of individually wrapped toothbrushes, floss, and toothpaste. If you would rather make a financial donation you can click here to do so. 

Click here to read about our collection in the Wayland Patch!


Thank you for your support.

Bring in your inhalers! Pacer test this week!

This week starts the cardiovascular component of fitness testing. The 20 meter PACER test will be run in all wellness classes. If you need an inhaler, please remember to bring it in this week. You will NOT BE ALLOWED to run the test if you do not have an inhaler in school.

About the PACER 

The Progressive Aerobic Cardiovascular Endurance Run (PACER) is a multistage shuttle run created by Leger and Lambert in 1982.The PACER is designed to measure aerobic capacity, which is characterized by endurance, performance, and fitness. The objective of the PACER is to run as long as possible while keeping a specified pace. Students run back and forth across a 20-meter space at a pace that gets faster each minute. A lap is scored for each 20-meter distance covered. The test is easier in the beginning but progressively gets more difficult. In comparison to distance running, the PACER is a more effective, fun, and easy way to measure aerobic capacity that encourages participation from all youth and is relatively easy to score and administer.

Click HERE for the Fitness Gram website.

Click HERE for the healthy fitness zone standards.

Here is a short video of what the pacer test looks like in action:

If you have any questions please see a wellness teacher.

Good luck everyone!!
Yours in Health,

Welcome Mr. Wood!

The Wayland Middle School Wellness department would like to welcome Mr. Wood to our team! Mr. Wood comes to us with over 11 years of teaching experience from the Manville School in Boston, a therapeutic day school for students with social, emotional, and psychological disabilities. He is psyched to be working with our Wellness Team and our students. If you see him in the halls or in class please extend a warm welcome to him. To learn more about Mr. Wood check out the Instructor page. Have a fantastic start to the year everyone.

Wellness Week! Monday April 27th-Friday May 1

Wellness Week is around the corner! It will be held Monday April 27th to Friday May 1st.  During this time, we take a break from our usual wellness classes and bring everyone together in the gymnasium to focus in on the many important aspects of Wellness.  

During the first half of the week, the 6th graders will be doing a

fitness is fun relay and the 7th and 8th graders will be viewing an S.O.S. (Signs of suicide prevention) DVD and breaking into small groups to discuss the topic. Administration & guidance will be in attendance.

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During the second half of the week, Voices Against Violence will be coming in to present to the 6th, 7th and 8th graders about Healthy Relationships. 

On Monday and Tuesday, there will be a 5 vs. 5 soccer tournament and on Thursday and Friday, there will be a 3 vs. 3 basketball tournament.  Both of these events will go from 2:30-3:30 and we are hoping for many participants! 

 

We will be continuing to collect sneakers for our annual Nike Reuse-a-shoe drive.

 

• Nike Grind Rubber, made from the shoe's out sole, is used in track surfaces, interlocking gym flooring tiles, playground surfacing and even new Nike products, such as the out soles of the Nike Pegasus or the Jordan XX3. It’s also used in trim items like buttons and zipper pulls.
• Nike Grind Foam, made from the shoe's mid sole, is used as a cushion for outdoor basketball and tennis courts, as well as futsal fields.
• Nike Grind Fiber, made from the shoe's fabric upper, is used in the creation of cushioning pads for facilities like indoor synthetic courts and wood court.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

We will also be handing out Well-Bucks again. Get spotted making a good decision (anything that would fit in the wellness wheel or follow BERT guidelines) and get rewarded with a Well-Buck. All you need to do is write your name on it, bring it to the office for a chance to win a gift card to Dick's Sporting Goods store.

 

 

 Have a healthy & safe April vacation!

Yours in Health,

Postural Screenings in class Wed-Fri 3/31 through 4/2

Postural Screening              

3/31/, 4/1, 4/2  Wednesday-Friday

All students in grades 6, 7, & 8 will be having their initial postural screening during Wellness classes on 3/31, 4/1, and 4/2. For the screening boys will need to be shirtless and wear a pair of shorts and girls will need to wear a pair of shorts with either a bikini top, an open back bathing suit or a halter-top.  Screening will be held in a private area for each student. If your child has an abnormal initial screening result, I will re-screen your child in the coming weeks. If my screening results are also abnormal, you will be notified in writing of these findings. Students with a normal screening result will not be notified.  

We understand that this screening can heighten anxiety in children and, as with any state mandated screening, a child may be excused with a letter provided by the parent, guardian or physician.  This letter needs to include the full name of the child and state that you are excusing him or her from this year's postural screening.  Please be sure that you provide the name of your child's pediatrician or attending physician who routinely screens your child, and date and sign the letter.   If your child has already been diagnosed with scoliosis and is being followed by a physician for scoliosis, please provide the name of that physician as well.  

7th grade nutrition students-Coach A's original students. PLEASE READ!

Many of you have not shared your research assignment with me. I need it by the end of this week at the latest, Friday March 13, 2015.

If you forget what I'm talking about, you can click HERE for the assignment.

Some of you that submitted the assignment have an incomplete grade because questions are missing. I encourage you to check your school email. You will have a message from me telling you that you are missing material.

Any questions please see me in class this week.

Thanks,

8th grade CPR Certification Procedure

Dear Students & Families of 8^th graders,

I have started teaching the CPR with AED (Automated External Defibrillator) unit to the 8^th grade wellness classes. This unit is taught using the most current curriculum guidelines through the American Heart Association (AHA).  As a certified instructor with the American Heart Association, I am offering to certify any student who would like a certification card after school. Certification is voluntary and will require passing the following skills:

·         Chest compressions

·         Breaths

·         Unconscious choking

·         Conscious choking

·         Differences between care for an adult and care for a child age 1-8

·         AED set up and use

Any interested student can make an appointment with me on an individual basis to take the skills test.

This certification card will be valid for 2 years from the issue date and does not include infant (age 0-12 months).

Certification cards will be $6. Please make checks payable to Wayland Middle School and put “CPR cert.” in the memo.  Please have your child deliver the checks to me.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Check out all that snow!

Hey Everyone!

Isn't all the snow exciting! You know what that means...time to bring in clothes to go outside for skiing & snow shoeing this week for wellness class! As long as the conditions are good and it's not too cold out, we will be outside this week. If you missed my last post on skiing & snow shoeing click here to read all about why we head outside in the winter.

Please make sure that you have:       

source: http://www.fanpop.com/clubs/winter/images/22231260/title/winter-snow-flakes-photo

1. a winter jacket
2. a hat
3. gloves
4. change of clothes

Enjoy the rest of you day and see you tomorrow,

Meditation becomes part of the Wellness Curriculum! Thank you Wayland Public Schools Foundation!

The Wayland Middle School Wellness Department is excited to announce that the Wayland Public School Foundation has approved the Getting Centered Guided Meditation grant.  We have the honor of having Helen Rainoff train the Wellness staff, as well as teach the students the powerful tools and benefits of meditation.  Helen was a Science and Biology teacher at Wayland High School from 1978 - 2010 so she is very familiar with the Wayland community.  She has been trained in meditation and has had a daily meditation practice for over 28 years.  While teaching at WHS, Helen integrated teaching meditation into her work with students, offered professional development programs for staff and offered meditation classes for the entire school community during High School Winter Week.

The first class will consists of talking about the benefits of meditation and discuss what experiential guided meditation is.  Students will also discuss and identify stressors, and explain how the body reacts to stress.  Students will be taught stretching exercises before meditation, and how to focus on the breath, muscle relaxation and guided visualization aspects. The second class will discuss other non related mediation relaxation tools.  Muscle relaxation, breath control, and focus meditation will be discussed and taught, as well as talking about ways to include meditation and mindfulness into every day. The third class will be taking the information and tools learned and putting them into practice during class. 

Meditation offers several benefits to children.  It will not only enhance their educational experience, but it will hopefully also inspire students to take the knowledge and tools learned and apply those valuable lessons into their everyday lives.  This creative program will add versatility and enrichment into the curriculum. 

Some of the benefits of meditation are:

•"stress-relieving practices to calm the mind and release physical tension”

•"helping kids boost awareness and control their moods”

•"help to curb kids’ impulsivity”

•"research has also shown school mindfulness programs to be effective in reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety among adolescents”

•"mindfulness programs can aid kids in developing good habits that will help make them happier and more compassionate”

•"greater emotional stability and improved sleep quality, heightened feelings of compassion and greater success achieving weight-loss goals”

•“meditation can improve focus”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/23/meditation-for-kids_n_3318721.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/young-brains-benefit-meditation/story?id=19217997

Middle School students deal with the stress of school, and the many aspects of life on a day to day basis.  If given the tools needed to be able to meditate, they will be able to reduce their stress levels and focus on the important, essential parts of life.  This knowledge and outlet will allow students to grow to their optimal level and potential. 

The Wellness Department thanks the WSPS for this wonderful opportunity to incorporate meditation into our curriculum.