Content Area: Health and Physical Education

 

Index: 2.5A Grade 2 CPI 4

 

Standard: 2.5 - Motor Skills

 

Strand: A -   Movement Skills 

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 4 - The student will move in personal and general space at different levels, directions, and pathways.

 

Grade: 2

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        STORY OBSTACLE COURSE - Create an obstacle course based on a familiar child’s story. Students act out the story using the obstacle course to experience changes in levels, directions, and pathways. The course assists students to establish physical and mental connections, understanding terms such as over, under, behind, in front of, near, and far. Use a story like “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” or any Winnie the Pooh story. Read the story aloud and discuss the actions of the characters. Then allow students to act out the story (e.g., crawling through a log, climbing or jumping a stream) using the simulated “forest and field” obstacle course. Focus on the changes in locomotor and nonlocomotor movements needed to navigate the course.

Variation: Create a circus obstacle course and have students portray the various circus characters and animal roles.

Variation: Design an obstacle course that focuses on acquiring language skills, describing directions, levels, and pathways. Vary the elements of the course as well as the locomotor movements that provide transition from obstacle to obstacle. For example, students crawl low through a tunnel, walk backwards on a balance beam, roll on mats, and climb cargo nets or climbing walls. Students perform designated locomotor movements such as skipping, hopping, or jogging between obstacles. Create large vocabulary cards and place them next to each obstacle to reinforce concepts such as over, under, beside, and behind.

Variation: Design an obstacle course that allows students multiple opportunities to land and stick. Provide target areas for the landing and emphasize the need to flex the knees and hips as a means to absorb the force of the jump.