5 Alive With DPA Everyday!

5 Alive with DPA Everyday!
Our classroom is Stayin’ Alive with DPA 5 days a week! Each morning our class begins with 15 minutes of Daily Physical Activity to get student’s hearts pumping and thoughts flowing. It has been proven that physical activity enhances the function of the brain and helps keep students alert in class. Try these activities at home and keep the whole family ALIVE!

Monday’s DPA Activity is ‘Taking the Lead’
In this activity, students take turns leading the class in moderate to vigorous ‘on the spot’ physical activities. Students are in groups of 4 and stand forming a ‘diamond shape’. All students face the same direction. The player at the front of the diamond is the first leader. When the music starts, the leader leads the other three in an on the spot movement. When the teacher pauses the music, everyone turns 90 degrees (in the same direction) and the new leader leads the group when the music continues. Students should come up with fun, heart pumping activities.

Tuesday’s DPA Activity is Singing and Acting!

Sing the song ‘My Body’
(Sung to the tune of ‘My Body lies Over the Ocean’)

My body lies over the sofa,
My body lies every day,
My body is feeling disgusting,
Oh bring back my body to me!

Bring back, bring back,
Oh bring back my body to me,
to me,
Bring back, bring back,
Oh bring back my body to me!
Try this while singing the song...
Start singing the song in a sitting position. Every time you sing a word with the letter ‘B’ in it, change your position. For example, if you start off the song by sitting, move to stand and continue through the song. Including physical activity while singing the song promotes critical thinking, trains the mind to focus on the task at hand and is 5 times the FUN! Try this at home with any of your families favourite songs!

Wednesday’s DPA Activity is Active Spelling!
Active Spelling is another great way to get the students active and re-energized while reinforcing curriculum. A chart is posted in the classroom with ‘on the spot’ heart-pumping actions for each vowel. For example, the action for ‘A’ is 5 jumping jacks, ‘E’ is running on the spot for 1 minute, ‘I’ is 5 left leg lunges, ‘O’ is 5 right leg lunges and ‘U’ is reaching up to the sky then bending and touching your toes 5 times. Using words from our word wall, each student will choose a word. Every student spells out the word out loud. Students stretch/bend etc...into the shape of the consonants and the perform the actions of the vowels listed on the chart. Students run on the spot while waiting for the next word to be chosen. Try this at home with your own list of words!

Thursday’s DPA Activity is Monte Carlo!
All you need for this activity is a deck of cards and your imagination! The entire class stands up and begins moving on the spot. The teacher has one student choose from a deck of playing cards. All the students then find the matching card on the chart and perform the corresponding activity. For example, if the 10 of hearts is chosen the students will have to do 10 jumping jacks. After performing the activity the class returns to the previous moving on the spot activity until another card is chosen.

Friday’s DPA Activity will keep you ‘rolling’ through the weekend!
Precise Dice is an activity that uses two dice and lots of energy! Students start by moving on the spot. The teacher has two students role the die. The die are added up and matched with the appropriate activity on the chart paper. For example, if a 12 is rolled, students will have to do 6 lunges for each leg. The students return to moving on the spot while they wait for two other students to roll the die.