Project Description

We are juggling, learning to ride unicycles, building human pyramids, jumping rope, balancing on balance boards, tumbling, and more! I am an elementary physical education teacher and this year my gym and my students have come alive through circus arts. Our Circus Club meets every Wednesday and Thursday after school. But, why circus?

There is an activity for everyone at all different skill levels. There is opportunity for individual expression as well as a sense of group belonging. There is competency that requires physical skills and fitness. Activities facilitate extreme focus and concentration. There is individual and group success. There is persistence when success is not immediate. Finally, there is ultimate pride in their showmanship when they can say, “Look, I am doing it!”

According to the National Association of Sport and Physical Education, there are six National Standards of Learning that physical educators should be focusing on in their gymnasiums: skilled movement, movement principles, participation in physical activity, achieving personal fitness, responsible behaviors, and a value of physically active lifestyles. Circus arts can meet and exceed these expectations through the physical education curriculum- and can go even further through our after-school Circus Club. The bulletin board outside of my gym reads, “PE is a Circus!” On June 12, 2008, as part of the 1st Annual Spring Arts Festival, we will perform our very first Circus Gala starring amazing elementary students, kindergarteners through fifth graders, who will bedazzle and amaze!

Creating a circus doesn’t happen in every school. But, through a DoSomething Grant we can have the opportunity to really recreate our circus culture and increase our possibilities. As a physical education department, we have a limited budget for materials and special projects that can be used during and after school. This grant will allow us to purchase equipment and seek resources that will challenge and engage students beyond their own expectations but within their own limits.

We have started our hard work already this year but we are only at the beginning of the path. We still have time before June, but my students have already impressed me with their enthusiasm: they are committed to practicing both at school and at home; they are teaching each other new tricks; they are shouting “I’m doing it” in that special tone of voice that tells me they truly are ‘getting’ it; they are keeping at a skill over and over without giving up; they are sweaty and smiling and constantly asking, “What’s next?” Hopefully, the answer is a grant from Do Something that sees supporting the idea of a Circus Club as an opportunity to instill the values of health and being active as well as empowering students to live positively within themselves and with their peers.