Movement exploration - Week 1
Early Stage 1
Equipment
marker cones
bean bag
20 hula hoops
Download the Week 1 Movement exploration games task card to support teaching before and during the sport session.
FMS focus: Static balance
Learning intention
Students are developing proficiency in the static balance.
Success criteria.
Student has:
Support leg still, foot flat on the ground.
Non-support leg bent, not touching the support leg.
Head stable, eyes focused forward.
Trunk stable and upright.
No excessive arm movements.
Explicit teaching of the static balance
About the skill
Balance is an essential prerequisite of almost all movement skills. A static balance is defined as being able to maintain a stationary position throughout the movement. The static balance on one foot is an important non locomotor skill that is used in gymnastics, dance, diving and many team sports.
View 'The Get Skilled Get Active - Static balance video' to support the explicit teaching of the static balance.
Model the skill
Model the static balance to students while explaining the components needed to effectively balance.
Say to the students:
Stand still with your foot flat on the ground.
Hold your bent leg away from your other leg.
Look at something in front of you.
Stand up tall when you balance.
Relax your arms.
Guided practice
Ask students to talk about what is needed for good balance. Discussion should centre around the components of the balance.
Students stand with one foot in front of the other, the heel of one foot touching the toe of the other.
Ask students to:
hold arms out to the side
place hands on hips
balance a bean bag on their head
repeat these activities on the other leg.
Ask students to identify which leg provides the best base for a balance: which is the preferred leg?
Students stand on the preferred leg and position the non support leg:
behind preferred leg
near preferred leg
high above preferred leg.
Ask students which position they feel most comfortable with.
Skill development games
Choosing teams
In a sport education approach, affiliation is promoted by students being a member of the same team over a period of time. It is intended that students remain in these teams for the duration of each sport program for the skill development and the modified small-sided games, so that they can develop and learn together.
Place students in equal teams, 4 teams is optimal, at the beginning of the skill development session. Strategies for forming groups can be found in the Game-based learning in sport and physical activity e-learning course.
To further promote affiliation students can decide on a team name.
FMS focus activity - Frozen tag
FMS focus: Static balance
Equipment: Marker cones for playing area, bibs for taggers
How to play: One or two taggers try to tag other players, who must hold a static balance for five seconds.
On teacher's signal, one or two taggers try to tag other players.
Once tagged, a player must hold the particular static pose that you call out.
To become free, they must hold this position for 5 seconds.
Static holds could include front support, rear support, stork stand, crab support, straddle stand.
FMS consolidation activity - Vertical jump
FMS: Vertical jump
Equipment: A 10m x 10m square marked out by 4 cones (the pond), hoops to be used as lily pads
How to play: Players continuously jump from lily pad to lily pad using a two‑foot takeoff and landing technique.
Randomly distribute the hoops inside the pond, making sure they are not too far away from each other (i.e. jumping distance).
Players jump from lily pad to lily pad and see how many they can land on in a given amount of time (e.g. 60 seconds).
If there is more than one frog on the lily pad, it will sink. If a player jumps onto a lily pad with another player already on it, the original player must immediately find another lily pad to jump onto.
Players may jump into the pond as well as onto the lily pads.
Modified small-sided games
It's game time!
Teams play each other in the game outlined below.
Hoop races
Skill focus: Balance and teamwork
Equipment: 1 hula hoop per group
How to play: Players in groups race each other by passing a hoop up and down their line while making up and down noises.
In groups, players form a line, one behind the other approximately 1 metre apart.
The first player in the line steps into the hoop, takes it over their head and then passes it to the next person at head height.
The next player takes it over their head, lowers the hoop, steps through it and passes it to the next player.
Each group agrees on an ‘up noise’ and a ‘down noise’ and makes these noises as the hoop travels up and down.
This pattern continues until the hoop reaches the end of the line.
The end player runs to the beginning of the line and starts again.
Play until the original leader is back at the front of the line.
Teams indicate they are finished by each member performing a static balance.
Reflection
2 stars and a wish
Ask students - what are 2 things you feel you did well today?
What are you going to try and improve on next week?
Students can answer reflection questions as a whole class, small group or in pairs.
