Keeping fit in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge folks are facing across the world. Southdown Primary School physical education teachers John Romano and Marissa Bergmann typically host a family fitness night in the school gym, but the public health crisis interfered with this year’s plans so the duo decided to utilize an online format for the popular initiative, which is more important than ever.
“Over the last few months I’ve been thinking of ways to hold our annual fitness night,” Mr. Romano said. “I knew it was going to be a challenge and it had to be virtual. I had to create something that would spark the interest of the parents and students.”
During a fitness unit in physical education, Mr. Romano and Ms. Bergmann created a Monopoly board in the gym that allowed students to play the famous game while getting a good workout.
“It’s creative and students really enjoy themselves; they leave the gym exhausted,” Mr. Romano said. Some exercises require equipment while others don’t.
Mr. Romano created the fitness Monopoly board from scratch and modified it so when you land on a spot you are able to click it and complete the exercise challenge with a different Southdown teacher each time. Participants said it was an awful lot of fun.
“In this day in age with everything being virtual, I thought this would be a great opportunity to use different types of technology to create and host our fitness night,” Mr. Romano said. “With family engagement being one of our building goals at Southdown, this is an easy way to get families involved to build better relationships together.”
“I’d like to thank John Romano and Marissa Bergmann for all of their work in coordinating this great event,” Southdown Principal Scott Oshrin said. “I’d also like to recognize and thank all the faculty and staff members who participated and made it such a fun night.”
Click on this link https://rebrand.ly/Southdown-Family-Fitness-Night to view Southdown’s fitness Monopoly game. The link will be available and active for the remainder of the school year.
Southdown’s physical education program also has a YouTube channel called SouthdownPE. “Our students create different exercise videos called Physical Snacks,” Mr. Romano said. “This is our third year of creating these videos for our PE classes. The students love seeing themselves on YouTube. They also use them for physical education class and students are able to do them at home with their family.”
Visit www.youtube.com/southdownpe to view the YouTube channel.