This article originally appeared in the Dec. 9, 2009, edition of the Hermiston Herald, and was written by reporter Robert Deane. It has been reposted to this web site with permission from the Hermiston Herald.
Armand Larive Middle School seventh and eighth-grade students are meeting physical education standards in a new and fun way.
The "Circus Unit," part of Todd Sprong's PE class, employs a different set of skills for 250 students with the use steel rings, like those in the Olympics, juggling, rope climbing, double-dutch, unicycles, stilts, and boogie boards.
The circus-like equipment, some already built-in to the school's gymnasium, help students build confidence in both their balance, coordination and strength.
"It can cover all body types, and the kids make goals for themselves, like juggling for three cycles," Sprong said.
Sprong said most students complete all of the unit's skills quickly, but they have the freedom to determine how quickly by deciding the speed of their learning.
"That's the best part of the circus unit," he said.
Students agreed and said it's how the unit allows them to do things they normally do for fun.
"I like climbing and doing stuff like this," seventh-grader Jorden Lamberson said after coming down from the steel rings.
Lamberson, Sprong said, is one of the most flexible students he's seen in the class, regularly doing the splits on the steel rings.
Lamberson herself, said it's really not that unusual.
"I do the splits on the ground a lot. I just had never tried them on the rings before until now," she said.
Seventh-grader Cory Adams is another student who has benefitted from the "Circus Unit."
"It helped me with pull-ups and my confidence," Adams said.
