Lab 8.. Hula Hoops!

Application and Assessments:
1. The important benefits of hoop play include:

• Improves and develops the students coordination 
• Improves and develops the students balance 
• Improves and develops the students body awareness

2. Hoops can be used to reinforce a cognitive concept linked with classroom learning. For example, during lab, we were asked to set the hula hoop in front of us and pretend it was a clock. Then we had to use a part of our body to make the hour mark for the time addressed by the teacher. This can enable the student to learn how to read the clock by using the hula hoops. The students can then get creative and come up with other ways to show the time on the clock. For example, using their feet or hands.
3. Hoops can be utilized to promote growth in the affective domain. When using the hula hoops, there are many different activities that involve the students to work together. This would allow for the students to communicate with each other. For example, during lab, one of the activities was to find a partner and stand close facing each other. The objective was to throw the hula hoop from your right hand to the persons left hand. This allows for the partners to talk to one another on when to release the hula hoop. We also played a game like twister using the hoops. These are ways to promote growth in the affective domain.
4. As a physical educator, we can incorporate other subjects of learning and tie it to an activity. For example, we can use the hula hoops and relate it to ecology. The students can pretend that they are frogs and the hula hoops are their lily pads. The students then can jump from one hula hoop to another. Also, you can pretend that when they are inside the hoop, they are fish in a pond. This can really benefit the students learning.