1st Assignment, Summary of Chapters 1-3



Chapters one through three give you a lot of information about a lot of different things. The chapters tell you as a teacher how to assess, improve, and educate children on ways to be healthier.  One thing that is talked about a lot in the chapters is the fact that not all children are at the same level of fitness.  There are standards that people are measured by to establish ones appropriate body weight. They are developed by factoring in ones height, age and weight. In chapter one the book mentions how much obesity has become a problem.  According to the book, "today, almost 25% of children are considered to be overweight or obese, up from just 11% a decade ago."  As you can see this is a serious issue that we all need to work on, adults and teens, not only children.  One way that we can decrease these numbers are to watch what we eat and get out there and play. Below is a diagram of the food pyramid that will show you what you should eat in order to maintain a balanced diet. 



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The other chapters explain to you what things to expect children to be able to do at their age.  An example of this would be that children that are 4 years old should be able to skip by using one foot.  Children that are 17 months old are supposed to be able to walk backwards.  In chapter two it gives a lot of examples of fundamentals that children of certain age groups should be able to do to be considered on track.  These are a few examples of motor development skills that children at their ages should be able to demonstrate.  Chapter three shows some of the fundamental movement skills that are needed for certain sport themed skills.  The chart that they give is great because it maps out the stability, locomotor, and manipulative movement skills that most sports have.  The book gives you guidelines of things that you as a physical education teacher should be looking for and focusing on.  A few other websites to check out that can help you with helping to teach these development skills would be http://www.ncemch.org/ and http://www.nichd.nih.gov/ .