Interdisciplinarity session I

Following with the ideas of the previous post, the next practical class was devoted to showing us some ways to promote the development of the basic motor skills.

In this case the one which we wanted to put into practice was throwing. As I already said, competition is not the best way to mature the skills but there are other ways to do it as we saw in that class. The activities we performed were not based on competition but, surprisingly, were very fun as well because they were challenges. Sometimes these challenges required the commitment of the two members of the couple and other times the aim was beating yourself. I like this idea because practicing physical activity do not always mean having company and through this activities children can appreciate also the benefits of doing things alone. In addition, the fact that children are playing on their own implies that they have to put their own limits and control their strength (which is one of the main objectives of PE in primary education).

                 

In order to do the throwing session we played with shuttlecocks. As I see it, the choice of the material was very important. First of all, it has to be appropriate for the kind of activity we want to perform. In the case of throwing a rope would not have been suitable. Then, we should choose from those materials which can be used, the one which fits better with the kind of activity we want to carry out. For example, throwing can be performed with several materials such as: balls, shuttlecocks, javelins, hammers, medicine balls... but taking into account the purposes of the activities and the duration of them, for instance, medicine balls would have been exhausting for pupils and pointless for the real aim of the session. On the other hand, shuttlecocks were appropriate since they were light enough to pay attention to the movement itself instead of the effort it required throwing them. Moreover, shuttlecocks have the advantage of not rolling when they are on the floor. As a result, we spent half of the class practicing lots of throws and enjoying without the need of competing.

                  

In the second part of the class we started presenting the interdisciplinarity activities and in this occasion, we prepared an Egyptian dance. Through this activity we highlighted again the fact that activities in physical education should be focused on the practice. Therefore, preparing a dance is a good chance for children to express themselves (one of the content blocks) and also to repeat and practice movements while doing rehearsals. Therefore, the best way to do this activity would have been letting pupils dance and practice many times instead of explaining the choreography in a "theoretical" way.