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A physically educated person is one who has mastered the necessary movement skills to participate confidently in many different forms of physical activity, values physical fitness, and understands that both are related to health and well-being. The most basic element of a child’s development is learning to move. Even before birth children begin learning to move and learning through movement. The process continues throughout childhood and into adolescence.

In the primary grades, children are learning the fundamentals of physical education, becoming more skillful, and deriving pleasure from learning new skills. At this level, development of physical and motor fitness attributes is emphasized, including agility, flexibility, and coordination. This level emphasizes such basic skills as walking, running, hopping, jumping, sliding, galloping, skipping, throwing, kicking, balancing, bending, and stretching. Also important are such fitness attributes as cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength and endurance.

Children in kindergarten are solo learners. They focus primarily on moving within space, including general space around them and their own personal space. Non-locomotor skills (remaining in place and maintaining balance while moving parts of the body) include how the body moves on its axis and locomotor skills (moving the body from one place to another) include moving in open space. Once the children are able to move effectively in their space, they focus on objects, for instance, equipment, supplies, and materials. They also learn about and interpret their environment through play. They should move in a safe environment that helps them look forward to positive experiences in physical education.

A program of physical education should provide developmentally appropriate activities to students using a variety of teaching methods based on each student’s individual needs. Teachers must plan programs for all students regardless of race, gender, home language, disability, or cultural or economic backgrounds. Adaptations or modification of the program, activities, or types of equipment can be beneficial to all students. In addition, a variety of assessment tools should be used to determine each student’s level of performance.

The vision is for all students to be physically educated and have fun while moving. Students who participate in quality physical education programs receive a variety of benefits including the development of 1) a variety of motor skills and abilities related to lifetime leisure activities, 2) improved understanding of the importance of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, 3) improved understanding of movement and the human body, 4) improved knowledge of rules and strategies of particular games and sports, and, 5) self-confidence and self-worth as these relate to physical education and recreation programs.

(See PE Scope and Sequence for K - 5)

CONTENT STANDARD 1

1. Movement Skills and Movement Knowledge

• The student in grade two will be competent in many movement activities.

Performance Indicators

1.2.1 Demonstrate skills of chasing, fleeing, and dodging to avoid others

1.2.2 Jump in a self-turned rope repeatedly

1.2.3 Skip, hop, jump and slide

1.2.4 Strike a ball repeatedly with a paddle

1.2.5 Traveling in relationship to objects; over, under, behind and through

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

ask students to skip, gallop, and jump. Set up a video camera in one corner of the gym to record their performance. Ask each student to go in front of the camera and perform the specified movement. Use a checklist to assess the extent to which mature and skilled patterns have been attained. Have students exhibit mature form for each movement and demonstrate a consistent and smooth performance

CONTENT STANDARD 2

2. Movement Skills and Movement Knowledge

• The student in grade two will understand how and why they move in a variety of situations and use this information to enhance their own skills.

Performance Indicators

2.2.1 Use concepts of space awareness and movement control to run, hop, and skip in different ways in a large group without bumping into others or falling.

2.2.2 Identify the major characteristics of mature walking, running, hopping, and skipping

2.2.3 Explain how to increase/decrease speed

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

• using an appropriate size ball, have students practice throwing with a partner in five-throw turns. Encourage students to concentrate on the critical elements of throwing which they learned in class ( ready position, arm preparation, opposite side to the target, step with the leg opposite the throwing arm, follow-through, accuracy of the throw.) Tell the students that after each turn, the partner should give feedback on one of the critical elements by drawing a smiley face on a score sheet each time the student is successful. Have students identify the critical elements of throwing and make changes to help ensure a proper throw following feedback.

CONTENT STANDARD 3

3. Movement Skills and Movement Knowledge

• The student in grade two will achieve and maintain a health-enhancing level of physical fitness

Performance Indicators

3.2.1 Support body weight for climbing, hanging, and momentarily taking weight on hands

3.2.2 Move each joint through a full range of motion

3.2.3 Participate in a sustained physical activity in physical education classes and/or on the playground.

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

• Introduce students to the concept of cardio-respiratory fitness by having them “listen” to their heartbeats by placing their hands on their chests, first while at rest and then following exercise. Demonstrate how to feel for their pulse rate and to count their pulse rate on the carotid artery. Have them participate in low to moderate to vigorous physical activity (e.g., stretching, jogging, walking, jumping rope, dribbling a ball). After each activity, have them listen to their heartbeat, and feel their pulse, and discuss changes that take place in the body during vigorous activity. Students should be able to recognize that changes in heart rate occur as a result of moderate to vigorous activity and correctly identify several physiological changes that occur with moderate or vigorous activity.

CONTENT STANDARD 4

4. Self-Image and Personal Development

• The student in grade two will exhibit a physically active lifestyle and will understand that physical activity provides opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, and self-expression.

Performance Indicators

4.2.1 Participate in physical activity of a moderate to vigorous nature

4.2.2 Participate in a wide variety of physical activities and moving objects outside of physical education class

4.2.3 Identify feelings resulting from challenges, successes, and failures in physical activity

4.2.4 Interpret an experience through movement

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

• Have students record in a journal what they do in their free time after school for a week and indicate which of the activities require moderate to vigorous physical activity. The journal is signed by the parents at the end of the week and returned to class. Encourage students to accurately list activities they have done and correctly identify those activities that are vigorous.

CONTENT STANDARD 5

5. Self-Image and Personal Development

• The student in grade two will demonstrate responsible personal behavior while participating in movement activities

Performance Indicators

5.2.1 Apply rules, procedures, and safe practices with little reinforcement

5.2.2 Use equipment and space safely and properly

5.2.3 Respond positively to an occasional reminder about a rule infraction

5.2.4 Practice specific skills as assigned until the teacher signals the end of practice

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

• have students create, during art class, a picture book of rules and procedures for physical education. The class as a whole should identify and create a comprehensive and accurate list of important rules and procedures. Have each student select a rule or procedure and draw a picture about it. Have students interpret the selected rule or procedure.

CONTENT STANDARD 6

6. Social Development

• The student in grade two will demonstrates responsible social behavior while participating in movement activities. The student will understand the importance of respect for all others.

Performance Indicators

6.2.1 Work cooperatively with another to complete an assigned task

6.2.2 Assist a partner by sharing observations about skill performance during practice

6.2.3 Resolve conflicts in socially acceptable ways

6.2.4 Treat others with respect during play

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

• After working with a partner, ask students to list at least two things they did to be a good partner in the activity and one thing they could have done better to help their partner. Have students discuss good partner behavior and accurately describe their own behavior.

CONTENT STANDARD 7

7. Social Development

• The student in grade two will understand the relationship between history and culture and games, sports, play, and dance.

Performance Indicators

7.2.1 Describe how current, successful, and local personalities have made a difference through physical activity

Examples of specific activities or tasks that give students the opportunity to demonstrate that they can meet the standard:

• Ask students to conduct an interview with a local high school or college athlete or with someone involved with a community sports program (soccer coach, aerobics instructor). In a short oral report to the class have students report the results of the interview, describing the activities of the local personality , and the difference the activity has made to the person and the community.

Revised January 2001

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