Educación Física y Salud 

Newlands Athletics Day 2022

What a fantastic start of term 3 we had in PE! Students across all year levels did a fantastic job getting ready for the Newlands Athletics Carnival 2022. The weather was fabulous and the engagement from students, parents and staff was excellent. I am extremely happy and grateful for being part of students learning journey by providing opportunities to build healthy habits and raise their resilience.  

On Wednesday 17th August, some of our students in Grades 4, 5 and 6 will represent Newlands in the Athletics Districts. They will take part in shot put, discus, long jump and 100m/200m/800m races. Further details will be provided next week. For now, I share the Athletics Carnival pictures and the link for the video made by our excellent teacher and colleague Mr Jose. Enjoy! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nimGDwA07II

F/1

In Health and PE, students in Foundation and Year 1 have been practising games and activities in preparation for the Athletics Carnival. Through running activities, they had the opportunity to learn how to swing arms back and forth to keep better balance. In addition, they combined running and jumping using mini hurdles and agility poles in an obstacle circuit. During running and sack relay races, students have been able to cooperate in teams. 

We took advantage of the rainy weather on our second week of this term and stayed in the classroom to learn about healthy habits and the impact they have on our body. Students learned the importance of teeth hygiene and the consequences of not brushing our teeth on a daily basis. They created a 3D mouth paper model and we talked about different strategies to keep healthy teeth.  

2/3 

The focus on the 2/3 cohort has been on the initiation to fielding activities such as shot put and discus in preparation for the Newlands Athletics Carnival 2022. They had opportunities to increase upper-lower extremities coordination in throwing and to learn the importance of keeping the body balance on running and jumping. This was linked to relay races, where we practise how to position the body while waiting to receive the baton. They understood that focus and readiness in physical activities can be expressed with the body. 

In the classroom, we took advantage of the wet weather to discuss and interpret health information and messages in the media. We watched different ads and engaged in conversation about the intention behind messages as well as the benefits of taking care of our physical and mental health. This activity is currently incomplete, and we will take the next rainy day to create our own commercial using a slogan and other persuasive strategies to promote health and wellbeing. 

This week, we have started the tennis program which students are very excited about. From next week, our PE classes will take place at Dunstan Park Tennis Club (100m away from school). Students will be picked up from their classes (as per usual on specialist days) and we will talk together to the courts. A reminder - it is recommended by the club that proper sporting footwear with light coloured soles must be worn so as to not damage the surface. Exciting times are coming up! 

4/5/6

Grade 4, 5, and 6 students have been focusing on developing and refining their skills in discus and shot put. In addition, they realised through practise how swinging arms backwards helps them keeps the balance before the long jump, and therefore, improve their performance. 

Students showed outstanding collaboration and cooperation skills during these activities by taking different roles such as measuring distance, judging and providing feedback to peers. Although most days has been muddy, they forgot about it and demonstrated great engagement. My apologies for sending your kids home covered by mud the last few Thursdays! It was for a good purpose 😊 

This week, we have started a Judo program in collaboration with the Resilience Training Centre who is providing a trained coach for the next three weeks. I am sure our 4, 5 and 6 students will have a great time learning about this martial art! 

Raul - Health and Physical Education teacher