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Robert Browning gains new climbing wall

January 09, 2018
Rock Wall.jpgOver the holiday break, École Robert Browning gained a new piece of equipment to further enhance daily physical activity and play. 
 The Traverse Climbing Wall, installed by a Winnipeg-based company, is 20 feet wide by 8 feet high and is designed to be scaled from side to side. It offers countless climbing wall layouts to accommodate all ages, as well as varying levels of physical ability. 
  “Every student in Kindergarten through Grade 5 tried it out yesterday at least once and it seemed like there were lots of positives,” said Physical Education teacher Mr. Vermeylen after Day 1. 
    While some of the older students were determined to make it half way, or all the way across the wall, some of the younger students were successful in holding themselves up for a few seconds or travelling from one rock to the next.
  “It allows kids to set their own goals and as they get better at it, we can replace the rocks, add or take away rocks, it is a fluid thing that we can always be changing.”
   Two Grade 4 students, Chloie O. and Mackenzie M., confessed their excitment about the climbing wall. They both admitted changing into their gym clothes a little faster in order to have their turn on the wall as a warm up before class. 
   “It’s fun, it’s fit and it’s challenging,” said Mackenzie M. “It’s new too, so a lot of students want to try it.”
    Mackenzie has tried wall climbing once before at a friend’s birthday party and when his turn came at school, he managed to make it all the way across the wall the first two days in a row.
    “I want to get faster now,” said Mackenzie.
      Chloie has enjoyed wall climbing numerous times before, such as at the YMCA, but still found it to be a good challenge and says she thinks it will help to strengthen up more kids in the school.
    Physical Education teachers Mr. Vermeylen and Mr. Koester work side by side in the gym and collaborate to keep students as active as possible. They recognize the climbing wall as both an instant activity students can use the moment they walk into the gym as they wait for their peers to finish changing, and as a tool they can use to “divide and conquer” the space by adding a new station into the mix during class.
   As students step or jump down off the wall on only second day, they are celebrating each other’s progress, as well as their own. 
   “I think with practice they should all be able to get part way across and we will see how it develops from there,” said Mr. Vermeylen.

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