Athletics
	Lower School Physical Education

The rush of enthusiasm that compels a child's play is the root of adult happiness. Dr. Edward Hollowell states that by learning to create and sustain joy through play, children are grappling with the tremendously important skill that resilient and joyful adults have mastered. Lower School physical education provides children with a safe, stimulating environment, a place where they can enact the "earnestness of attack" in daily living that Elisabeth Irwin said was a key objective of the school. Expressive and athletic components of Physical Education are an essential part of the total educational process. While the emphasis is on fun, the content of the program is complex and challenging - enabling a child's best work. We strongly believe that before children participate in regular traditional team game sports, they must first master, with some degree of success, the skills essential to the successful playing of the game.   

We defer competitive games designed for older children and adults until children are emotionally ready for them and emphasize lead-up games, which provide children with more physical activity, more opportunity for skill development and more active strategizing within moments of play.   Thoughtful lead-up games blend sports readiness with only those dynamic components of competition that are closely attuned to the children's abilities and development. Until the Fifth Grade the complexity of being a good sport whether your win or lose is an adult-driven rule that children can memorize but not internalize.   When tears and unfriendly feelings are the result of winning or losing, we are asking children to validate grown-up emotions before they have the skills to process them.   We believe that the structure of a game should match a child's willingness to continue playing no matter the outcome.   The    child's engagement measures the    fit between the child and the game.   Children should compete with friends and peers with no great stress, and all players should be encouraged to put forth their best efforts through encouragement by their team and opposing players.

Lower School Physical Education classes seek to:

• Develop competent movers who move with efficiency in deliberate movement situations and who can adapt their movements to effectively meet the unpredictable and unexpected demands of dynamic movement environments.

• Develop understanding of the foundational knowledge upon which movement competence is based.

• Assist learners in constructing relevant personal meaning from their movement experiences.

• Develop levels of fitness that support a quality life experience.

• Guide children towards greater awareness of their bodies and their unique capabilities for movement.

• Provide fun and challenging movement activities for children to interact with their peers and where all children can be successful.

• Promote values and attitudes that foster good sportsmanship, self-discipline and the ability to lead and follow.

• Set a positive tone for improving and maintaining everyone's health and fitness, muscular strength, endurance, flexibility, agility and cardiovascular/respiratory function.

• Help promote social interactions and to help each child learn how to handle risk-taking, winning, losing and all other challenges with grace, generosity and respect.

• Acquire knowledge of safety skills and habits and an awareness of safety with respect to the environment, themselves and others.

• Demonstrate responsible personal and social behavior and understanding and respect for differences among people in physical activity settings.

• Provide opportunities for enjoyment, challenge, self-expression and social interaction through physical activity.

First Grade
In the First Grade, the emphasis is to blend good effort with the drive to play. Children develop awareness of physical space, time and force. They develop locomotor skills such as walking, running, galloping and non-locomotor skills such as bending, pushing, and stretching. They start and stoop, chase and flee, jump and land. They kick and volley and dribble and throw. The movement education program at the First Grade level centers on the development of fundamental movement pattern or basic skills. As children develop and master these basic skills they are then prepared for more complex skills that involve a combination of each of these basic skills. Through a variety of games and rhythm and movement exploration First Graders learn to better control their bodies and to move more efficiently.   They learn how and where the body can move and grow more confident with a range of new skills involving speed, coordination and ball control. We begin the year with our pathway study, learning as we go; moving all together without bumping; stopping in time; taking turns with patience and figuring out that words of kindness and support always replace harsh tones or teasing. Through aerobic running we learn pacing, proper breathing and body alignment. To ensure success at both short and long distances we also spend time building upper body strength and kinesthetic awareness. Finally, they move into tag games. We build on the innate pleasure that children experience from playing these games.

Second Grade
In the Second Grade the emphasis is to blend good effort with the drive to move and the urge for adventure. Learning experiences are designed to help each child develop efficient, effective and expressive movement patterns and have fun in the process. Lessons are based on the key concepts of body awareness, efficiency, and spatial relationships; they are aimed at exploring, discovering, creating and expressing, and include a wide variety of activities taught in a sequential progression. While technique is taught for the development of strength, flexibility, control, balance and the awareness of the body's potential an equal emphasis is placed on creative problem solving. Second Graders grow increasingly confident with a range of new skills involving speed, coordination and control.   They experiment with jumping (over obstacles, to a beat and jumping rope), balancing (standing still and shifting weight), hopping, skipping and sliding.   They are also developing the contrasting skills of full blast running (accelerating with active starts and stops), and jogging (continuous, non-stop, paced aerobic running). During movement explorations based on the Chinese folktale The Magical Starfruit Tree, children in small groups create compositions with varying levels, directions, pathways and force contributions.

Second Graders also work on their ball skills: learning to kick, dribble, pass, throw; catch; rebound and shoot with greater speed and accuracy. During game play, they also integrate newly-learned skills and discover different ways to dodge, chase and overtake a player.   In skill practice, students work together in partners and small groups, supportively and collaboratively. They also extend their repertoire of fair play cooperative behaviors learning to discuss and resolve conflicts openly and to respect the feelings of other players.   Little importance is given to competition at this stage; however, children are exposed to games which have competitive elements. Throughout the year discussions take place about winning, losing, being first, getting and not getting what you want.

Third Grade
In the Third Grade the emphasis is to blend good effort with the drive to do well. Curricular growth accompanies developmental growth in the Third Grade. With the refinement of fundamental skills the ability to perform specialized skills begins to surface and sports readiness envelopes the structure, tone and dynamics of each lesson. More emphasis is placed on small group work, team play, group cooperation and acceptance. Sportsperson-ship, respect for each other's abilities and fair play are issues we discuss and continually revisit. Helping children to feel good about their participation and to carry that self-assurance with them is the scaffolding and mission of our sports-readiness program

The curriculum for the Third Grade includes indoor soccer, volleyball, sprinting, basketball, hockey, 4 x 4 relay, hurdling and tennis. These organized sports are an exciting, vigorous extension of ball handling, puck handling, running, jumping and landing skills. Through practice and play,   Third Graders learn to know where to look and when and how to move. Additionally, during the track and field unit, the collaborative themes of movement efficiency and technique are examined. By becoming thinking movers, Third Graders learn to refine their movements by combining body position with the necessary speed and force. Each child is encouraged to think about safety and their responsibility to others as they explore leadership, followership and team participation. Physical conditioning and flexibility for sports play are a continuous focus and determinant for game play.

Fourth Grade
In the Fourth Grade the emphasis is to blend good effort with the urge to compete and the drive for social competency. Learning to cooperate with others, being a contributing team member, and sharing accomplishments with friends are important outcomes of the Fourth Grade Physical Education program. Finding satisfaction in being a necessary part of a group is an integrated theme, taught to reveal that being part of a group far outweighs the gains from peer competition. The emphasis in Fourth Grade is on mature demonstration of locomotor patterns and selected manipulative and non-locomotor skills. At this age variations of skills and skill combinations are performed in increasingly dynamic and complex environments, e.g. performing a manipulative task while dodging or performing a gymnastics sequence with a partner.

Fourth Graders are increasingly confident in adapting a skill to the demands of unpredictable environments. Students acquire some specialized skills, for example, the chest pass in basketball, dribbling in soccer, or fielding a puck with a hockey stick. They are challenged by learning a new physical activity and enjoy broadening their repertoire of movement skills. Success and improvement are attributed to effort and practice. They tend to choose an appropriate level of challenge in an activity so as to experience success and engage in activity with students of similar skill levels. They also enjoy practicing activities to increase skill competence while interacting with friends and participating in group activities.

Gymnastics
Students in First through Fourth Grades participate in the Lower School gymnastics program. Using progressive gymnastics training methods in a non-competitive atmosphere, students improve their supportive strength, overall flexibility, and kinesthetic and bone development, range of motion, body awareness, and gain increased protection from use injuries. Throughout each class, students learn to apply various body positions in different levels and facings. Students develop confidence and body awareness when inverted. They learn variations of jumping and landing, and balancing on one leg. Standard moves are done facing forward, sideways, and backward. Safety is emphasized over skill acquisition. The gymnastics experiences vary for each grade level and each individual.   Students are given the most basic levels working with aid, and advanced students work on advanced skills once they have demonstrated mastery of the basics.

The foundation of any gymnastics program is tumbling and floor exercise skills. These skills are then applied to the balance beam and vaulting. For a "fitness through gymnastics" program, vaulting is done on an adjustable, padded trapezoid, and beam is done on low beams only. Unnecessary risk has no part in a non-competitive program, and it is questionable whether it has part in a competitive program. The ropes are also used for climbing, aerial work, and swinging in various positions.

Second, Third and Fourth Grade students exhibit a floor routine at the end of the school year consisting of at least two skills from each facing, at least one inversion, one upright balance on one leg, and two different jumps. Students are allowed to use any type of physical aid to complete these skills. First Grade students are given a very basic routine, which they are allowed to vary according to ability.