The Arts, Health & PE, Technologies
Health
Health - YOU CAN DO IT!
In Years 2, 3 and 4 the Health curriculum further develops students’ knowledge, understanding and skills in relation to their health, wellbeing, safety and participation in physical activity.
Students will begin to explore personal and social factors that support and contribute to their identities and emotional responses in varying situations. They also develop a further understanding of how their bodies and their brains grow, develop and change as they get older, valuing the differences in others.
Throughout the year classes are going to explore knowledge, understanding and skills that support students to build and maintain respectful relationships. Students will discover the benefits of developing a Growth Mindset. A Growth Mindset is when we realise mistakes are OK and mistakes are a part of learning and that there is a physiological reason why learning something new is hard. Students will learn to make health-enhancing and safe decisions, and interpret health messages from different sources to take action to enhance their own health and wellbeing.
The Arts
This year, Torrens students will be participating in Monday Arts and Technologies (MArts). Students will take part in Music & Dance, Drama, Visual Arts and Design & Technologies. Students will be working with a different Torrens teacher each rotation, offering students a range of experiences and expertise. This is a great chance for students to try things they may have never done before, have some fun and laughs as well as develop new skills and abilities.
Physical Education
Children’s engagement and enthusiasm for physical activity is great for general wellbeing.
60 minutes of physical activity everyday promotes a healthy heart, healthy mind and healthy body. Benefits for keeping active include enjoyment, being challenged, increasing academic performance and on task behaviour as well as building self-esteem and self-efficacy amongst students.
Being active is easy and can be as simple as active home chores, going to the playground or taking your dog for a walk.
This year we will continue to promote the importance of physical activity through PE and through the Premier’s Be Active Challenge, a program for all South Australian children. The Challenge is the same as in previous years, with students doing 60 minutes of physical activity per day, 5 days per week for 4 or 10 weeks. After 10 weeks of daily physical activity, schools are in the running to win an award. I encourage children to challenge themselves this year and record their physical activity for 10 weeks. Children will set and record personal, achievable goals and track their growth throughout the year. After completion of the challenge, children will be rewarded with personal satisfaction and a medal at the end of the year. More information about The Premier's Be Active Challenge will be provided in upcoming newsletters.
This semester, children will continue to develop and refine fundamental movement skills and increase levels of fitness, through cooperative team building games, health and fitness games and athletics. Children will inquire into invasion and striking and fielding games using a tactical game based approach developing children's locomotor skills, hand-eye coordination, spatial awareness and object placement and control. Skills will be transferred in various games such as basketball, football and hockey. They will learn movement patterns like dodging, weaving, jumping, throwing and running to be confident at participating in all sports and games. Children will use decision-making and problem-solving skills when solving movement tasks safely, learning to follow basic game rules successfully.
Children will engage in warm up activities, learning the importance of stretching before and after physical activity followed by developing and refining new skills and techniques. Every lesson, children are given opportunities to reflect on new skills introduced using technical vocabulary and articulate their strengths and areas for improvement.
At the beginning of last year, “Active play” was introduced at lunchtime in the gym, providing children with opportunities to be physically active, promoting social interactions in a safe, supervised environment. Active play at lunchtimes will continue this year (Wednesday and Thursday for Torrens students).
Throughout the semester children will be involved in sporting clinics, explicitly teaching children new skills that may inspire and give children the confidence to learn a new sport.
The year 4's will participate in Bike Education every Thursday from week 3-8. This is a great opportunity for children to develop confidence and road awareness. Please bring your child's bike to school every Thursday for these lessons to be successful.
Sports Day will be held in term 4, enabling children to develop sportsmanship skills and build confidence in their physical abilities. Children can earn team points in lesson time by upholding the LNPS values- care and concern, pursuit of excellence, respect and honesty. The points are recorded and contribute to their sports day teams total, celebrated at the end of the year.
Students are reminded to wear suitable clothing and footwear to all PE lessons to ensure their full participation.
All Torrens PE lessons will be held on a Wednesday.
PE Teacher
Amy Byrnes
Technologies
Technologies is divided into two strands -
Design and Technologies and
Digital Technologies.
Some of the learning within this subject are integrated into other areas - especially significant given the chrome book ownership by all students. Digital literacy and safe practises online will naturally be a key focus.
By problem solving during Technologies lessons, students will have the opportunity to use and further develop their decision making and critical and creative thinking. Students will not only need to identify the possible benefits and risks of creating solutions but will also need to consider appropriateness, suitability, sustainability and impact on the future for themselves and others.
Students will also have opportunities to build their knowledge and skills using technical terms and techniques with coding. By independently investigating and exploring algorithms students will be able to successfully code using blocks before moving onto creating sequences of their own.