Dear parent or guardian of _____________________

Enclosed is an outline for the next unit we will be doing in our Lifetime Activities class. As you may already know, this class is designed to introduce students to physical activities that they may choose to pursue as adults in order to incorporate fitness and fun into their lives. This unit on Orienteering is part of a larger unit called Outdoor Pursuits. In this large unit we will be introducing sports such as hiking, backpacking, and bicycling along with appropriate safety procedures.

We have chosen to cover orienteering at the beginning of this unit since this sport teaches important skills in using a map and compass. These skills will serve the students well even if they never participate in orienteering again. However, I think once these students are introduced to this engaging sport that many of them will choose to pursue it on their own. Orienteering is different from many physical activities in that it combines cognitive and physical challenges. The best athlete will not necessarily win an orienteering event unless s/he is also able to make quick decisions about course selection.

This unit is also different in that several teachers will cooperate in teaching the information. Many of the map and compass lessons will take place in the classroom with math and social studies teachers. The lesson plans that are included in the orienteering unit may be supplemented with other information that those teachers think is relevant to the topic. We will use physical education class time to do activities that reinforce the classroom learning.  This will be the first time that we have attempted to integrate our physical education class directly with information learned in the classroom and we will be interested to listen to any comments that you and the students may have.

We expect to take 2-3 weeks to compete this unit. At the completion of the unit, we will send you a report to let you know how your student performed in orienteering.  If you are interested in finding out how the unit work will be assessed, check out the orienteering assessment page.  Please feel free to contact me with any concerns.

Sincerely,
 

Hilary Lampard (lampardh@cwu.edu)
Physical Education
 

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