To answer my own question, I was thinking of maybe using this as a reward option to go along with other fitness stations. Either for the entire class or maybe one squad that is doing especially well (although I am leaning the entire class). I am curious though to if anyone has done this, how long does it take to get an entire class a turn on something like the Wii Fit. I can't imagine one 40 min. class being enough, but would two do it?

On a somewhat related note, I know on the wii fit, their are many different games, does anyone use one in particular that works quickly and effectively, it seems like a major time waster if you let the students choose their own.

I am not sure if this really helps, but my school district has recently purchased a Nintendo Wii to use with some of our students who have some physical restrictions and limitations. We use this a lot in the winter months where we are extremely restricted in terms of the amount of space with have (one medium size gym with one fitness center for sometimes over 120 students). This was becoming a very overwhelming experience for some of the adaptive students, so we now have the ability to take them (only during some units) to a different area and use the Wii fitness equipment. In terms of using the equipment with the other students, we have used it on a reward system. I can tell you than no matter what age they are vey motivated to use the Wii. We have 18 year olds who will run through a brick wall to be rewarded with using the Wii!

We just did a cost analysis on the Wii Fit in an attempt that the PTO might purchase a small number of them. This would be for indoor recess, special need students and whoever else wanted to sign them out. I think they are a great idea but I am worried most about space, maintenance, and availability. I got some nice feedback reading the other posts….thanks. Doug Stokes

I purchased the DDR with the PS2 4 years ago and it is a tremendous hit with 4th-8th. We set it up in the lunchroom along with the practice mats during the winter months. After they eat their lunch and clean their table they are dismissed to the DDR. They go against each other and write their scores down on a bulletin board and rotate for the last 20 minutes of lunch. This solves a lot of problems that usually arise when there is nothing to do. Being a urban inner city school I try to individualize my program as much as possible. I used the DDR as one of the stations during most of my classes. After playing with a Wii during Xmas break I need to find the funds to get one. It was awesome.

We have purchased one wii fit to use in class. We have 60 students in the gym at one time (only 1 gym) but we have a fitness center and a wrestling room we take advantage of. Each unit we try to offer 2 or 3 choices for students. We are setting up the wii fit in the wrestling room for students and are trying to integrate it into our yoga/aerobics unit which is paired with basketball and wt room at the smae time. We are only going to allow 15 students at a time (max) and will see what happens.

thanks

janine

That should work out fine. I usually have between 12-18 students at the DDR station and it works out well.

In our K-6 building we have a PS2 with DDR that comes with two metal arcade-type scoring mats and 12 practice mats. It can be used for the entire class if we put five dots on the floor for the extra students in the back that do not have a mat. It has been used by all the 3rd-6th grade classes in the building. We also use it as one of two stations in a class period. The kids love it and it is great exercise. We have also conducted DDR after school competitions.

I incorporate DDR and Wii Fit into my fitness unit. For my fitness unit I create stations and make each of those a station. We only have 2 DDR pads but this could be manipulated by making "homemade" pads for other students to follow along with in the back. Only the 2 DDR pads can be actually hooked up to the system. Our Wii Fit usually gets used after school the most, but it is part of our fitness center stations.

Debbie,
How many students do you have at one time? DDR and Wii sound awesome, but I am trying to figure out how many I would need to keep a class of 30 students going. I would also need to figure out funding. Once I am sure how many, I can work on the funding aspect.

We have six DDR pads hooked up to three tv's at our school. The kids do love them but the maintenance is tough because it seems like there is always one that is not working. They are nice to have because students do love to play.

I love the idea of the Wii in the gym and my principal allowed us to use grant money to purchase 4 consoles and television sets. We are planning on using them during gym class, recess, and our after school fitness club. Teachers will have the ability to sign up a Wii to use as a reward for their classroom too. Are there any other games that are good for PE? We are getting Wii Resorts and Wii Sports with the consoles and 4 sets of controllers per Wii. We are extremely lucky and fortunate to have these coming and can have 16 students active at the same time. We are hoping the systems will improve behavior and fitness for the entire school. I am expecting to have as much positive responses as the other posts!

Any JUST DANCE games are great! Since we didn't have a Wii at school I would use my laptop and from youtube play videos. The kids loved it. The only downfall was the time it took to buffer was ridiculous. The price for a Wii has gone down but after doing Lesson #2 for Technology in P.E. course. I am leaning towards harassing my school for an Xbox 360 with Kinect. The Nike + Training game looks to be like a PX90 workout.

I have been asked about them and I would love to do it. the problem that I see with it is you can only have a max of four students working at a time. you could have students doing it in the background but they do not get the instant satisfaction like the players playing would with a final score. I have thought about doing it as part of a circuit though.