Q&A with our Gym Teacher Mr. Fraser

Image of the engraved rock outside Chickering School showing the name of the school and year 2001.Chickering Student
Video

Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been working on an interview with our gym teacher Mr. Fraser. We did a Q&A with him and we learned a lot about him.We learned a lot about his favorite sports, players, and teams. We enjoyed learning about him and hope you do too.

Reported by Ronan and Finnegan

2018 Chickering Winter Olympics in Review

Every 4 years, Chickering School has their own version of the Winter Olympics, when the real Olympics are taking place.  Ms Riordan and Mr. Fraser, our physical education [P.E.] teachers, used our P.E. or gym equipment, to replicate the actual Olympic events. The events include:  Biathlon, Cross Country Skiing, Curling, Luge, Skeleton, and Speed Skating. To recognize these activities they appear as follows:

. Biathlon – children “skate” on styrofoam, then shoot a basketball or yarn ball into a basket
. Cross Country Skiing – 2 children “skiing” together
. Curling – children use a hockey stick to push donut-shaped rings into a circle
. Luge – sitting on scooters and being pushed by another student
. Skeleton – lying on the scooter
. Speed Skating – children “skate” on styrofoam

Ms Riordan  and Mr. Fraser asked us to review and edit about 500 photos from our Olympic events … this took a very long time! We hope you enjoy our photo review of the Winter Olympic.

Photographs by Ms Riordan and Mr. Fraser

Created by Bella, Bea, Neal, and Ronan

The Best! Ms. Riordan

Chickering
Student

Radio

 

 

Ms. Riordan is our Physical Education [P.E.] teacher. Ms. Riordan with Chickering ReportersSince we both love sports, we wondered what she has planned for us this year. Sit back, relax and get some popcorn while you listen to our chat with Ms. Riordan.

Reported by Grant and Hunter

All aboard … Sqords!

Last year, third grade students received Sqords from Ms Riordan and Mr. Fraser, our Physical Education teachers. We decided to interview, Ms Riordan, on Sqords and what is happening this year.

We wondered how the Phys. Ed. teachers learned about Sqords.

“Looked at Fitness Trackers for Kids and then talked to a P.E. teacher from Virginia about Sqords. Mr. Harte found an article about the Washington Post about Sqords.”

Last year only third graders received Sqords. We wondered why they chose to do that?

“Wrote a grant with Mr. Fraser and founded by the Allen Mudge Fund of Dover. “

We were wondering why they decide to add sqords to the  4th and 5th grade and not the other grades.

“Excitement from third grade was contagious. Students from grade 4 and 5 let it be known that they wanted in when it came to Sqords.”

We were curious about Mrs. Riordan’s favorite thing about Sqords.

“I love that students are finding more and more ways to be active.”

Before we received our Sqords, we wanted to know how Mrs. Riordan ranked them 1 through 10.

“Absolutely definitely a 10. Kids are realizing that being active can be healthy and fun.”

We wanted to know what colors the Sqord bands come in this year.

“All bands start out as white which is a bad thing because they get dirty really quick. Students are allowed to purchase pink, orange, red, green, blue, purple and black bands at http://sqord.com.”

We wanted to know what class got the most points last year?

“Actually they didn’t keep that statistic however we had challenges every month.”

We were wondering which grades purchased Sqords this year?

“We had students in grade three and five and any new students.”

We wanted to know what are the most points you have received on the Sqords?

“For me personally 80,000 points in one day is my biggest total.”

We were wondering what was your favorite moment from when the kids were using Sqords?

“I say it was definitely when 2 third grade boys had a conversation about their recess activity Were commenting on how a quarterback at a football game wouldn’t get as much activity points and other boy playing soccer got twice as many points running down the field.”

We wanted to know how many kids have already bought Sqords?

“Orders keep coming in someone is standing right beside me now waiting to order a Sqord. Last year 85 3rd-graders purchased sqords.  This year 135 Sqords will be ordered.”

We were wondering how you got kids excited about Sqords?

Fitness tracking as you know is all the rage Chickering students wanted to be apart of tracking their fitness.

We are astonished to see the increased order of Sqords. We were also shocked to find out that Mrs. Riordan found out about the idea of Sqords from a teacher from Virginia. We were definitely shocked when someone even come up to order a Sqord while we were interviewing!! We were surprised about the variety of the different Sqord band colors.

Reported by: Abby, Addie, Lauren, and Mia

Famously, Fantastic Mr. Fraser

Image of Mr. Fraser instructing his students in the gym.Mr. Fraser is one of our Physical Education [P.E] teachers at Chickering School. We thought it would be a great experience to interview him. He has been teaching for 3 years, so this would be his 4th year.

We were curious to know why Mr. Fraser wanted to teach Phys. Ed. He relayed that he asked himself what he enjoyed. He said he likes to be active and always loved P.E. He tries to make fun activities like the March Madness tournament (as in basketball) so that we can have fun and love Physical Education as much as he does.

We inquired of Mr. Fraser, “Do you think Physical Education is an important part of the school curriculum, if so why?” He replied, he thought it was. He said “more and more kids are staying inside and not moving as much.” It’s also a way to get more active and get exposed to new activities such as sports that some people may not understand. This way, if we want to play a certain sport on our own time, we know all the rules of how to play.

Most kids have a favorite activity to play in the gym. We quizzed Mr. Fraser on his favorite activities to do with students. He stated that he enjoyed Cone Knockdown for all ages. Cone Knockdown is a game in which you have a cone and you try to defend it and knock down other peoples’ cones at the same time. If your cone is knocked over you are out and have to wait in line until someone else’s cone gets knocked over. Another game he liked to play with older kids is Wonderball. It is a special game that he made up with one class that he was teaching. He and another teacher didn’t have much equipment for that class. He only had 3 balls and 2 basketball hoops. Wonderball is played with three balls that you throw or kick. When the game starts, you kick the ball so someone catches it in their hands or they can drop it and dribble it. There are goals, basketball hoops or a taped space on a wall where you try to shoot the ball. Usually there’s a goalie and people try to block the other team’s shot. If the ball makes it past the goalie or the defenders then they get a point. Mr. Fraser has many great activities for us to play.

We were interested to know what Mr. Fraser wanted to change or add to his classes.  Mr. Fraser and Ms Riordan talking to their classes.He replied that he would like to have more time with his older classes because every other week we have two gym classes and every other week we have one class. Also, with regard to time, he wishes he could have a full hour with his classes instead of just 40 minutes.  Mr. Fraser also believes that the P.E. teachers need more time between classes to set up. We agree with Mr. Fraser and we should have hour-long Phys. Ed. classes.

We investigated why we don’t have more gym classes outdoors. Our P.E. teacher said, we don’t do as many  P.E. classes outside because of Mr. Fraser’s allergies. Also, because we can’t use the playgrounds that are just outside the school, due to recess. If we wanted to go outside, we have to use the lower Chickering Fields and if someone got hurt we would have to carry the injured person all the way to the nurse’s office, which would be a challenge.

We asked our teacher if he liked working in two schools. He replied only saying that he liked seeing “his students continue to grow”, and looking forward to seeing the new sixth graders next year and his first class become 8th graders. Also that he gets to see them almost every day, which is great.

We invited Mr. Fraser to share with us why he thinks a Sqord is beneficial for students. Sqords are a fitness watch for kids that we use in our school to get active. He replied, it helps kids track their movement and you can see what kind of sports get your fitness level up the most. You get lots of points for moving and get ranked by how many “activity points” you have in your class. This fitness watch works for both Mr. Fraser, and the third, fourth, and fifth graders who have the option to purchase this watch available to them. This fitness watch excites kids (and teachers) to get active.

We solicited of Mr. Fraser what he enjoyed to do in his free time.  He remarked he loved all kinds of sports and watches all sports videos. He excels at lacrosse, and enjoys playing too. He chills out by playing some video games at home.

We understand after hearing his answers why he likes P.E. We also love Wonderball as well as he does. We agree with Mr. Fraser with his wish that classes could be an hour long. It’s clear, we love Phys. Ed. as much as Mr. Fraser.

Reported by Alia, Ollie and Thanos

Ms Riordan

CSR - logo

 

 Chickering Student Radio

We had an interesting time interviewing our veteran P.E. teacher and learning about her experiences being an instructor of Physical Education. Please click the link below to hear our conversation with Ms Riordan.

 

 

Reported By: Abby, Alina, Matt, and Cyrus

Chickering Winter Olympics

CSR - logo

Chickering Student

Radio

 

 

Every 4 years, a country hosts the Olympics. At Chickering School, every 4 years, we hold the Chickering Winter Olympics. Please join us as we chat with Ms Riordan and Mrs. Hayes, our Physical Education instructors and several fourth and fifth grade students about our Winter Olympics.

 

Reported by: Drew, Kyle, Rico and Will A.