Children in early childhood classes start with movement, and, over their years in the School, increase their proficiency in skills such as throwing, catching, and kicking.  By the upper grades, students put it all together in more traditional sports, including lifetime fitness activities.  Every physical education class -- early childhood through upper school -- starts with a warm-up activity, progresses to working on specific skills, and concludes with some kind of game using the skills.

 

The focus of the program is on cooperative play.  The physical education teachers look for activities that are not traditional teams going head-to-head.  These activities are often quite competitive, but winning has to be cooperative within a group.  Younger classes may be divided into four or five squads competing to see which group can move a pile of tennis balls out of its own hula hoop into the other squads' hoops.  The older classes use basketball skills in games of three-on-three, so that all players have to stay active and involved.  Entire classes from first grade up dance at some point during the year, ranging from line dances to the jitterbug and the polka, to aerobic dance.  Dancing with someone is another aspect of teamwork.  It also teaches timing, patterns, and social skills.

 

In the prekindergarten and kindergarten classes, the children learn through movement exploration, rhythmic movement, and dance.  We use equipment such as hula hoops, tennis balls, playground balls, gator skin balls, scoops, beanbags, jump ropes, lummi sticks, flying disks, parachutes, and scooters.

 

Children in first and second grades incorporate activities begun in early childhood and then expand into doing more age-appropriate skills.

 

In third through fifth grades we work cooperatively in small groups on more skill building, making it possible for the children to be successful as many times as possible in a class period, and increasing awareness of fitness and lifetime activities.

 

In sixth through eighth grades there is more emphasis on fitness and an active lifestyle, working cooperatively and as a team, and being able to incorporate learned skills in different activities.

 

It is the general philosophy of the physical education program that all children should participate in activities for the maximum amount of time.  No child should be eliminated from a game for more than one minute.  Physical education should be fun, educational, provide exercise, be safe, and build a child's self-confidence.  The emphasis should be on lifetime physical fitness.  Each child should be given the opportunity to be as successful as possible, as often as possible.  Play is important to a child's development.  Competition is not emphasized in class; however, students are encouraged to try to improve upon previous performances.

 

Our goals for a physically educated person follow the National Association for Sport and Physical Education national standards: