Physical Education

Grades Kindergarten - 3

Regular physical education classes provide students with the opportunity to develop gross motor skills, work as a team and learn the importance of exercise and a healthy lifestyle. Our Program focuses on three major areas that contribute to one’s physical health and well being:

  • Movement Concepts. The program emphasizes the variety of ways to travel (e.g. running, skipping, hopping), as well as changes of direction and speeds, different ways to balance, jump and land, special awareness, chasing, fleeing, dodging, and body awareness.
  • Skill Themes. Basic skills such as throwing, catching, kicking, volleying, dribbling, tumbling activities, and rhythmic movements, are emphasized in each class period.
  • Wellness Concepts. The wellness concepts taught throughout the year include healthy and unhealthy foods, and the components of fitness which are muscular strength, muscle endurance, flexibility, and cardiovascular endurance.

Primary Grades

Physical education is an integral part of the educational program for all students. It teaches students how their bodies move, how to perform a variety of physical activities, the health-related benefits of regular physical activity, and specific skills that will allow them to adopt a physically active, healthy lifestyle. It also provides learning experiences that meet the developmental needs of students. With physical education, students become confident, independent, self-controlled, and resilient; develop positive social skills; learn to set and strive for personal, achievable goals; learn to assume leadership, cooperate with others, and accept responsibility for their own behavior; and improve their academic performance.

There are five overall model content standards for elementary and middle school children.

  • Demonstrate motor skills and movement patterns needed to perform a variety of physical activities.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of movement concepts, principles, and strategies as they apply to learning and performance of physical activities.
  • Assess and maintain a level of physical fitness to improve health and performance.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of physical fitness concepts, principles, and strategies to improve health and performance.
  • Demonstrate and utilize knowledge of psychological and sociological concepts, principles, and strategies as applied to learning and performance of physical activity.
    • In grades 4 and 5, the specific content standards emphasize how students move in their environment, moving through space and time, how they (student and a partner) move in space together, continuity and change in movement, manipulating objects in time and through space, and manipulating objects with accuracy and speed.


    Middle School

    In grades 6,7, and 8, the specific content standards emphasize working cooperatively to achieve a common goal, meeting challenges and making decisions, and working as a team to solve problems.