September 12, 2018
Dear Parents,
Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year! Hope everyone had a great summer! My name is Ms. Higgins and I will be your child’s physical education teacher. Physical education is a key component to a child’s overall health. It is a fact that physical activity positively impacts a child’s achievements in school. The goal of our physical education program is to improve students’ personal fitness and motor skills by providing developmentally appropriate activities through purposeful, creative, and enjoyable instruction. We will be incorporating some various health and wellness aspects as well. This enables students to develop a positive attitude toward physical activity and to develop healthy habits at a young age, which will then hopefully continue throughout their lives.
Safety is of utmost importance. For your child’s safety as well as the liability involved, your child will not be allowed to participate in physical education without proper footwear. Children who wear any type of boots, dress shoes, crocs, sandals, flip flops, or slip on sneakers without full back support will not be allowed to participate that day. Sneakers with laces and a grip bottom are preferred. Coming prepared to class with proper footwear and appropriate clothing counts toward your child’s physical education grade. The children are also graded on effort, attitude, behavior, teamwork, sportsmanship, and how well they treat and show respect to others and the equipment we use. You child will not be graded on his/her ability level. Some activities we do inherently involve some competition, however, due to the varying ability levels of the children, the competitive aspect is down played. I want this to be a positive experience for everyone. Children who become too competitive or aggressive will be removed from the activity therefore potentially impacting his/her grade. There is a time and a place for more competitive activity. The town offers a wide variety of programs to foster this type of play. I would be more than happy to get you connected to the right people if you need more information about that.
If your child is unable to participate in physical education, please write a note to excuse him/her. A doctor’s note will be required if your child has to miss more than one class for the same sickness or injury. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions, concerns, or would like to set up a conference. My email address is jhiggins@tewksbury.k12.ma.us. Thank you in advance for your cooperation. I’m looking forward to a great year!
Sincerely, Ms. Higgins
