The Blue Oak School physical education program focuses on physical and character development.
Lower School
The Lower School physical education program strives to help children become skillful movers and develop positive attitudes toward themselves and physical activity in the context of cooperative competitiveness and personal challenge by choice. Various motor skills are practiced during individual and team activities. Children learn to be comfortable taking personal risks and learn to acknowledge competitors with respect and gratitude. Lessons in physical well-being and nutrition are also incorporated into the activities for each grade level.
The physical education skill themes and movement/fitness concepts fall into five Physical Education Standards aligned with USA National Standards for Physical Education, Health and Physical Fitness. Each each of these standards are grade specific and include benchmark indicators.
In the spring, the excitement and energy peaks as Blue Oak Lower School students are asked to utilize many of the skills they have learned through the year. Placed in groups of no more than four, the students begin their tasks by looking at a variety of apparatus laid out in front of them. Each group chooses two pieces of equipment (such as cones, goals, nets) and two balls of any type. This is followed by a three-minute period during which each group sets up an exercise center where people can practice a minimum of two gross motor skills. After the set-up period, each group explains to the rest of the class how their center is to be performed and what motor skills are being practiced. After each group’s explanation, they are given five minutes at each center until all of the groups have an opportunity to try each center. The conclusion of this class involves time to reflect on the difficulty of each center as well as students' own personal performance expectations. Besides practicing the physical skills within each center, the students exercise skills of cooperation and verbal communication.
Middle School
The goal of the Blue Oak Middle School physical education program is to present meaningful opportunities for students to learn behaviors, concepts, knowledge and skills that will help them make appropriate decisions in terms of social, emotional, intellectual and physical health.
The Middle School physical education curriculum moves through four key areas:
-
New Games: Includes activities that emphasize cooperative learning, communication skills, problem solving and group dynamics.
-
Individual and Team Sports: Includes an introduction to various traditional and non-traditional sports, basic offensive and defensive strategies, following the rules of the game and sport-specific fitness.
-
Adventure Education: Includes exploration of issues of trust, appropriate risk and challenge through group initiatives and individual goal setting.
-
Wellness: Includes an understanding of the basic strategies, skills and concepts for developing and maintaining lifelong health and fitness.
This curricular design provides opportunities for students to explore a variety of movement skills and concepts, develop appropriate social skills, think critically and reflect on their experiences. Throughout the curriculum, students are encouraged to accept new challenges, delve deeper into personal interests and explore their role within the group dynamic.
Middle School physical education students are assessed using a variety of tools including, but not limited to rubrics, performance assessements, written assessments, personal assessments, classroom observations and teacher/observer evaluations. The Middle School physical education benchmarks build upon the National Standards developed by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE).