Rae Pica 
Early Elementary Children Moving and Learning [EPUB ebook] 
A Physical Education Curriculum

Table of Contents

Curriculum Connectors Chart

Song List

Preface

Introduction

Benefits of Moving & Learning

Implementing the Program

Early Elementary Children: Developmental Considerations

Unit 1 Openers and Closers

This section consists of the “quieter” activities—those involving isolated body parts, such as the hands, face, arms, or legs, and specific relaxation exercises. Choose these activities to psychologically and physically prepare your students to begin or end their movement classes—or any time a less vigorous activity is called for.

Unit 2 Basic Movement

These activities explore the fundamental locomotor and nonlocomotor skills and the movement elements of space, shape, time, force, and flow. They form the foundation of a child-centered physical education program and provide the basic knowledge essential to the next three categories.

Unit 3 Cooperative Activities

The activities in this section serve three purposes: 1) They offer the students opportunities to work cooperatively with partners and in small and large groups. 2) They provide greater challenge, beyond what the children experience in Unit 2. 3) These activities can physically and emotionally prepare the students to successfully work together in those educational gymnastics and rhythm and dance activities requiring participation in pairs or groups.

Unit 4 Educational Gymnastics

Included in this section are activities related to the gymnastic skills of transferring weight, rolling, and balancing. The exploration of combinations of locomotor and nonlocomotor skills are also included in this unit, as gymnastics typically involves the sequencing of movement skills.

Unit 5 Rhythm and Dance

The movement element of rhythm, the musical concepts of beat and meter, and the qualities of swinging, sustained, suspended, percussive, vibratory, and collapsing movement are explored in this unit. The Statues activities offer students the opportunity to improvise and express themselves to a variety of music, and the Movement Words activities provide a chance for students to perform combinations of skills in interpretive and expressive ways. All of the activities in this unit prepare children for dance experiences in the upper elementary grades.

References

Additional Resources

Rae Pica: Rae Pica has been an early childhood education consultant, specializing in children’s physical activity, since 1980. She is cofounder of the BAM! Radio Network, the world’s largest online education radio network, and host of Educators Radio programs
Body, Mind, and Child and
Teacher’s Aid, for which she interviews experts in education, child development, play research, the neurosciences, and more, on a wide variety of topics. Rae is the founder and director of Moving and Learning, a company offering services and materials related to physical activity for children from birth to age eight. A former adjunct instructor with the University of New Hampshire, she is the author of many books for early childhood professionals and parents. Rae has shared her expertise with such groups as the
Sesame Street Research Department, the Head Start Bureau, Centers for Disease Control, the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, Nickelodeon’s
Blue’s Clues, Gymboree, and state health departments throughout the country. Rae also served on the task force of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) that created national guidelines for early childhood physical activity, is a member of several advisory boards, and serves on the executive committee of the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences International.