The Cup was on the line at Beechwold Elementary thanks in part to the Blue Jackets-themed wellness curriculum, presented by Greif and OhioHealth
A few months ago, many of the students at Beechwold Elementary School in Whitehall thought the Stanley Cup was just something you drink out of.
That all changed when a team of fifth graders at the school was able to lift the actual Stanley Cup – or at least a smaller, 3D-printed version of hockey’s greatest trophy.
Physical education teacher Benjamin Gordesky taught the Power Play Challenge – the Blue Jackets’ free, hockey-themed wellness curriculum for grades two through five – for the previous two years at Beechwood Elementary, but this year, he was able to take things to the next level.
Gordesky thought that having a tournament between the winning teams from each of his five fifth-grade classes’ hockey units made sense, and naturally, he then wanted to have something on the line to make the kids get even more excited.
A trip to the school’s custodian later, he had an actual mini version of the Stanley Cup to hand out to the winning team. And as you might imagine, for a group of fifth-graders, having a tangible trophy to lift over their heads added that much more to the competition.
“They really just rolled with it,” Gordesky said. “We had that out, and it’s funny – just having a 10-inch Stanley Cup on the windowsill when we’re playing games, it’s like there’s something to play for.”
The goal of the Power Play Challenge, presented by Greif and OhioHealth, is to make a healthy lifestyle both enjoyable and easy for kids to maintain, and sometimes, it might help to have a trophy on the line to enhance the process.
The Power Play Challenge is designed to meet Ohio state standards for physical education curriculum for grades 2-5 and aims to keep children active while encouraging healthy choices. Street hockey equipment is given to each school taking part, and instructors are provided with a teaching manual and a workshop to help facilitate the process.
Students are given five fitness-related challenges – jogging, fitness, agility, street hockey and nutrition – to complete individually, and the class/grade receives an introduction to street hockey.
Each student who completes all five challenges over the course of the school year receives a special ticket offer to a Blue Jackets game, and the highest grade at each school is invited to a field trip at an OhioHealth Chiller ice rink during the school year at no cost to the school. The field trip consists of a STEM-focused facility tour, public skate and on-ice skating instruction.
This school year, 17 districts, 185 schools and 55,000-plus students were impacted by the program, and there are bound to be teachers like Gordesky who put their own spin on things. Using the sticks and net provided for the Power Play Challenge, he broke each class of fifth-graders into six teams and staged a mini tournament during his class time, with three periods in each game and standings kept.
Each class’s winning team as well as the team with the sixth-most points then advanced to a tournament held over lunch, with the winning team – the one representing Anaheim, not the Blue Jackets, unfortunately – receiving the Cup as well as bragging rights.
“The winner is one-sixth of that class pretty much, but the whole class gets behind them because even though they lost and they’re not in it and they’re not repping their class, it’s their classmates,” Gordesky said. “Even some that they might not get along with every day, they’re still rooting for them and there’s that sense of pride.
“It meant something, which was pretty cool. The winning class, their teacher had them make signs that said ‘Go Ducks’ and everything with the kids’ names. We’ll end up putting their names on the top ring of the Stanley Cup. We’re going to keep doing it. That’s going to be our fifth-grade thing forever.”
For teachers across Central Ohio, the Power Play Challenge presented by Greif and OhioHealth is a tool to keep kids active and introduce them to a sport they may not know a ton about but can then play in their neighborhood parks and driveways.
Gordesky said football and basketball are bigger in Whitehall – though that may be changing with the opening of a community rink last summer – but kids start to gravitate to the sport of hockey once they have that stick in their hand.
“I think it’s something that it’s not a typical Whitehall thing,” Gordesky said. “You get some of the responses like, ‘Aww, we’re doing hockey. I don’t want hockey,’ then they realize how cool it is after and they end up having such a good time with it.”
