Kindergarten - Physical Education

Overview

Kindergarten students in SFUSD engage in 100 minutes of weekly physical education instruction provided by a credentialed teacher.  This may look like three 35-minute classes per week or five 20-minute classes per week. While lesson structures vary, the overall design of the units remains consistent. Physical Education units prioritize maximum student engagement, motor skill and movement pattern development, creativity and exploration of movement, positive social interactions with peers, growth mindset skills, and development of physical literacy.

yellow k with a blue circle

PHYSICAL EDUCATION - 100 MINS PER WEEK
2 x 35-minute classes per week
+
1 x 30-minute class per week		 5 x 20-minute classes per week
 

Priority Standards

What students will know, what students will do, and what thinking skills students will develop to apply and transfer Physical Education understandings that endure within the discipline, leverage deeper understandings, and/or support readiness for success at the next grade level. 

In Kindergarten, focus on these critical areas:

Two smiling kindergarteners playing catch

Motor Competency

  • Traveling safely with a large group without bumping into others or falling 
  • Tossing a ball to oneself using the underhand throwing pattern and catching it 
  • Bouncing a ball continuously using two hands
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Five kindergarten students playing in gym

Making Meaning

  • Identifying the locomotor skills of walking, jogging, running, hopping, jumping, skipping, sliding, and galloping
  • Identifying specific body parts involved when stretching
  • Explaining that the heart beats faster or slower based on movement speed
Circle of kindergarteners lying on the grass

Social Responsibility

  • Using encouraging, kind, and positive language with others
  • Taking turns and sharing
  • Resolving conflicts appropriately by problem-solving 

Instruction: Signature Elements

Below are signature elements of SFUSD Physical Education instruction that students should experience regularly throughout Kindergarten as they develop personal physical literacy.

Kindergarten students navigating obstacle course

Creativity and Exploration of Movement

It is vital for Kindergarteners to be able to express their creativity and explore movement in order to become competent in motor skills. Give students a multitude of opportunities to create and explore movement by demonstrating various speeds, levels, shapes, rhythmic movements, and manipulatives.

Example of Growth Mindset Lesson

Growth Mindset

Kindergarteners will experience Physical Education lessons that embed growth mindset strategies and language.  Students will experience successes and failures guiding them to make meaning that we learn through failures and mistakes.  Students will experience language through positive self-talk, exhibiting kind words towards others, and using the power of “yet.”

Chart modeling four animal walks: frog jump, crab walk, bear walk, and kangaroo jump

Thematic-based Lessons

Kindergarteners will experience thematic-based lessons that focus on specific themes to integrate learning. Thematic-based lessons foster and bolster students’ imagination, creativity, self-awareness, relatability, and cooperation with others.

Materials

Beginning of the Year Self-Checklist for K-5 Classroom Teachers 
The intent of this Self-Checklist is to uplift basic Physical Education building blocks that every K-5 teacher ought to know.

 

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Units
  Unit Resources Description
Unit Zero - Kindergarten Physical Education Which PE lesson are you going to teach on the 1st day? Start the school year off by establishing a positive PE classroom environment. Unit Zero provides 3-weeks of lessons that focus on student connections, a sense of self, identity, and a sense of community.  What to teach after these lessons? Contact your PE Specialist and make a plan. 
District Physical Education Curriculum: Grade - Kindergarten 
 		 SFUSD’s district-adopted Physical Education Curriculum is intended for K-5 Classroom Teachers.  In Kindergarten this standards-based curriculum (CA State PE Standards) focuses on motor skills, cognitive concepts, cooperative activities, exploration, and thematic-based lessons.
OPEN Physical Education Curriculum by US Games OPEN Physical Education Curriculum is written by and for Physical Educators across the nation.  This standards-based curriculum (National SHAPE America Standards) clusters grades K-2 lesson activities together.

 

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Planning Guide
1st Trimester 2nd Trimester 3rd Trimester

Focus on locomotor skills and rolling

  • 1.1 Travels safely within a large group while performing various locomotor skills
  • 2.5 Identifies locomotor skills

Focus on bouncing, jump rope, & fitness concepts

  • 1.15 Bounces a ball continuously, using two hands at the same time
  • 4.9 Identifies body parts involved while stretching

Focus on throwing and catching

  • 1.13 Tosses a ball to one's self, using an underhand throwing pattern, and catching it

Report Card Materials - Physical Education
Kindergarten report card expectations, lessons, and assessment tools for Physical Education.

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Reflection Questions

  1. How are students' developmental needs, communities, and experiences being reflected and honored, or how could they be?
  2. What opportunities do you see for developing equitable access & demand, inquiry, collaboration, and assessment for learning?
  3. What are the implications for your own practice? What strengths can you build upon? What will you do first?

This page was last updated on September 1, 2022