DECATUR — Cold and nasty weather might keep Northside Elementary School children off the playground, but it can’t keep them from having fun and learning lifetime sport skills indoors.
For the past month, elementary students from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade have been playing miniature golf for their physical education classes on an indoorcourse built by fourth and fifth grade students.
The 18-hole course occupies one side of the cafeteria and takes about three weeks to build, according to physical education teacher Ricky Perrodin. The fourth and fifth grade students work in groups to build the holes. Perrodin has four requirements for the mini-golf holes: They have to be strong, they have to work, they have to look good and they have to be made entirely of recycled material.
Perrodin said he encourages students to use stronger materials like wood or PVC, and to get help from an adult.
“It gives them some mom, dad or neighbor bonding time,” he said.
This year students used everything from a bird cage to old wooden animal toys to create their minigolf holes. The challenge is to engineer the obstacles so that if a player makes it in, the ball will come out the other side 100 percent of the time, Perrodin said.
Perrodin made his own minigolf hole using a satellite dish with a spring underneath. If a student hits the ball up the ramp and into the dish, the ballwill circle the dish and fall out the hole in the bottom, before spinning down a spring to the ground.
“It teaches them about centrifugal force,” Perrodin said.
Students learn a lot of important skills beyond physical education when they build their own course, according to principal Leslie Sharp. Designing and implementing their ideas takes mathematical, science and problem-solving skills, she said.
Building the course also gives third graders something to look forward to, and they often start planning their obstacles and holes a year ahead of time, Perrodin said.
After the course is built, all the elementary school children from pre-kindergarten on up get to play. Perrodin gives them instructions and shows them howto keep their heads down and swing the clubs like they were sweeping the floor.
Perrodin uses plastic golf balls and has strict rules about using the clubs. If a child hits another student once, they are out of the game for the day. If they hit another student a second time they are out of the game - period, he said, although he was quick to point out that has never happened.
The students play holein-one on the indoor course so everyone gets a turn and competes in a hole-in-one contest at the end of the course. Perrodin has been setting up the mini-golf course at Decatur’s elementaryschool for more than 10 years. During the fall semester, he builds an indoor bowling alley for students.
Perrodin explained that he likes to teach his students sports that are lifetime activities and family activities.
Perrodin used flag football as an example. Very few people play flag football past high school age, a handful will playflag football in college, and after that almost no one will play, he said. In contrast, people will continue to go bowling and play mini-golf throughout their lives.
Adults will have a much easier time finding friends to go bowling or play mini-golf, Perrodin said, and finding companions to exercise with is a key to staying healthy and active for life, he said.
News, Pages 1 on 02/24/2010