Philosophy

At HIS, the Primary Years Program (PYP) requires collaborative teaching across the curriculum and Physical Education supports appropriate PYP classroom units of inquiry across the grade levels (i.e. Grade 1—The Inside Story–study of the human body, Grade 4—Community Awareness—study of  teamwork/collaboration).  Our objectives as Physical Education teachers include providing all our students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors needed to live physically active, healthy lives. We believe in an individualized approach to physical education and we will do our best to achieve your child’s personal best. We also encourage your child to understand that Physical Education is not about winning only, but about taking part, having a good time and sweating it out, we are all winners and there are no losers. The only competition is with ourselves—to improve our own performance.

We will focus on aerobic endurance, upper and lower body strength, and flexibility throughout the year.

Physical Education alone will not guarantee your child lives a healthy life.  The importance of eating a full breakfast and at least 5 servings of fruit/vegetables daily for both you and your child cannot be overemphasized.  Remember, the eating habits your child develops now will influence his/her eating habits for the rest of his/her life. 

PK to Grade 2

This quarter we have started with movement awareness and hopefully move onto  gymnastics. Students are learning the basics of body and space awareness, balancing and weight bearing.  In the process they get an understanding of how their bodies work and discover their limitations.

The other main focus which is ongoing is cardio vascular fitness and muscular endurance. Hence every time students come to PE they run for a designated time or number of laps. They then do exercises that develop upper body or lower body strength.

Grade 3-5 Classes

This year we have already learned basic skills and participated in competitive games in Indoor Volleyball, Basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, Badminton, Floor Hockey, Tennis, Soccer and will do so in Softball and collaborate in the Adventure Challenge. We worked more specifically in Track & Field and Rhythm and Dance in the past weeks while maintaining our physical fitness.

The students at the upper end of the Elementary School are actively improving their fitness.  Grades 4 & 5 will work to increase their cardio-vascular fitness, agility, flexibility, abdominal and upper body strength.  The success of meeting their fitness goals will be largely a personal commitment to regular exercise outside the classroom.  All this is to encourage the  development of exercise as a lifetime habit.  

PRIMARY YEARS PROGRAMME: Physical Education Integration

Other units run concurrently with the ongoing Fitness Program.   

• Grade 3 integrated their Rhythmic Movement Unit with their classroom PYP Unit "One World, Many Religions" by learning a Jewish Dance and observing peers performing Hindu and Muslim dances. 
• Grade 4  integrated their Rhythmic Movement unit to support their classroom PYP Unit  "Inventing  Minds"-- after learning a range of loco motor and non-loco motor moves to music, they group themselves, chose a piece of music and "invented" a Rhythmic Dance Sequence to perform for their classmates and at the Fabulous Friday Assembly for Elementary School. .  
• Grade 5 integrated their Track & Field Unit with their classroom PYP Unit "What Counts" by looking at units of measurement and deciding the appropriate units to use to measure each of the Track & Field events as well as deciding how/what units to measure their own performance in each of these events.