Physical Education 2011-2012 - 2nd Semester K-2 - Curriculum Summary ! Students returned from Christmas break invigorated and ready to learn. We began the semester with jumping skills. Students learned to land softly by landing on the balls of their feet and listening to the sound their feet make. When they land and hear their feet stomp, it signals to them that they are landing flat and need to shift their weight forward to the front of their feet and keep their heels from hitting. They also work on bending their knees to absorb the impact. Students practice onto and off of different levels of steps and over different heights. They worked on using their arms to help generate lift and height. ! After practicing the skill of jumping independently, they incorporated it with different types of equipment. Kindergartners focused on jumping rope. They worked with short and long ropes. They developed the pattern and rhythm of jumping and trying to maintain the rhythm while turning a rope. Students were learning to keep their heads up, turning the rope over their head and jumping over it. Children in first and second grade focused on developing jumping patterns with jump bands and Chinese jump ropes. The jump bands can be stationary so the jumper develops a pattern. It can also become more complex by incorporating the kids on the outside and having them create a coordinated pattern as well. This unit culminated in our annual Jump Rope for Heart event. One exciting thing that occurred this year as we have incorporated the use of electronic portfolios is that the kindergartners were videotaped at the beginning of the unit and then again at the end. What a joy to see the progress in their learning! ! ! Our focus shifted to developing eyehand coordination through striking with different types of equipment. Students began catching objects on the face of a pickle-ball racket that has a short handle to encourage them to watch the object all the way to the racket face. Then they worked on bouncing a ball on the face of the racket and trying to keep it going. Students focused on tracking the ball as it bounced and moving their body to ensure that it hits the racket face. Next we increased the complexity by changing the surface they had to hit with and made it smaller by using a bat. They worked on having the appropriate grip and stance by creating “knuckle sandwiches,” keeping their elbows up, and standing to the side of the tee with their shoulder facing the target. Students then learned how to measure how far away from the tee to stand by holding the bat out in front of their body with their arms extended so that they end of the bat aligned next to the top of the tee. Next they worked on keeping their eyes on the ball and swinging through. One cue that resonated with many of the children was “hide your belly button” and then “show your belly button.” What this caused children to do was to rotate their trunk and generate momentum and torque as they rotated through their swing, and it was in language that they understood and made it visual. As students gained confidence with contacting the ball off the tee, they then worked off a toss. This raised the complexity three-fold because not only are they tracking the ball into the bat, their partner is trying to toss to a specific point and trying to toss consistently so the batter can practice. This proved to be quite a challenge, but they enjoyed working through it. ! Students also worked on striking with small hockey sticks while seated on the scooter-boards and passing a leading pass. We worked on the idea of leading a person down the court with a pass. This understanding and utilization of space in activities and games will be expanded upon as they reach 3rd and 4th grade. ! Throughout the year, students are developing the social side of play through how they ask others to be their partner, how they encourage them by saying nice comments, how they show their appreciation for each other, and by developing a sense of teamwork. They learn that each person is unique and has differing strengths. Some are great at throwing, others at catching, or striking, or dancing. No matter what their strength or weakness is, we are a team and we stick together. I hope you have a great summer and keep playing and being active throughout as a family.