Leaping, Jumping, Sliding

For lab today, we observed little stevie who was a boy, the age of 4 in pre-kindergarten. Also, we observed little suzie who was a girl, also the age of 4 and in pre-kindergarten. The skills that were focused on were leaping, jumping horizontally and sliding. For the leap, little stevie could really only get his feet off the ground, whereas little suzie could take off on one foot and land on the other and a period where she had both feet off the ground. Neither stevie or suzie were reaching forward with opposite arm. For the horizontal jumping, stevie did quite well but was unable to extend arms forcefully reaching for full extension. However, he was able to flex arms and knees with arms behind him in the preparatory phase; he could take off and land on both feet and arm were brought down during landing. The only thing suzie was able to do was take off and land on both feet at the same time. She did not show any other characteristics the way stevie had. Sliding was our last skill where stevie was able to complete all the criteria. He was able to turn his body sideways to the direction he was going; he also slid his foot after stepping; both of his feet were off the floor and he could slide right to left. Suzie was not as coordinated as stevie at this skill. She was able to turn her body sideways and both feet were off the ground at some point. She could not slide trailing foot or slide to both left and right.

This lab demonstrated to me how children develop differently. I realized that as a physical educator, that I have to be able to adapt to each individual's abilities and to have a positive impact in their development. I should be prepared to work with all children on advancing their capabilities to help them advance. Creating and incorporating games that do not single out individual skills would be positive at this age so that everyone is working at their own individual pace while still having fun and keeping interest