P.E Chatter!

Well the school year is off to a fun start. The children have been working on cooperative game skills, with the focus on soccer skills ( dribbling, trapping, passing, punting and throw-ins along with some basic soccer rules.) Along with soccer we have played various tag games and movement games with the younger children to help them with cardiovascular development and to learn movement patterns in a large, open space. The tag games also are important in helping children to listen to game rules, play by the rules and follow the rules when they are tagged, which can be hard for some of the children.

Along with the games we have tested all of the children for the cardiovascular endurance capability using the fitness gram. In this test the children run approx. 40ft. according to the pattern of music which prompts them when to run. This test is valuable because it provides us with a child's current physical condition level among their class peers, looks at their motivation and frustration capabilities, and thus giving us a snapshot in observing their ability to work thru being tired. At the end of the year we will again give the test to look at whether children did improve by a % after participating in a varied P.E program over the year.

Their performance is only one small aspect when we consider grading. The other factors are the children's attitude to try everything, their sportsmanship skills in playing games, their sense of fair play and their participation skills of good listening, not arguing, following directions and trying their personal best in all activities presented. Many children have asthma and for those children, it is valuable in observing their ability, attitude and progress in performing this task and over the course of the year.

BMI levels of children are done at the school by the school nurse. We feel this too is an important indicator for you to use as a tool in managing your children's health. The BMI scale can provide you with a picture of where your child is at in this point of time. Realizing that BMI does not account for muscle mass, nor cardiovascular conditioning. Both of those factors, should be considered along with BMI score to give you a more balanced picture of your child.

Please feel to call or inquire about any concerns, questions that you may have and we look forward to working with the children over the year.