Physical Education
From Kale Vagnoni and Mark Quinn, PE teachers
The Finish Line
Molesworth Campus
It’s been Leaping Madness down at Molesworth St as we explore the Fundamental Movement Skill of leaping.
What is a leap?
A leap is a long step movement where we take off from one foot and land cleanly on the other foot. It is usually done in a forwards direction and can be done between two markers, like cones or lines, up and over an object or quite simply…anywhere! We’ve even been testing our mettle and leaping from one object to another on the Molesworth yard’s great boulder and log collection!
The aim of the leap is for it to be an efficient, graceful movement. As always, practice makes perfect. So any time you get the chance, whether indoor or out, ask your kids to show you their ‘foot-to-foot’ leap. How far can they leap? And how gracefully can they do it?
On top of the leaping we've also been; dribbling basketballs, kicking soccer balls, dodging and weaving our way through agility challenges, spinning hula hoops, climbing logs, hanging from bars and jumping hurdles.
Errol St Campus
Up at Errol St it’s been all things NETS to see out the term. Volleyball, Tennis and the wildly popular Badminton have been the source of the action. We’ve looked at the similarities and differences between the three sports, figured out ways to work both with training partners and against opposition and discovered the joy of the rally.
The sports have also offered us the chance to delve deeper into the concepts of conflict resolution, maintaining a cool head under pressure and what good team work actually looks like.
We took these ideas and applied them to our King of the Net knockout competition and discovered that the real winner is the person who, win or lose, is out there having the most fun.
This year we will be including some of our core Health Curriculum concepts in the PE Dept Newsletter. The idea behind this is to give families a little more scope into the Health curriculum that is delivered in lessons throughout the year. These Health Hacks are designed to be a great talking point for discussions at home surrounding Health and Movement.
With the Term 3 school holidays just around the corner we are all undoubtedly thinking about how we are going to change our routine a little to catch our breath after yet another busy term. The kids are probably envisaging sleep-ins and as parents we are likely thinking about two whole weeks without having to tackle the dreaded grind of the daily lunchbox. I know I sure am!
But with great power comes great responsibility. The school holidays are a great chance to take the foot off the gas and recover, but we must remember to approach things with balance. Rest, by gosh we all need it by this stage. But we mustn't let things swing too far in the other direction.
In the modern world of iPads, Netflix and YouTube it is very easy to fall into the trap of too much of a good thing. So be sure to strike balance in your school holiday days by finding some movement time. Even if it is something as simple as walk around the neighborhood, a quick trip to the park or a bike ride starting at from Royal Park*, a little bit of movement each day is great for the body and mind.
* Royal Park is a great starting point for family rides, with The Capital City Trail heading out to the North and The Moonee Ponds Creek Trail heading South through to The Docklands and the start of the Footscray Veloway.