LA CROSSE, Wis. (WEAU) – “Learn to Ride” is a program created by physical education teacher, Emily Siegmeyer, to help students learn how to ride a bike by the 3rd grade.
“I took a survey of our school. Over 40% of our students don’t know how to ride bikes. Knowing how to ride a bike is a really important life skill and the simplest way is to teach them the balance involved with it before adding pedals,” says Siegmeyer.
Siegmeyer wrote a grant to the La Crosse Public Education Foundation. The foundation responded with a $5,160 Gold Star Grant which gave the school 20 Strider Balance Bikes. Siegmeyer has been holding classes all week on how to ride the bikes.
“It’s such a great life skill and they’ve had an absolute blast with this unit. They come in, they see the bikes and they’re really excited. It’s just been a blessing,” says Siegmeyer.
1st grade student Ryleigh Vang says the unit was hard at first, but with practice, it became easier.
“I would nervous about falling, which I did, but I grew and got stronger to actually do it. It was really fun doing it again, and I’m super grateful that we did it again today,” says Vang.
Siegmeyer says the learn to ride program is an amazing experience for the students and she loves watching them have fun while biking.
“I love seeing the smile on their faces. And I think a big thing this unit taught them is how to fail and how to get back up, because a lot of times failure is a hard thing to come back from, especially something that’s a physical skill. But every single one of these kids now knows how to ride a strider. We don’t have a first grader that can’t successfully ride one. It just feels good,” says Siegmeyer.
Siegmeyer will be taking her students on a field trip to show their biking skills at the Upper Hixon Pump Track next week. Siegmeyer says Summit and State Road Elementary Schools have also received the Strider grant.
Copyright 2024 WEAU. All rights reserved.