PE - Grade 4

Students must keep a log of physical fitness activities being completed at home. Students can email me what activities they have completed.

Example activities: walking , running, biking, aerobics, strength training, dancing, soccer, baseball, etc...anything you are doing to stay active.

Whole-body, equipment-free workout:

The benefits of this first one, requiring no equipment, include “increasing heart rate, improving circulation, stimulating mental focus, boosting metabolism and fat burning, increasing the after burn, improved muscle and cardiovascular endurance and stretching, as well as a strengthening benefit for beginners,”

Warm-up: Two minutes, walking up and down stairs or stepping up and down on a single step with five-pound weights in each hand (soup cans or bags of rocks could work)

Click on underlined activity for a complete description of the exercise

Exercises: 20 reps each:

Squats

Split squats (one leg in front of the other)

Push-ups (alternatively: on your knees)

Dips (use a chair)

Plank while tapping alternate knees to floor

Bicycle crunch

Straight-leg sit-ups

Mountain climbers (like lunges from a plank position)

Cool-down: Two minutes of active stretching, including downward dog to child’s pose, and/or alternating leg lunges with overhead reach-behind

The Basics

In some ways soccer is a fairly simple or pure game. The primary rule is that players cannot touch the ball with their hands or arms while the ball is in play. The exception to this rule is the goalie. The goalie is a designated player whose main job is to protect the goal from the opponents. The goalie is the last line of defense and can catch or touch the soccer ball with their hands. Players also cannot tackle, push, hit, or knockdown their opponents.

The typical game play in soccer involves one team that has possession of the ball dribbling the ball and passing it amongst themselves to try and get to where they can kick or head the ball into the goal. The other team is constantly trying to take the ball away. The possession of the ball can change quite often throughout the game.

Each soccer team has eleven players including the goalie. The winner at the end of the designated time is the team with the most goals. Each goal counts for one point. If there is a tie, there may be an overtime or there may a shootout to determine the winner.

Soccer Players

Of the eleven players on a team, only the goalkeeper is a player position by rule. One player must be designated the goalkeeper and this player can touch the ball with their hands when inside the goalies' box. All of the other players have the same position by rule. However, there are usually assigned roles and field positions to allow for team strategy. Typically there will be soccer players called forwards whose main object is to attack the opponent's goal and try to score goals. Then there are defenders who hang back toward their own goal to help the goalie defend. Also, there are mid-fielders who drop back on defense or help out on offense depending on the game situation.

Soccer players are usually fast, skilled, and in great shape. The game of soccer is physically demanding and requires good endurance.