Grade 4 Students perform gymnastic floor routines demonstrating their ability to work collaboratively and design interesting floor routines using gymnastic skills and movement concepts.

Grade 4 students spent the last two weeks designing, refining and performing a gymnastic routine in small groups. Most students now have a good understanding about how to put together an interesting gymnastic routine.

As a class we came up with the following criteria to design an interesting routine:

• A creative beginning and ending balance / shape
• Variety of actions (jumps rolls balances)
• Use everyone’s strengths. Not everyone has to do the same thing at the same time
• Not too short, not too long.
• Add music
• Add movement concepts (different directions, rolls, levels, relationships)
• Link all movements with smooth transitions. No extra movements.
• Muscles tight, good body position with toes pointed legs extended in all extensions.
• Practice it, learn it, memorize it, perfect it, repeat it!

Before the final performance students completed a self assessment sheet to check off that they had met all the set criteria  (jumps rolls balances etc) They also had their routine videoed and then watched the video with the teacher offering feedback. Some of the videos show routines being refined and some videos show the final product.

Grade 1 students are back in the gymnastic facility building rolling, jumping and weight transfer skills. The gymnastic units focus on the all the ways we can move our body with and without equipment as well as developing an extensive movement vocabulary. Sometimes we use equipment to help develop skills whilst still in the early stages of mastery. I.e. it is easier to roll down a slope when learning forward rolls and backward rolls. For this activity we use incline mats and then as students become more proficient they can perform these rolls on the soft gymnastic floor.

Benchmarks for Grade 1 gymnastics are as follows:

• Make different body shapes with and without a partner (angular, curved, twisted, wide, narrow)
• Move fast like  a rabbit, slow like a turtle.
• Move in various ways showing definite contrasts of light and strong force
• Travel and change from one locomotor to another at a signal (walk, run, march, jump, hop, gallop, skip, slide, leap)
• Jump and land using a variety of takeoffs and landings (tuck jump, straddle jump, dismount from beam landing with bent knees and yeilding landings)
• Roll forward smoothly
• Roll smoothly and consecutively in a sideways direction (pencil roll, log roll, egg roll, teddy bear roll)
• Rock smoothly and repeatedly back and forth on the back
• Balance on different bases of support
• Transfer weight from feet to hands in a variety of ways (beginner handstands and cartwheels)

The Grade 4 classes of Ms Patterson and Ms Markovich are using elements seen in both dance and gymnastics to create their own routines to music.

These elements are often referred to in PE as movement concepts and include the following:

speed – fast slow movements

directions – forward backward sideways

force – strong light

levels  – high medium low.

relationships – matching, mirroring, leading, following, moving apart, moving towards each other, moving over on under beside etc

These elements can modify a routine to add interest. i.e. students may consider rolling forward backwards or sideways at different speeds to modify a routine and add interest. Students learn movement vocabulary and discuss the criteria for making routines entertaining to watch. They are also involved in assessing their own ability to work as a team in designing a routine.

Want to teach your preschooler the difference between near and far, left and right, blue and purple? Ensure that physical education is part of his or her early curriculum. According to a preliminary study of kids aged 4-6 from groups as varied as special education, Head Start, and a typical preschool, the physical education environment helps kids – even those with speech or language delays – to understand language concepts and apply appropriate labels.

Since speech and language problems are fairly common among preschoolers and since correcting these problems early is essential to a child’s later academic success, these findings have particular significance.

Physical education classes provide a natural opportunity for children to learn concepts like around, over and under, front and behind, and above and below. They also learn about such things as speed, distance, height, shape, color, direction, and position – concepts which lend themselves to a physical learning experience.

Even children whose cognitive or language abilities were impaired showed improvements when language skills were taught during physical education classes without sacrificing the physical skills they’re teaching or requiring additional time.

Fortunately for teachers, the study also found that language skills can easily be implemented into physical education classes without sacrificing the physical skills they’re teaching or requiring additional time.

Connor-Kuntz & Dummer. (1996). Teaching across the curriculum: language-enriched physical education for preschool children. Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly, vol. 13, pp. 302-315.

What do we learn in PE?

This week we have had parents come to visit us in our classes as part of our ‘Spotlight On Specials’ and ‘Student Led Conferences’. To an untrained eye it looks like children play some games and learn some skills – while this is partly true  all our games are carefully chosen with a purpose in mind. For example my Grade 4 class is playing continuous cricket as part of a lengthy “Game Sense unit” . Students in Grade 4 are exploring the concept of games sense across  the four categories of games.

1. striking and fielding
2. net wall games
3. Invasion games
4. target games

In cricket this week we are no longer focusing on the motor skills of batting and bowling and fielding but on the decisions we make when playing striking and fielding games. Students are asked questions such as

• Batter: Where should the batter aim to hit the ball to give you a better chance of scoring a run?
• Batter: How can you complete the run and still know where the ball is?
• Fielder: How can you work together to best cover the space available to the batter?
• Fielder: Does the batter have a favorite shot? How can you try to be ready for this?
• Bowler: Where will you aim the ball to make it hard for the batter or to bowl them out?

In the early years in Kindergarten and Grade 1 children do learn to throw, catch, kick, dribble, balance, jump etc but they also learn about safety, taking turns, sharing and there is a lot of language learning which we call ‘movement vocabulary’ that children are developing. If your child knows the difference between an underhand and overhand throw and they know to step forward with the opposite foot when throwing and they actually know what the word ‘opposite’ means the chances are they learnt this in PE. If they can name the parts of the body and the directions we can move our body and the actions we can do with our body then this is part of their developing movement vocabulary. 

Parents are always welcome to visit PE lessons throughout the year and we are very happy to share our curriculum with you and the learning taking place with your child. All the PE units can be found on the PE blogs.

Grade 1 classes have been learning what it takes to make games fun and enjoyable for everyone to play. We came up with a list which includes the following:

• Simple and few rules that take less than one minute to explain
• Safety rules so noone gets hurt
• Sportsmanship as it applies to each game so there are no arguments!
• Noone is eleminated or has to sit for a long time. Game is inclusive.
• Be prepared to modify the rules if necessary to keep the game safe and fair

Grade 1 students are now making up their own games and sharing them with the class or teaching a game that they already know and enjoy. This week we have enjoyed playing “Hide and Seek Tag” by Shlok and Yuki, “Monkey In The Middle” by Eli and “High and Low Tag” by Ananya and Lily. Our Grade 1 students are very creative when it comes to making up new games that everyone can enjoy!

Here are some photos from this years sports day for Grades 2 3 4.  It was great to see so many bodies being active all at once and showing sportsmanship throughout the day! Thank-you to the many parents that joined us on the ES Sports Day last Friday. Your presence and your willingness to either participate or assist was greatly appreciated. Thank-you to our official parent photographers on the day that worked closely with our IT coordinator Steve McCallum and Aimee to make the final closing ceremony photo presentations which you can view here on the PE blogs. If parents have photos they would like to share with the classes then please contact your classroom teacher.

Also thank-you to our wonderful PTA who provided extra water bottles and found us 40 coconuts for the swimming pool event!

 Sports day is a celebration of an active lifestyle. A whole day devoted to physical activity as opposed to onscreen activity! Sports Day reminds us that physical activity provides opportunities for social interaction, challenge and enjoyment. The importance of sportsmanship will continue in all activities we do in physical education. Sportsmanship allows us to play competitively and still enjoy being active whether we win or lose. Sports day reminds us as parents just how much fun it can be to be active.

It is recommended that kids get at least 60 minutes of physical activity each day, with most of it being moderate intensity aerobic physical activity.

The National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) even offers physical activity recommendations for toddlers and preschoolers. Toddlers should get at least 30 minutes of structured physical activity and at least 60 minutes of unstructured physical activity each day. Preschoolers need a little more exercise — at least 60 minutes of structured physical activity and at least 60 minutes of unstructured physical activity each day. I hope you all find time each week to be active with your child.

Thank-you for your ongoing support.

Thanks to all the parents that joined us on Sportsday. We are discussing with our classes this week why we have Sportsday and how we showed sportsmanship on Sportsday this year.  One of our Grade 1 students suggested we had Sportsday to celebrate Coach Bill’s Birthday! What a way to celebrate!

Here are some photographs taken by some of our parent volunteers on Sportsday.

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