Students
through their K-4 years will learn and develop age appropriate skills, which
will aid them in maintaining a healthy, happy lifestyle throughout the life
cycle.
During the
kindergarten year much time is devoted to general coordination
with an emphasis on locomotor skills, cooperative play, and cardiovascular
fitness.
Locomotor
skills include galloping, hopping, skipping, leaping, sliding, and crab
walking.
During
the first grade year we start putting more emphasis on hand-eye
coordination (throwing and catching), manipulative skills (controlling
objects in relation to body and environment), strength development, and
physical fitness.
Some of the
activities used to achieve this growth include jump roping, throwing level
work, tag games, station work, tumbling, balance beam work, chasing and
fleeing, calisthenics, etc.
Second graders
begin to turn their attention to specific sport skills, team building
adventure activities, and more demanding strength and cardiovascular
development.
Sport
skills learned include, but are not limited to the following: dribbling
(both soccer and basketball), striking (with body parts and other
implements), throwing and catching all manner of objects, gymnastics
tumbling and balancing, combining manipulative and locomotor skills, etc.
At the
third grade level we begin to incorporate the sport skills learned at
the second grade level into the strategic planning phase through lead-up
games, which promote developmentally appropriate practice time within a
semi-structured format.
Lead-up
games include drills like captain ball, keep away, 3 vs. 2 basketball, wall
soccer, crab soccer, newcomb, kickball, etc.
As we
hit fourth grade, we transition into some traditional sport units
along with project adventure experiences.
Units covered include
soccer, fitness testing, movement rhythms, basketball, gymnastics, floor
hockey, volleyball, recreational games, and softball.
