Athletics

The goal of physical education at the Day School is to provide positive experiences that will encourage students to be healthy and active as children and adults. Emphasis is placed on skill acquisition, sportsmanship, teamwork, and managing body movement safely in time and space. Other goals include working on social skills in the context of cooperative activities which promote team building. Fitness testing in the fall and spring assesses student progress and often motivates students to achieve their personal best in addition to teaching them to set and achieve goals. Cardiovascular endurance, strength and flexibility are assessed.

Kindergarten

Kindergarten students perform locomotor movements such as sliding and galloping, leading with either right or left leg, skipping and hopping on either leg. Students also are introduced to underhand and overhand throwing mechanics, kicking and eye-tracking and catching with hands instead of trapping balls against their body. Students participate in games and activities that improve these skills. Kindergarteners also get an opportunity to use the swimming pool trying to be more comfortable in the water and in other cases, improving breath control and body mechanics to enhance stroke development in addition to learning the different stages of diving from the deck. Units include:

• Spatial awareness: rhythms; manipulatives (hoops, balls, beanbags, parachute);
• Recreational games: Pillow Polo; basketball; soccer; tee ball
• Apparatus: gymnastics; rope jumping; paddles and racquets

“I love the PE program at HMJDS. The variety of sports, engaging instructors, and focus on ‘fun’ as opposed to competition has given my kids greater confidence and skill. It keeps them active, boosts their overall health, and helps them learn better in the classroom!” – HMJDS Parent

First Grade

After mastering locomotor movements in Kindergarten, students begin fitness testing that assesses physical endurance, abdominal strength, hamstring flexibility and speed and agility. Students begin learning games with more complex rules and strategies. The concept of good sportsmanship is reinforced and practiced. Through recreational games introduced in Kindergarten, students will demonstrate:

• Ability to use and control manipulatives
• Show developmentally appropriate motor skills; running, jumping, hopping, skipping, galloping
• Manage body movement safely in time and space; eye-tracking; balancing; flexibility; developing core body strength

Second Grade

Students in second grade become more aware of wellness and fitness levels. They begin to take ownership of their activity and set goals. Students examine what can be done to improve throwing or kicking further and what techniques or skills will to accomplish this. This includes how to throw a ball without getting hurt, how to improve flexibility, and why it is important. Second grade skills are further developed through:

• Ability to use and control manipulatives
• Demonstration of developmentally appropriate motor skills
• Knowledge of aquatic skills
• Physical education safety

Third Grade

Third grade students continue to learn more complex games and activities that teach game strategies and give certain position players defined roles. Students learn how to make goals as to how to improve their fitness testing results from fall to spring. In third grade physical education classes students participate in and learn new skills for:

• Fitness Testing
• Recreational games include football, floor hockey, volleyball, and softball
• Track and field

Fourth Grade

Fourth graders run a half mile instead of a quarter mile for the endurance part of the fitness test. They continue to learn and participate in more complex games and activities where game strategies and effective team work continue to be developed through team building challenges and participation in additional recreational games. Areas of focus include:

• Strategies to improve effective team work when working with someone with whom the student has previously had difficulty
• Execution of specific techniques safely avoiding injury; hamstring flexibility; improved balance on the balance beam
• Jumping in; long rope jumping