Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Exercise Is Vital For GPS Students

Making sure elementary school children get the proper exercise was Ed Reese's topic to the Gurdon Rotary Club.

Reese, who coaches PE at Gurdon Primary School said students in grades K-4 get at least 160 minutes of physical education weekly when possible normally when the weather allows.

This is done in 40-minute sessions.

He said kindergarten students normally come into the program scared because they don't know what to expect, while the fourth graders are more mature and prefer playing games.

In addition, he told the club members, those students in kindergarten want someone to hold their hand.

Reese thanked the Horace C. Cabe Foundation for a grant to build a PE building on the GPS campus. He said a grant for $1,000 was received from International Paper Co. to be used to purchase equipment for the building.

PE, he said, is not a choice, but is mandated by the Arkansas Department of Education. Each district must have a specific number of PE classes.

Those students with handicaps are not forgotten in Reese's PE program. He works to tailor workouts to their abilities and skill levels.

Once the new building is built, he said, tumbling and gymnastic classes will be taught.

"We've needed a building for quite some time," Reese said. "We need a place to be inside. We've always been hampered in the winter when we can't go outside."

The faculty, staff and administration at GPS, he said, are in favor of the new building. Rita Rowe, GPS principal, played an important part in securing the Cabe grant, Reese told the club.

He hopes, though, to get more parents involved once the building is completed particularly in the tumbling and gymnastics program.

When it comes to actual exercising, he said, the kindergarten student like to run and will run all day. The third graders, though, aren't thrilled with running, and would prefer to play games.

Returning to the topic of the building, Reese said the foundation is in place and the plumbing has been laid in. The facility will have hardwood floors and roll out bleachers for rallies and assemblies.

"We want to do all we can for the children," he said. "We need to take care of them. You can't be too mean or too good to them (when working with them in PE classes)."

Reese said it's good to work with the children at an early age because they are more interested in things around them.

Talking about tumbling and gymnastics, Reese said several of the students are quite good at doing flips and tumbling. When questioned about how they learned, they simply told him they wanted to try it and did.