Naturalist Intelligence

Naturalist intelligence involves learning through nature and naturalistic ideas. Children who are naturalist thinkers enjoy learning about the earth and all it has to offer. Plants, animals, water, energy, and food are all important aspects to the naturalist. The natural focus in physical education is natural health. I want to empower the students to be able to live a healthy happy life by having the knowledge of how to find and consume whole, natural, fresh food. This is the basis for good health. Supporting farmers markets or planting a garden are two phenomenal ideas that everyone should seriously consider.

Intrapersonal Intelligence

Intrapersonal intelligence refers to someone who learns through self-reflection, inner thought, dreaming, aspiring, and setting personal goals. This type of person is more self-motivated and thrives when taking on individual work. Some students simply learn better when they can do it at their own pace. That is why partners or small groups are not always utilized in PE class. We often times complete individual workouts in class. Students are encouraged to challenge themselves, yet go at their own pace. I teach them to strive to improve, and to set their own personal goals for the day. The students realize that every person is unique in their ability and fitness level, so it makes no sense to judge another classmate’s level of performance.

Students also have opportunity to learn more in PE through the website and this blog. As long as they have access to the internet, they will have that alone time to contemplate various health issues. Personally, I love to sit, read, listen, and think on my own about various issues in the health and wellness world. This time has become a very valuable, meaningful aspect of my life.

Interpersonal Intelligence

Interpersonal intelligence refers to someone who learns by reaching out to others through discussion, sharing, organizing, and bonding. These children like to learn through their interaction with others. Friends are very important to these students, as well as mentors. In physical education class, there is not one week where students do not work with partners, small groups, or large teams. As a teacher, I have always stressed that we can all learn from each other, and negative criticism will not be tolerated. Everyone has something to offer, and the students at SDA Elementary realize this. I always encourage students to get involved with sports, clubs, or groups beyond school, that will allow them to grow as individuals. Social interaction is very important for achieving emotional health.

Musical Intelligence

Musical intelligence involves sound, rhythms, tone, beats, harmonies, and melodies. Children in physical education class naturally love to move to music. When we are exercising, often times I will play some upbeat, highly energetic music. It is cool to see the intensity level of the kids elevate to higher levels. I once thought that in order to have musical intelligence, one must be a great singer, composer, or musician. This is actually not true. According to Gardner, displaying musical intelligence could be as simple as tapping one’s foot to a beat, or humming along with a melody. I for one know that music enriches my life every day, and I try to give the students the same opportunities to enjoy what it brings.

Kinesthetic/Bodily Intelligence

Kinesthetic intelligence involves movement. Physical education shines very brightly in this area. After all, this is the class where movement is encouraged 95% of the time. Children who have a high amount of kinesthetic intelligence enjoy hands-on learning. They want to physically experience what they learn. Physical education is a place where these learners can thrive. Throughout the year, students are challenged to move through a dynamic warm-up, rocket workouts, physical skills practice, and team competition. Physical skills such as strength, coordination, quickness, reaction time, speed, and jumping ability are all developed. Students realize that it feels good to express their energy, talents, and abilities through movement. Just visit the website to see the remarkable kinesthetic intelligences of SDA students.

Spatial Intelligence

Spatial intelligence involves thinking in terms of pictures, videos, colors, and designs. Children that have a high amount of spatial intelligence tend to have bright imaginations and can easily conceptualize visuals. These students are designers and illustrators.

The greatest contribution towards this intelligence in my classroom has been the implementation of my website. Children have the opportunity to explore everything we do in class through pictures, videos, and graphics that are made available on the website. Sometimes a child needs to actually see how they are performing a movement, in order to correct it. In the future, if a child is having a hard time capturing the essence of a particular skill or movement, I want to video the child and allow him/her to watch their movement on my camera. Sometimes that is all it takes to properly correct something.

If you look at some previous posts on this blog that discussed farmers markets, I included some beautiful pictures of the fresh, natural foods that are available. This helps the students visualize the food, thus hopefully promoting a desire to visit a farmers market.

This year we also did a “wall of words.” All year long the student came up with words promoting health, wellness, and positive character. We designed our walls with these words. Students not only heard me talk about these words and concepts, but they got to see them and think about them every day.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence

Logical/mathematical intelligence involves figuring things out through reason. Children that have a high amount of logical intelligence enjoy gaining knowledge through the use of experimentation and calculation. These children want rationale. They want to know how things work the way they do.

Physical education includes mathematical concepts quite often. When we perform fitness assessments, we talk about numbers quite a bit. Students know that they have to perform a certain amount of repetitions for a given exercise to be considered healthy for that area of fitness. They also discover that these numbers are based on scientific research that tested children of various gender and age. So, according to the research referenced, a 10 year-old boy may have to perform 8 push-ups to be considered healthy for upper body strength.

Logical intelligence is also used when I explain body fat percentage to the students. They realize that there is an optimal percent body fat range that would be beneficial to fall under. They are also taught how to sustain this percentage through the use of exercise and nutrition.

A final example of mathematical intelligence would include the use of numbers during various workouts. Interval training involves time periods of low intensity exercise mixed with time periods of high intensity exercise. For example, we may walk for 45 seconds, followed by 30 seconds of running. During a dynamic warm-up, we may do a set of 10 squats, followed by a set of 10 vertical jumps. This is called a super-set. Any 5th grade student should be able to tell you what a super-set is and how to design your own super-set workout.