Physical Education Session Planning and Activities

Posted on Dec 7, 2024 in Physical Education

Physicochemical Organization of Session Contents

The physicochemical organization of the contents implies that a session must maintain an internal logic among its contents.

The session finds all its meaning within the didactic unit. Changing the first session for the last within the didactic unit would break all the organization and would lead to not achieving the objectives of the didactic unit.
The session must equally respect an internal structure that gives logic to itself. In the same way, it is not the same to change a session in the didactic unit, as it is to change the order in which the exercises are presented within the session.

Depending on the purpose that the session fulfills within the didactic unit:

Introductory sessions: Introduce the student to the didactic unit. Their intention consists of making contact and putting the student into the activity of the didactic unit.
Development sessions: The development sessions are the center of interest of the didactic unit.
Evaluation sessions: Initial evaluation sessions include the student. Those that evaluate the final level reached in the unit are normally located at the end of them.

Depending on the student organization in the tasks:

Massive sessions: Each student performs the tasks individually and simultaneously. The professional consecutively marks the transition between them.
Circuit sessions: Sessions organized by stations.
Sessions by subgroups: Students are divided into subgroups according to varied criteria (level of physical fitness, etc.).
Sessions of combined organization: The organization varies from one part to another. For example, using a massive organization in the warm-up and a circuit in the main part.

Considerations in Physical Education Session Planning

Useful time of student participation in motor tasks: Variable type, around 70-80% of the total session time spent on the task.
Time distribution of different parts in the session structure: The structure depends on the session. Traditional structure: warm-up 10-15 minutes, main part 30-35 minutes, cool-down 5-10 minutes.
Progression in organizational structure: Schedule simple tasks with increasing organizational complexity. For example, from individuals to couples, to groups of four, etc. This is not always possible.
Progression in the implication of motor and cognitive tasks: Propose tasks that introduce students to the active principle progressively so that the student is immersed in the highest activity without risk of failure.
Individualizations in complex tasks or for special students: Propose amendments and variations in difficulty level to solve problems during the interactive stage of the session.
Take into account the significance and utility of tasks for the student and think about promoting autonomy: The tasks of a session should be significant for the student and gradually increase autonomous work.
Do not fall into a lack of continuity or excessive variation of tasks and objectives: Introduce variants, games, and new elements, but do not vary the task so much that the class becomes disjointed.
Preparation of materials and special resources: Prepare unconventional materials for each class. For example, when using design sheets for tasks with the students in a specific session.
General consistency with all our planning: The tasks of a session must be in connection with the objectives, with the teaching technique, with the proposed styles, and in general, with our teaching philosophy marked in the didactic programming guidelines and in the annual schedule of the classroom.

Expression and Communication

The body and movement are ways of buffering body expression: body language, mime, dance, and dramatic expression.

Body Expression: Language manifests and is perceived on several levels, as does the integration of the physical, emotional, social, and cognitive aspects of a person. There are various degrees of proficiency and appropriate gestures. Spoken words can be used as an auxiliary to capture nuances and enrich body expression. Its particular objective is to provide students with basic expressive resources.
Mime: Mime, or corporeal mime, is a type of dramatic theater. Mime is a type of communication with a specific code. When we teach, we must teach children that code.
Dramatization: This implies greater complexity. It can be a verbal expression or an expression made up of a composition or assembly with a basic structure: beginning, development, and conclusion. It is a step beyond expression.
Dance: Dance is the execution of dance movements to music using the body, arms, and legs. Dance decodes the plastic elements of utilitarian movements and combines them into a coherent and dynamic composition. Types include collective dance, contemporary dance, and creative dance.

Image and Perception

The perceptual-motor and cognitive processing of human movement encompasses the following processes:

Self-knowledge means discovering one’s own body as a recognized whole.
The relationship with the environment involves environmental objectives and people relating to the child’s corporeality, interacting and communicating.

Basic Objectives of the Perceptual-Motor Area

Interact, recognize, and communicate the contents of perceptual-motor skills, body perception, spatial perception, and temporal perception.

Psychomotor Profile

A set of tests to test the psychomotor development of the child. Tests include: general dynamic coordination, dynamic coordination of the hands, balance, speed of segmental movements, organization of space, and spatial structuring.

Simulation Games

Their mission is for students to reproduce, imitate, or attempt to modify life situations in their natural, social environment, etc., to identify and represent characters or assume interpretive schemes of the behavior of such characters.

Traditional or Indigenous Games

Their mission is to have a common pool of games that are part of the cultural assets and have a direct link to the knowledge of the natural, social, and cultural environment.