Movement exploration - Week 4

Early Stage 1

Equipment

marker cones

bean bag, ball or skittle

15 hoops

Download the Week 4 Movement exploration games task card to support teaching before and during the sport session.

FMS focus: Vertical jump

Learning intention

Students are developing proficiency in the vertical jump.

Success criteria.

Student:

Eyes focused forward or upward throughout the jump.
Crouches with knees bent and arms behind the body.
Forceful forward and upward swing of the arms.
Legs straighten in the air.
Lands on balls of the feet and bends knees to absorb landing.
Displays a controlled landing with no more than one step in any direction.

Explicit teaching of the vertical jump

About the skill

The vertical jump is a locomotor skill that involves being able to jump as high as possible. It is the basis for jumps used in gymnastics, some forms of dance and a range of sports, such as basketball, volleyball and Australian Rules Football. It is similar to the standing broad jump in terms of its phases, components and preparation and landing.

View 'The Get Skilled Get Active - 'Vertical jump video' to support the explicit teaching of the vertical jump.

Model the skill

Model the vertical jump to students while explaining the components needed to effectively jump.

Say to the students:

Look up.
Focus your eyes on where you want to go.
Get ready to explode up high, get ready to take off.
Swing your arms back and up.
Straighten your legs when in the air.
Bend your knees on landing.
Control your body and balance yourself when landing.
Land with feet the width of your shoulders apart.

Guided practice

Demonstrate the bend and crouch starting position, using verbal cues such as “swing your arms back and up.”

Ask students to jump:

as high as they can with their head and eyes turned upwards
looking straight ahead
with their head and eyes looking down at the ground.

Activity - Marker jump

Students work in pairs with six markers. The students take turns to arrange a jumping path for their partner. Students set up their markers so that their partner jumps in different directions and over different distances. Swap roles.

Skill development games

FMS focus activity - Frogs and lily pads

FMS focus: 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..

Playing for life activity card - Frogs and lily pads

Playing for life - Pirate's gold

FMS consolidation activity - Pirate's gold

FMS: Sprint run

Equipment: An item that can be used as the gold (e.g. a bean bag, ball or skittle)

How to play: The pirate’s crew try to steal the gold from the pirate and make it home without being tagged.

One player, the pirate, stands with their back to the group (the pirate’s crew). The gold is placed on the ground 1 metre behind the pirate.
The pirate’s crew line up across the starting line, 15 metres behind the pirate.
When the pirate’s back is turned, the pirate’s crew approach the gold.
When the pirate turns around, the pirate’s crew must freeze. If the pirate sees any of the crew moving, they call out their names. These crew members return to the starting line, and begin again.
When the pirate turns back around, the game continues.
The first crew member to reach the gold picks it up and tries to run back to the starting line before being tagged by the pirate.
Swap pirates after each game.

Modified small-sided games

It's game time!

Teams play each other in the game outlined below.

Stone, bridge and tree relay

Skill focus: Balance, vertical jump and sprint run

Equipment: Music, designated playing area

How to play: A relay race using various static and movements skills.

Teams of 6–8 players line up behind their starting cones.
When you say ’GO!’, the first player runs out to their first cone and forms a stone.
The second player jumps over the ‘stone’, and then runs to the second cone to form a bridge.
The third player jumps over the ‘stone’, crawls under the ‘bridge’, and then runs to the third cone to form a tree.
The fourth player jumps over the ‘stone’, crawls under the ‘bridge’, runs around the ‘tree’ and back to take the place of the ‘stone’. The ‘stone’ takes the place of the ‘bridge’. The‘bridge’ then takes the place of the ‘tree’, who then runs to the end of the line.
The game finishes when all players have had a turn at each of the positions.