* (International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program)
My Kindergarten class were busy working on their unit of inquiry: "How the world works" . During this unit, the students inquired into artefacts and ancient civilisations. Together with my colleagues in Kindergarten we looked at ways to collaborate and integrate our subjects to help students create meaning and a deeper understanding of the use of artefacts in those civilisations.
We came to the conclusion that although trying to link with artefacts was a bit far fetched, we could bring Physical Education activities back to the ancient times, in particular, The Ancient Greek Olympic Games!
As I do not belief in offering a Physical Education program based on, for example 6 week blocks, for our early childhood and Kindergarten students, I run all my units for 36 weeks, all year long, dividing the focus between first and second lesson of the week. This gives me flexibility to differentiate to the needs of a year group as well as the individual child. In this particular case I focused a bit more on the strand Individual Pursuits like throwing and catching, aiming, balancing, running, jumping and landing.
The aim was to link their knowledge of ancient civilisations (homeroom task) with the greek games, introducing the old anthem and the use of their artefacts during the final Olympic Event. I also used this collaboration and unit to further develop the students understanding of effort, winning and losing, trying your best as well as team work. All children were active during this event, which was held within a normal PE class time.
Activities included: chariot race, discus (frisbee), javelin (rocket throw), Jousting (balance beam), high jump, sprint and relay. After a sprint and relay at the start, students did a rotation to perform at each station.
Enjoy the movie and as always, get in contact with me to share your thoughts and ideas.
Joost Langendonck
PYP Physical Education teacher