Dear 7th Grade Parents
During
Quarter 3 our Grade 7 students have been engaged in a series of
fitness lessons focusing mainly on cardio-respiratory endurance. Many students
demonstrated a marked improvement in their Mile run times from last year and
will be completing another Mile Run and a Beep Test shortly to compare findings
from Semester 1 to Semester 2. Some students are now aware that they need to
put in some additional effort to improve their cardio-respiratory endurance in
order to see an improvement.
The students
have also been filmed running, observed their video clips and then completed a
running analysis task, aimed to help improve their general running technique.
Since our
last update, other activities have included encouraging our students to step
out of their comfort zones and challenge themselves in the high element
activities of our Adventure Learning unit. We revisited our motor skills and
team support strategies during our Sports unit with a focus on Soccer and we
also explored a selection of fitness games that proved to be great activities
for engaging students in interval training without them realizing that they
were getting a work out. The same cannot be said for our introduction of
circuit training, which was just plain good old-fashioned hard work!
All
students’ performance and work habit assessments have been updated and are
available on the new PowerSchool system. Please have your child guide you
through the system and use this as an opportunity to hear about their areas of
growth and the areas they need to pay more attention to.
All
students have the opportunity to ‘redo’ an assessment (time permitting) in any
component of a standard where their overall level of proficiency is below
‘Meets Expectation’. In order to take this opportunity:
- Students must reflect on the comment/strategies offered on PowerSchool.
- Students must take the time to work on improving their performance.
- Students must arrange a time (outside of class and within two weeks of receiving their assessed level of proficiency) to demonstrate their conceptual understanding and improved performance.
Following the Spring break students will be encouraged
to select an elective activity from ‘Self-Defense’, ‘Ultimate-Frisbee’,
‘Floor-Hockey’ or ‘Triathlon’. Assessment in these ‘electives’ is focused on
interpersonal skills (Standard 5) rather than performance skills, as students
are encouraged to take a risk and try an activity that they may have little
previous experience of, assured that their performance in a new/unfamiliar
skill will not reflect negatively on their grade.
As summer approaches and temperatures begin to rise
our program continues with more indoor activities. Students will
participate in the Water Adventure component and experience the final Health
Unit - Puberty & Relationships. I will send out an email to parents
two weeks before the commencement of this series of lessons, detailing the
content and providing a reminder of the opportunity for you as a family to
engage in dialogue about healthy relationship issues.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to
contact me via email.
Kind regards
Kate Pennel
Middle School Physical
Education Department
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