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When it comes to physical literacy development, there’s no substitute for time.

As educators, it’s important to be aware of the role that a student’s age plays as they learn fundamental movement skills. We may end up with students whose birthdays are nearly a year apart, and that has implications on how to approach cultivating their physical skills. 

Sometimes the only thing standing between a student and learning a particular skill is the time they need to grow.

Keeping watch

As an elementary school educator, there are specific groups of students that require extra attention while teaching physical activities:

• Students who are the youngest in their grade – the December babies 
• Those who are physically less mature than their peers 
• Those with a pervasive coordination problem

 Keeping these students in mind when designing lessons will ensure there isn’t a learning disparity between children of different ages or developmental ages.

Tips for teaching

The approach teachers take to instructing students of various developmental ages can feel daunting, and will change from one class to the next, but there are some simple ways to level the playing field for students.

• Break down a skill into small components that let a student who is less developmentally advanced experience some success. 
• Modify equipment to make skills easier to do. For instance, play badminton with balloons and not shuttlecocks. 
• Shorten the distance and increase the target size for throwing or kicking. 
• Alter the rules to games for those who are not as developmentally advanced. 
• Pick teams to avoid one-sided games. 

 

It’s difficult to correctly identify where every student currently is in their physical literacy journey, but by following these steps you can ensure that all of them have a fair chance to learn. Adjusting your teaching methods to take developmental age into consideration will have an impact on students long after they leave your classroom. 

Being a role model for students is one crucial way we can help them develop physical literacy— demonstrating positive physical activity habits can be an impactful way to encourage students to become active for life. But how can we do that?

Here are three ideas that you can implement, to become a physical literacy role model for your students:

#1. Encourage students to mimic your movements

Active role models are important! 

When students watch educators being active, their own brain cells are engaged. If teachers demonstrate how to properly complete an activity – whether it’s stretching, jumping through hoola hoops or teaching students how to hop on one foot – students instinctively want to copy what’s being demonstrated. By using proper techniques in your demonstrations, you give students a visual aid on how to properly complete the task. This mimicry can lead to the student feeling confident and motivated to try new skills and build their existing physical competency. 

So, rather than standing on the sidelines while kids are playing soccer, teachers can inspire their students by jumping into the mix and having fun alongside them! 

#2. Promote diverse activities

During classroom time, share and promote a variety of activities and sports on classroom bulletin boards and within assignments. Sharing your own passion for basketball, jogging, swimming laps, etc., will give the students an idea of the diverse possibilities offered in sport and recreation, and make them more likely to try them out. 

Seeing pictures or videos of their teacher doing these activities – or better yet, seeing it in person if possible– will make those activities seem less daunting, and increase the likelihood that they’ll engage in those activities during their extracurricular hours. 

#3. Play Follow the Leader

A fun activity to explore with students is Follow the Leader, which can be adapted for the playground, the gym or the classroom. Take the lead with a long line of students behind you, and move through obstacles such as pylons or safety cones, demonstrating particular movement skills that can be copied by the students. These include hopping, skipping or crab-walking (and many others!). Once you’re confident that students understand how to complete the activity properly, give them an opportunity to take turns being the leader.

As students continue to develop their motivation and physical competency, teachers can make the activity more difficult by incorporating more difficult moves like clambering over playground features, using the monkey bars or running at a high speed.

 

For more ideas on how to develop physical literacy with your students, visit the School Physical Activity and Physical Literacy project website and PLAYBuilder.

Do your students know how to throw and catch a basketball?

 

In our School Physical Activity and Physical Literacy resource on manipulative skills, otherwise known as “sending and receiving skills”, we cover how learning to catch and throw a basketball requires more advanced neuromuscular development than locomotor and non-locomotor tasks. But, they are also fun to learn—and can be explored through a variety of activities and sports!

 

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to support your students as they explore the basics of basketball, one of several sports that can help build those manipulative skills:

 

Catching Sequence

• Student stands with arms making a basket and hands facing up. A large, soft ball is then tossed into the “basket”, and the student pulls the ball into their chest. 
• Same underhand catch, but the student is encouraged to use only hands and fingers to catch the ball.
• Catch the ball one-handed when thrown from greater and greater distance. 
• Catch the ball one-handed when the ball is thrown above the head.

 

One of the first things for students to master when learning to catch is how to maintain eye contact with the ball. As it flies through the air towards them, their eyes have to turn inwards to track the ball’s flight. If they haven’t developed this skill yet, they may close their eyes or turn their face away when trying to catch it. As they build confidence, you will see them maintain eye contact with the ball throughout its flight through the air.

 

Once they’ve mastered catching the ball, the next step is to try throwing – a skill most students have learned by the end of Grade 2, but can happen earlier or later. 

 

Throwing Sequence

• Immature throw: A student faces the direction they are throwing and only uses their elbow and wrist. 
• Intermediate throw: Incorporates a step, with the student stepping forward with the same foot as they throw with (left foot step, left hand throw; right hand step, right hand throw). 
• Mature throw: Incorporates a step, with the opposite foot to the throwing hand, and involves starting with the body sideways to the throw, and twisting the body. Once the mature throwing pattern is established, students practice throwing for greater distance and with greater accuracy.

 

When your students can confidently throw and catch the basketball, it’s time to incorporate some fun games into your gym time! Try these three activities from PLAYBuilder to further develop those throwing and catching skills:  

 

Basketball Dribble Weave

 

Setup 

• Place participants into groups that provide maximum movement and participation.
• Line them up on the end line. Give each participant a ball.
• Place about six cones or poly spots in a line in front of each group, with about a couple feet in between cones/poly spots.
• Stress that this is not a race.

Instructions

• The first person in each line dribbles forward and weaves in and out of the cones/poly spots to the other end line and back. Then, the next person in line goes.
• While the participants are waiting for their turn, they can dribble on the spot to increase movement.
• Continue for an allotted time period.
• You can challenge the participants to go a little faster as they become more comfortable.

 

Basketball Shooting Cues

 

Share these helpful cues with your students to help them learn how to shoot a basketball. 

 

Instructions

• Bend knees, eyes on target.
• Balance the ball in your shooting hand, with the other hand on the side as a guide.
• Straighten your knees and elbows.
• Snap wrist.
• Follow through.

 

Basketball Passing Practice 

 

Setup

• Place participants into pairs with a ball.
• Have them stand several feet away, facing each other.

Instructions & Cues

• Partners practice the chest and bounce pass (cues below).
• They may count to see how many passes they can get in a row.
• If it’s too easy, they may step back. If it’s too hard, they may step closer together.

Chest Pass

• Body faces the target.
• Thumbs to chest.
• Step towards the target.
• Extend arms fully, releasing the ball.
• Thumbs now point downwards.

Bounce Pass

• Body faces the target.
• Thumbs to chest.
• Step towards the target.
• Extend arms fully, releasing the ball downwards.
• Ball should contact the floor two thirds of the way to the target.

 

That’s just the beginning! As your students continue developing their basketball skills, you can easily slot these activities into your school day with PLAYBuilder – which is free for BC educators!

Access PLAYBuilder now!

When you’re empowering your students to develop their physical literacy, their learning goes well beyond the gym and your P.E. class—it can be seamlessly incorporated into all aspects of your class’s daily schedule. It’s possible for students to read, move and learn, all at the same time. How can we think about physical literacy beyond the gym? An innovative program in B.C. has some ideas!

Learning to love movement through literacy

When kids take part in the free Active Stories program now running in the Nicola Valley, literacy and physical activity go hand in hand. Children learn to use their imagination while moving their bodies, exploring fundamental movements at the same time as developing their improvisation and creativity skills.

As explained by Lia Moyes Larson, chair of Literacy Merritt and the Nicola Valley Society, in a recent news article, Active Stories gives instructors the chance to pair their love of literacy with engaging physical activities. While they listen to the narratives being read aloud, participants get to run, jump, and use their bodies for dramatic play in tandem with the story. By having students move in a way that reflects the meaning of a word, the storytellers can increase comprehension, memory and recall in their audience. At the end of the session the kids get to choose a book to take home with them.

Additionally, children who typically have issues with sitting still have their need to move addressed in a positive way. Engaging with books in this fun way helps them to get their wiggles out, all while taking in new information.

Using School Physical Activity and Physical Literacy resources

Programs like Active Stories are great inspiration for the ways we can all incorporate physical literacy across the school day! If you’re looking for more ideas on how to get your kids moving in new environments, here are some ways to increase their physical activity and develop their physical literacy from our resources Developing Physical Literacy on the Playground, Physical Literacy in the Classroom: Activities to Keep Your Students Moving! and Cross-curricular Activities.

5,4,3,2,1: This is a great way to get students physically engaged between lessons. Have your students do an activity for each number in a countdown. 

Example: 

• Five jumping jacks, 
• four squats, 
• three hops on one foot, 
• two laps around the classroom, and 
• one high five.

If you like: This activity involves quizzing students about their preferences and getting them to perform physical actions based on their answers. Ask your students questions about what they like, and have them perform an action based on their answer. 

Examples: 

• “If you like going to the beach, hop on one foot.” 
• “If you like summer more than winter, do three squats.” 
• “If you have a dog, do a stretch on both sides of your body

Grip strength: Create some stress balls by filling balloons with sand or flour, then have students squeeze them while reading poems, practicing spelling or multiplication tables, or rehearsing rhymes or chants. This activity will help them develop the strength they need to use an outdoor play structure.

Let’s make a math story: 

• Brief students on how they’re going to make a math story as a group. First talk about different kinds of movements they can do and demonstrate them as a group (e.g., lunges, jumping jacks, high knees). Ask students if they know any other movements they could do. 
• Now that you have some ideas of movements, write on the whiteboard (or just use hands and memory if outside or in the gym), and call on students to share a number and a movement (e.g., “Jake says we’re going to do 5 pushups, how many more do we need to make 10?”). 
• Have students call out numbers and movements until they complete the full math story (e.g., “Okay, we have 5 push-ups, 3 jumping jacks, and 2 squats. Did we make 10? Let’s check.” And count up as a group). 
• Have the students complete their math story by doing all of the movements! (e.g.,“Now that we’ve made 10, we can do all of the 10 movements together. Count with me and let’s go!”).

Looking for more activities to try with your students? PLAYBuilder has hundreds of free, curriculum-based activities, free for BC educators! Even better? PLAYBuilder can build a whole term plan for you, with just six clicks. Sign up today: https://spa-pl.playbuilderapp.com/signup

We may be heading into the winter, but the beautiful game of soccer is in the air! Since the 2022 FIFA World Cup is well underway in Qatar, we’ve decided to highlight some of our favourite soccer activities from the PLAYBuilder platform. These activities will get your students moving and learning fundamental skills—all while having a blast!

PLAYBuilder Picks:

Link

Duration: 5 Minutes

Age range: 6-12

Setup: 

• Place participants into groups that provide for the maximum amount of movement, participation, and safety. Line them up on the end line of the playing area. Give each participant a ball.
• Place about six cones or poly spots in a line in front of each group with just less than one meter apart between cones or poly spots. Stress that this is not a race.

Instructions & Cues:

• The first person in each line dribbles forward and weaves in and out of the cones or poly spots to the other end line and back. Then the next person in line goes. While participants are waiting for their turn, they can dribble back and forth on the spot to increase their movement.
• Continue for an allotted time period. You can challenge the participants to speed up little faster as they become more comfortable.

Link 

Duration: 7 Minutes

Age range: 10-13

Setup: 

• Participants are spaced around a circle 10 yards in diameter with 2 players in the center.

Instructions & Cues: 

• The object of the game is to keep the people in the center from touching the ball.
• The ball is passed back and forth as in soccer.
• If a center player touches the ball with a foot, they are awarded a point.
• No player may hold the ball longer than 3 seconds in order to keep the ball moving.
• Rotate two new players in the center after every 30 -60 seconds. 

Link

Duration: 5 Minutes

Age range: 6-9

Setup: 

• All students should have a soccer ball.
• Use cones to mark the playing field. 20×20 meters is recommended. Adjust accordingly to number of students, age, and skill level,
• Pick two students to be noodle stoppers.
• Noodle Stoppers start with noodles in their hands in the middle of the playing field.

Instructions & Cues: 

• Students with soccer balls try to dribble across the playing field without a noodle stopper taking the ball away from them.
• Noodle stopper’s goal is to hit the ball of the students dribbling with their noodles.
• If your ball is hit by one of the noodle stoppers, you must grab a noodle and become a noodle stopper.
• Goal of the activity is to be the last student still dribbling their soccer ball.

Now that you’ve seen a few of the soccer activities available on the SPA-PL PLAYBuilder platform, it’s time to get playing! Click on any of the three PLAYBuilder picks to see more and start planning your soccer activities.