As part of our PYP PE strand of individual pursuits, P3 to P5 students explored the five skill related fitness components under the transdisciplinary theme of ‘How we organize ourselves.’ Here we see the MIS Definition of Learning in action as learning was applicable and contextual –studentshad to apply knowledge and transfer new skills learned in the ‘classroom’ to a new context: inter-house fitness challenge.
Students developed their understanding of the five fitness components through a range of PE learning engagements which included interactive games and adapted fitness tests to assess speed, power, agility, coordination, and reaction time. In the fitness tests, students had the opportunity to self-assess their abilities, record their results, and reflect on their performance. For the summative assessment, students had to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in a virtual inter-house competition that consisted of five fitness challenges: rope skipping, sit ups, standing broad jump, hexagon agility test, and the low plank hold.
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Students were required to be risk takers and had to complete a minimum of three fitness challenges in order to score points for their house team – some students wanted to challenge themselves and participate in all five events! The week prior to the competition, students had an opportunity to practise all five events and then choose which challenges they wanted to do during the week of the virtual competition. They had to apply thinking and self-management skills to organize their time and equipment to practice.
During the week of the actual competition, students were required to use their tech skills to video record their performance in each event from start to finish, label their video correctly, and upload their video evidence on Seesaw. At the end of the week, the video evidence was reviewed to verify individual results and the final team scores were as follows:
| Agni | Jal | Prithvi | Vayu | |
| P3 | 132 | 177 | 135 | 48 |
| P4 | 106 | 193 | 180 | 97 |
| P5 | 100 | 112 | 39 | 30 |
| Total score | 338(3) | 482 (1) | 354 (2) | 175 (4) |
All students that participated in the inter-house fitness challenge received a certificate of recognition for their participation. The certificates were shared with students on the Seesaw platform. Students are encouraged to stay physically active as much as they can because our next virtual sports challenge will be in the month of March.
Fernando Beukes (Primary School PE teacher)
Works Cited
Mahindra International School. 2018. “Definition of learning.” Definition of Learning. Pune: Mahindra International School, May 2018. PDF.
IBO. 2018. “Approaches to learning.” Learning and Teaching. Cardiff, Wales. International Baccalaureate Organization.
IBO. 2009. Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education. Cardiff, Wales. International Baccalaureate Organization.
