Physical Education
For St. Mark’s pre primary students, PE is used to help develop their motor and locomotor skills such as kicking, throwing, dodging, dribbling, and jumping. These skills are introduced to children through fun and exciting games and play time.
Students in first and second grades improve these skills using a variety of equipment such as jump ropes, hoops, balls, cones, hurdles, parachutes, scooter boards, and much more.
Our older students begin to use these skills in the learning of sports and sporting activities. Students will learn the rules and concepts to a variety of games such as soccer, flag-football, hockey, golf, basketball, and overall physical fitness.
PE also incorporates teambuilding skills to promote socialization, sportsmanship, and cooperative learning.
A New Fitness Program has Begun This Year!
Virginia Ogletree, Physical Education Assistant for grades K-6, achieved certification in the CrossFit Kids program, a strength and conditioning program for kids, that is being used in many schools and by young athletes and youth sports teams. The overall goal is for students to grow up strong and healthy and to develop a life long love of working out – which will help them to avoid inactivity and obesity later on.
The program is designed to be broad and inclusive. Healthy living requires children to push, pull, run, throw, climb, lift, and jump effectively and safely regardless of whether or not they play athletics. “Teaching proper technique and form in an age-appropriate and fun way early in life will help our students in the future by giving them a head start” says Virginia Ogletree. “If they move on to a higher level of sports they will already know the correct ways to warm up and perform activities – rather than needing to break old habits and re-learn, which can cause frustration and decrease motivation.”
The program is being used in modified ways in kindergarten through sixth grade and as individual student’s abilities allow. Students are learning correctly rather than quickly the proper form when doing squats, push-ups, and other calisthenics. Fun, kid-friendly games incorporate these fitness skills leading toward a complete workout at the end of every class. Promoting overall health and making it fun will hopefully lead children to understand that exercise is necessary for a healthy lifestyle, and that it doesn’t have to be boring or tedious.
Physical Education Teacher, Patty Gordon, has already seen the difference. “The first question I’m asked at the start of every P.E. class is ‘how many laps?’ when it used to be ‘Ugh . . . I have to run laps to warm up?’”
