McGraw/ Weatherbee
Physical Education
McGraw students have started this school year with activities involving being safe in the gymnasium, working together, and most importantly having fun through movement and exercise! We have been focusing on the importance of spacial awareness, listening skills, and good sportsmanship while participating in all of our activities. Another major focus has been put on practicing our basic locomotor skills of skipping, galloping, jumping and hopping through multiple variations of tag games. As for developmental skills, we have practiced: jump roping, kicking, scooters, and bowling! This has been a great start to the 2016-2017 school year, and both myself (Ms. Kaplan) and Mr. Plaisted are excited to continue developing lifelong skills and activities with your child!
In our second quarter here at McGraw, our Physical Education classes have focused on: team work and team building activities such as a parachute and nutrition unit, basketball dribbling and shooting techniques, as well as continuing to developing basic locomotor and spacial awareness skills. Team work and team building activities are built into the program with the focus on developing positive socialization skills, as well as good sportsmanship. Our nutrition unit breaks down our five different food groups, in hopes to give students a better understanding of the importance of our health and diet, as well as promoting lifelong wellness. In our basketball unit, proper dribbling technique and shooting form was introduced and practiced. Lastly, students were assessed on the basic locomotor skills: galloping, skipping, hopping, and jumping. The focus is for students is to be capable of consecutively demonstrating these skills without assistance, by grade two.
In the third quarter our Physical Education classes have focused primarily on: nutrition, underhand tossing, and overhand throwing. For our nutrition unit we learn about our five different food groups and the importance of maintaining a balanced diet. We discuss moderation and the benefits of creating a healthy and active lifestyle. Underhand tossing, is an assessment used where students are expected to “throw an object using an underhand pattern with accuracy”. The different learning cues that were taught with this skill are “tic” (non-pencil hand and non-pencil foot forward pointing to the target), “toc” (bringing that pencil hand back with our bean bag), “goes the clock” (step forward with pencil side and release bean bag to target using a follow through). As for our throwing assessment, similar steps are taught with alternative auditory and visual cues. “Ready” (same starting position as used with the underhand toss), “aim” (now we are bringing our pencil hand up and bent behind our head), “fire” (step and release using a follow through with accuracy) to complete this skill with accuracy!
McGraw:
1st Quarter:
2nd Quarter:
3rd Quarter:
4th Quarter:
To finish out our school year here at McGraw our biggest focus was on safe play. This standard is taken into consideration in every class. We almost always begin our P.E. class’s with some sort of tag activity. At the beginning of the school year, we start our tag games with “galloping” or “skipping” feet. Towards the middle of the school year we then allow rounds of “running” feet when student’s sense of spacial awareness is more developed. By the end of the school year, straight to running feet (and they love it)!
Some of the other activities that we have participated in are: a basic Introductory Hockey Skills unit, Dance, Frisbee, and Hopscotch. For our Hockey unit, we used a modified hockey stick and yarn balls to get an understanding of ball control while dribbling. We then worked our way into aiming at a target, and ended with striking a puck at a goal! Dance is always a fun unit for us. We focused on the different beats, and what line dancing entails. Frisbee, Hopscotch, and Dance were all taught with the intent of broadening our student’s understanding of health and wellness. We wanted students to see variety and plant the seed that they do not have to be on an athletic team to live healthy and happy lifestyles.