OWS PE is off to a great start. The students have been enthusiastic and receptive in class, and it is a delight to see and hear so much fun and pleasure in motion.
The K-4 students have spent the first 3 weeks of PE and Movement building and embodying vocabulary. For instance, most students initially defined walking as "slow" and running as "fast", so we tried walking quickly and running slowly. Further exploration led us to discover that indeed the speed is not the important contrast since a fast walker could beat a slow runner to the finish. So there must be a better way to define and differentiate the two. We found it in the transfer of weight. At the moment of transfer, walkers are grounded through both feet (2 feet on the ground) and runners are not grounded at all (both feet off the ground). Games like Red Light/Green Light and Tag gave us opportunities to practice and experience. We have similarly explored jump, hop, leap, skip, and gallop. Students are also beginning to explore quadrupedal movement and are practicing bear crawl, crab walk, monkey jumps, froggers, and vaults, skills that have been practiced in games and on obstacle courses.
Our supplemental study has been the human foot and ankle. We learned that there are many bones and muscles that are effectively immobilized by our fairly rigid footwear. That immobility does not allow those bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons to develop the strength and flexibilty for which they are designed. Furthermore, running shoes encourage students (and adults) to run with a stride too long for their legs (striking the ground at the wrong angle conducts the impact and stress unpleasantly up the bones and muscles), a habit that can eventually damage the feet, ankles, knees, hips, back, etc, and limit opportunities for and interest in an active lifestyle. Indeed, running-related injuries have sky-rocketed since the invention of the running shoe in the 1970's. The students have therefore been given a "shoes if you choose" option in most PE classes so far. I will require PE shoes for most sport lessons (soccer, volleyball, basketball, etc); we will be barefoot for many movement lessons (dance, creative movement, tumbling, yoga, martial arts).
Now that we have a solid foundation and a ready vocabulary, we will learn to safely fall from and return to that foundation. We will next study groundwork, gravity, and floor play, and supplement those lessons with studies of the human spine.
Regards,
Matthew Smith
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