Archery by Sara

On April 21st, 2017 5th graders at Glenridge Elementary School started a new unit in P.E. - Archery. The P.E. unit Archery is only available for kids 3 - 5 grade. P.E. teachers taught this unit to give kids of the appropriate age an opportunity to try an exotic sport with the teacher’s trust that they will have self control. There are three steps to make sure nobody gets injured in this unit.

Step one - Step to the line: for this step, kids will step to the edge of the mat, and turn a certain direction based on if they were right handed or left handed. Kids who were right handed would put their left foot to the edge of the mat so they would be facing towards the 4th grade rooms. Kids who were left handed would put their right foot to the edge of the mat so they would be facing towards the stage. There were two different types of bows - one for the kids who were left handed and one for the kids who were right handed. After you were in place, you would pick up your bow. Kids who were right handed had a yellow bow to pick up. They would pick up the bow with their left hand and hang it by their side. Kids who were left handed had a red bow to pick up. They would pick up the bow with their right hand and hang it by their side.

Step two - Knock your arrow: After everybody has completed step one, they would wait for the teacher to call step two - Knock your arrow. Once the teacher called step two kids would take an arrow from the cone (there is a hole at the top for the arrows to go in) and turn their bow sideways so the place to hold the arrow will be pointing towards the sky. The arrow feathers are colored two different colors. Two of the arrow feathers will be colored one color and the other arrow feather would be colored a different color. The arrow feather that is different from the other arrow feathers will be facing towards the sky when you knock your arrow. Once you make sure your arrow is facing the right way, you snap it in. There are cushions to put your hands when pulling back. Between those cushions is a small spot where the arrow clicks in. Make sure you hear the click before moving on to step 3.

Step 3 - Pull, Aim, and Release: Once the teacher sees that everybody has completed step 2, he will give permission to student's to do step 3 - pull, aim, and release. When doing this step, you want to line up your feet so you are parallel to the target. After this, you want to pull back. People who are right handed will pull back with their right hand, and people who are left handed will pull back with their left hand. After you pull back, you have to aim. When aiming, people who are right handed will close their left eye and people who are left handed will close their right eye. This gets you a better chance at getting a bullseye. When you close your eye, you can see the point of the arrow. Put the point of the arrow right on the bullseye. Once you are ready to let go, you just release your hand that is pulling back, and watch the arrow fly through the air. You can take us much time as you need, and people who are waiting their turn have to be quiet so you can concentrate.

One thing is for sure, most people in 5th grade will miss the wonderful P.E. unit Archery. If you enjoyed archery a lot in this 5th grade year and you are going to Summerquest, ask your parent/guardian if you can take archery as one of your electives. Archery sure is one thing that kids who leave Glenridge will never forget.