Listen to a slow and fast beat on a drum, piano, etc. Ask the children to move to the beat in a variety of ways. Some ideas could be…
Before students can express themselves at a satisfactory level throuh movement, they need to build up their vocabulary. Students can’t be expected to find out all about movement for themselves!
Click on the below links for lessons and games :
Every child has their own rhythm and children enjoy developin their own rhythm and also keepin in time to those set by others. Try this fun lesson!
I believe that health education is very important in primary school as it sets up habits for children into adulthood. If a child belonged to a lower class family that weren’t aware of a certain health issue, then it is the child who can teach their family and get everyone involved. The socio-ecological perspective shows that health education is not based on the individual.
Tasker states that a socio-ecological perspective “requires balance and integration between individual and societal considerations. It encourages self reflection, critical thinking, and critical action.” I believe that health education is for health, not just about health. Health education must promote and facilitate voluntary application of health knowledge to health-enhancing actions in daily life. This is based on the premise that if present health knowledge were applied in daily living, then many more individuals within our society, and our society as a whole, would enjoy the benefits of better health.
Health promotion has links with the socio-ecological perspective because it needs involvement and action of people from the wider school community. These people include the children themselves, parents or caregivers and other community members such as business owners (for example, the local fruit barn donating apples for “The Big Crunch”). Health promotion is about encouraging children to be empowered and to take action in their own environment as well as improving their own well-being. Many factors impact on the overall health of groups or individuals. These "determinants of health" interact with each other and with others to influence health. For example, the social and physical environments in which we live influence the way we behave. In turn, the way we feel and behave affects our biology and our overall health. Key determinants of children’s health, or factors that affect children’s health could be categorised as: social, physical, mental, spiritual (hauora), economic environment; individual capacity, coping skills and personal health practices and so on.
All these issues are important in education because I believe it is what makes New Zealand health education unique. Other countries don’t have the Maori philosophy of hauora and it is this which adds to New Zealand diverse culture. Health education is important because it is more than an educational goal. A healthy living environment is essential
throughout school, not just health lessons. The school, as a living environment, provides many opportunities for the student to apply health knowledge and skills at home and in the community. Health in general is important in children’s health issues in New Zealand because it promotes a healthy lifestyle. Students come from many different backgrounds and some parents or caregivers are more ignorant about health issues than others. I remember at primary school, after learning how important it is to brush your teeth, I would remind mum and dad to brush their teeth 3 times a day constantly. Health isn’t just about knowing about it, it is applying it too.
A classroom needs physical, emotional and social aspects of a classroom climate so it can positively support a comprehensive health program. It is good to begin thinking about our classroom experiences so we can reflect how these spaces made us feel and the effect they had on our thinking and behaviour. From Year 4 all my classrooms had couches with cushions. This made me feel comfortable especially when we had silent reading time or when the teacher was reading a book. The couches were also used as a reward system and we felt privileged and good sitting on them. There were no negative feelings towards the couches at everyone had a go sitting on them. We live in a society that values levels of high stimulation. Teachers need to think how to best facilitate these skills by the environments they offer. In an attempt to be stimulating, some classrooms can go overboard on displays and materials that can be over stimulating and confusing to the child.
Physically children need space to move. The use of space is vital in flexibility and ease of movement. It is very important that children don’t feel squashed and uncomfortable. We need to think how we feel if we’re squashed in an elevator or how it feels when someone invades your space when sitting next to someone in an aeroplane. Good air ventilation and lighting can make a difference in a classroom. It is harder for a student or teacher to work in when it is ‘stuffy’ or when it is too light or dark. Uncluttered space and well placed furniture will assist in keeping the classroom physically healthy too. When the teacher/school provides a caring and supportive environment, students feel mentally and socially healthy so they can contribute to the classroom, the school and community life. The teacher should respond to the student’s needs in a sensitive manner. Members of the school community need to ensure that practices, policies, and structures of the school agree with the aims and achievements of the health curriculum. The teacher should use a style that reinforce the development of a sense of personal and social responsibility. Mutual respect, trust and positive attitudes need to be developed and the teachers need to provide experiences for this. As schools in New Zealand are becoming more multi-cultural teachers need to be aware of other culture’s customs and beliefs. If a teacher doesn’t meet the individual needs of a foreign student, they could feel embarrassed, alienation, excluded and even upset the parents.
The school, in assuming its unique responsibilities for providing health education, must consider the age, maturity and needs of individual children from a wide variety of home backgrounds. It is crucial that parents, caregivers and the community are informed. For example, parents from a strong religious background might not want their daughter learning about sexuality education. Failure of informing the parents could cause of trouble for the teacher and the school. South Korean, Japanese and Chinese educators say, “In our culture it is impolite to say one can do well, even if one thinks so” Beane(1991). This means for some Asian children, it is extremely hard to them to say what the think they do well at. It is important that teacher and the school has positive relationships with the parents and caregivers. If consultation is made with the school, parents, and staff it will assist in the development of related school policies and can obtain feedback from the parents. It will also provide opportunities for students, teachers, parents and caregivers to enhance student’s learning. Such consultation could be in the form of meetings with the parents and caregivers, updates in newsletters or permission slips being sent home. When I was in Form 1 the school sent permission slips home to get the parents and caregivers approval to teach puberty lessons. One girl’s parents didn’t allow her to learn it because the parents wanted to teach her themselves. She was of New Zealand European decent which proves a point that just because a family is kiwi, it doesn’t mean that they agree on certain health issues as other people of the same decent.
Food and nutrition has particular important in school primary education because it is related closely to other aspects of health such as exercise and home economics (cooking). Food, nutrition and exercise are three terms that are commonly used together. I remember in cooking (at ‘manual’) we learnt lots about nutrition and theory as well as learning how to cook snacks and meals. I remember we learned about how important eating breakfast is and later on in the year the whole senior school ate breakfast together in the hall. It is important in school health education because good eating habits are formed in childhood and maintained in adult life. If a child is home alone after school, it is the child’s responsibility to decide what he/she will eat. I remember many activities we did as part of food and nutrition at primary school. We made a food triangle out of pictures from magazine, the ‘Big Crunch’ and shared lunches. Food and nutrition relates very closely to a couple of major health issues in New Zealand society such as obesity and diabetes.
The number of overweight and obese children is rising more every year and reaching epidemic numbers, following other western countries’ trends. It is mainly because of poor diets due to large fat intakes and not enough exercise to burn it off. Type 2 diabetes is also at epidemic proportions, driven mainly by demographic trends and the increasing prevalence of overweight obesity, accounting for about a third of the overall increase in diabetes (Ministry of Health, 2002). The only way to slow the epidemic down is to improve nutrition and increase physical activity which is why food and nutrition is so important in the health curriculum.
Beane, J.A. (1991). Sorting out the Self-Esteem Controversy. Educational Leadership, 49 (1)
Tasker, G. (1998). Total Well being: Health education for the new millennium. Set: Research Information for Teachers
http://www.nal.usda.gov (June 2000). Food and Nutrition Centre
http://www.moh.govt.nz (March 2002). Diabetes in New Zealand. Ministry of Health
The purposes of this game are to explore movement/space and passing skills, and to work and communicate as a team. This game is intended for middle school children upwards and there are many variations of the game.
Attackers |
Defenders |
| How can you co-operative with your team to tag a player? | Where on the court is the best place to be to avoid being tagged? |
| Which types of passes are best to help you tag someone? | What can you do to avoid being tagged? E.g. dodge the opponent |
Instead of teams trying to reach the score line, change the aim of the game to trying to tag the opponents as many times as possible to score points. Encourage the teams to intercept the ball.
This variation could be the first team to 10 tags or as many tags as possible within a time limit. Allow a ‘half time’ so teams can discuss strategies.
There are also small variations that can be used within the two versions of the game.
These include:
Here are just a few questions I got asked that I had to think about when designing a classroom fitness programme.
I needed to make sure I had a variety of activities and that they weren’t all too similar. I needed to make sure they they were activities that had high participation of all the class and it fitted in with their physical ability of their development stage. I had to make sure they didn’t require much prior knowledge to perform the activity. Since the actual activities were only ten minutes, I had to ensure that the activities did not involve too much equipment because that takes time.
I would probably teacher daily exercise around 9.30 am because it allows for all the late comers to get to school. By the time it is ready to do fitness, all the roll, notices and other business that is part of the ‘morning agenda’ is finished. At that time children are relatively alert and they have plenty of time to do work afterwards, for example, writing before morning tea and their brains will be even more alert after physical activity. After lunch they would of already been moving around enough and might put as much input as earlier in the day.
To make physical activity available to all children and encouragement a commitment to an more active lifestyle, in a positive way. Frequent and regular physical activity is essential for children’s’ optimum growth. Regular fitness has an impact on a child’s personal and social development. A daily exercise program improves cardiovascular efficiency. It can also have a positive influence on health problems such as diabetes, back problems, obesity and heart disease. It can have a positive influence on sleep and poor posture, self esteem, confidence and concentration during classroom activities.
As with any curriculum area, every individual needs to be accounted for in sports education. Through Murdoch’s ‘Integration Model", each child and their ability is the starting place. I would use Murdoch’s reading as a tool when teaching sports education as it is important to know the different models and what discourses other teachers may have and to examine my own beliefs of how physical education and sport education can work together. The curriculum key area of learning in the curriculum document states the importance of hauora rather than basing sports on just motor skills. In addition to this, the Moving Through Sport documents states how paramount that the well being and health promotion must be accounted for. I need to modify games according to the children’s needs as children are not physically or psychologically mature as adults.
At present this level of achievement is not recognised in all primary schools (Murdoch). Appropriate experience for children is not being provided, which results in children reaching their later primary years, lacking the mastery of their own bodies in movement. I believe children have the right to reach ‘mastery’ and it is the teacher’s role to acknowledge that it is happening and convince those concerned that a real change must take change in this area. One of the aims of sport and physical education is to provide physical activity in a way that promotes long-term benefits. In saying this I believe that children should have the opportunity to take part in co-curricular programmes as children ‘build on and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes’ they learn in the physical education curriculum.
The child’s sense o achievement is vital for their future participation. Through this achievement comes satisfaction which is the deep and lasting basis for enjoyment. It is my role to make sure that achievement isn’t only felt after winning a game, but other factors such as achieving personal goals and recognising their own improvement (Farquhar, Gerrard). By modifying/restructuring games and restricting the challenge, it ensures that the fun element is preserved and children soon accept modifications as the norm.
Excellent key documents I would use to play modified sport are the Kiwi Sports resources, which are developmentally appropriate for the developmental stages of primary school children. With the Kiwi Sports documents, there are no excuses for a teacher not to teacher sport to junior children. A Reminder that sport education is different to fitness. Junior sports are more individual, fundamental and skills based. Junior children benefit from games and simple challenges which progress from individual play to small group activities either with or without equipment. Games need to be kept short and simple with all children taking part.
Participation is hugely important in the sports education model. There should not be ‘elimination rounds’ followed with children simply sitting on the sideline when their team loses (Siedentop, 1998). At every step of the process the children are involved. and have roles, for example, they are involved in co-operative planning, coaching, and scoring. Through these different roles that are taking responsibility for themselves and others. I believe the Game Sense approach is an excellent way to achieve participation as games are played in small groups. As well as being challenging and fun, it is very much tailored to the needs of the children. If certain aspects of a games are too easy the children brainstorm ways to add an extra way to make it more challenging, especially with the ‘dominant’ children in the class. I favour game sense because of the ability grouping, as those dominant children can always be extended and challenged further.
Feedback should be an ongoing process through the sports education model. It is a two-way process useful for assessing both the coach/teacher’s methods and the understanding of the children. After a game, children should always be allowed time to discuss their strategies. It it the perfect opportunity for a time for children to self-asses. I believe the community should be in volved in sport/physical education. Teachers and coaches can and should work together to provide a rich a and varied programme. The Physical Education Curriculum emphasises that sports programmes can be developed in partnership with clubs and other community groups.
As issue of sports education is the coverage of different sports. In consultation within the syndicate/school, children can be exposed to a variety of sports, rather than every year playing for example netball/soccer. For some children, schools are the only places that they experience sport. It is therefore crucial that teachers at least provide one opportunity to learn a sport through the sports education model. An implication of the sports model is that it cannot be fitted easily into a short unit. However because the actual tournament is a lengthy process, there are so many opportunities to integrate into other curriculum areas.
It is important for children to recognise that sport is part of the New Zealand culture. I will move away from the traditional way of learning, which is teaching ‘techniques’ in an isolated way that becomes useless if not used again or even applied in the sport being learnt. When children learn game-related skills and understanding they are able to transfer these skills to other sports, for example, spatial awareness in netball and soccer. It is important to emphasise other skills that can be transferred other than movement skills that are learnt through a sport, such as including others and developing tolerance towards personal difference. All these qualities that are learnt through sport add to a more positive classroom climate.
One of the most positive experiences of the sport model is the affiliation – children maintain their team throughout the whole season. Evidence suggests that much of the social meaning derives from sport experiences, as well a a large part of the personal growth often attributed to positive sporting experiences, is intimately related to affiliation with a persisting group .These values are strongly linked to the social well-being part of hauora. Another part of social well-being is that within a team, and other classroom members, students will support each other. As well as being part of hauora, supporting and encouraging each other is part of fair play. The Physical Education Curriculum emphasises that fair play should be practiced at all situations. It is my role to ensure that this i made explicit from the very start of the unit. It is not sufficient to simply tell what fair play is. It is a lot more meaningful if they can link prior experiences of times that they saw fair play, and build upon that knowledge. In 990 the Hillary Commission for Sport, Fitness and Leisure introduced a national programme to remind all New Zealand that fair play is the ‘essence of participation’ in sport. I believe it is most important that children develop good sporting behaviour, not simply with their opponents but with teachers, officials and competition. The gentle inclusion of some sort of completion element into modified games should exist in school sports. Competition is not simply winning against another team. I define it as a possible internal challenge for an individual, or group.
Murdoch, E., Chapter 4 Physical Education and Sport: The Interface in Armstrong, N., New Directions in Physical Education. Vol 2
Stortart, B. (200). Uncomfortable Bedfellows: Sport and Phsyical Education, a Problematic Relationship Journal Physical Education. Vol 33 No. 1, March.
Moving Through Sport: From Junior and Adult. Hillary Commission.