8^th Grade

Dear Parents & Students,

RE: Middle School Physical Education Update

General Introduction for Blog

Welcome to our Middle School Physical Education & Health Blog. Our intention is to use the Blog to post video or images of the activities our students will be engaged in during their PE lessons – after all, in such a performance based discipline, images can convey so much more than words.

It was a pleasure to see many of you at our ‘Back to School’ evening in September, as promised, we will not inundate your in-box with messages, however, please do refer to Power-School every couple of weeks to check for updates regarding performance assessments and to stay on top of any missing or late work. Beyond Power-School updates we will occasionally post a link to the PE Blog via the Middle School Newsletter, beyond this any additional communication will be on an as needed basis if there are any behavioral issues.

It is our pleasure to work as partners with you in encouraging daily physical activity, skill development and healthy behaviors in each of our students throughout their Middle School years.

General Course Overview & Quarter 1 Update

During quarter one all of our 8^th Grade PE students completed the first component of our grade 8 Heath Education program, (‘Substance Misuse & Abuse Prevention’). Each student also completed a series of fitness and biometric tests. Prior to the Christmas break students will analyze their fitness data, graph it against age appropriate norms and use the results to select some personal fitness goals for the remainder of the year. Other curriculum areas covered by all students during quarter one included the first component of our grade 8 ‘sports unit’ (Field-Hockey).

As we move into quarter two and beyond each class will engage in the same activities but at different times during the course of the year. Please have your child walk you through the information on their ‘MyDragonNet’ ‘PE&Health’ page so you can view the program schedule, unit materials and assessment criteria as rubrics or exemplar videos.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email.

Kind regards,

Kate Pennel

Middle School Physical Education Department