Eighth Grade Physical Education

Course Outline  

• Units are cycled through multiple times throughout the school year allowing for skills to be refined, progressed, and combined with other skills to help the scholar develop their motor and manipulative skills to the best of their ability. 

Unit 1: How My Body Moves  

Movements/Skills:  

• Demonstrate competency in locomotor skills as applied to small group games (i.e., 3-5 players), such as basketball, fag football, and speedball. 
• Demonstrate correct rhythm and patterns for a dance form (e.g., folk, social, creative, line or world dance). 
• Differentiate between skill-related and health-related fitness. 

Unit 2: Balance 

Movements/Skills:  

• Demonstrate individual strategies in a small group setting in both defensive and offensive situations to create or deny open space. 
• Reduce open space on defense, by making the body larger and reducing the passing angles. 
• Explain the role of warm-up and cool-down before and after physical activity. 
• Design and implement a program of remediation for any area of weak- ness based on results of health-related fitness assessment. 

Unit 3: Throwing and Catching 

Movements/Skills:  

• Catch a variety of objects from different trajectories, using varying practice tasks. 
• Execute consistently (i.e., 70% of the time) a well-developed underhand pattern for target games such as bowling, bocci, or horseshoes. 
• Select food within each of the basic food groups and select appropriate servings and portions for age and physical activity level. 
• Identify positive and negative results from stress and appropriate ways of dealing with each. 

Unit 4: Dribbling 

Movement/Skills: 

• Combine movement with manipulative skills to reach a target and score a goal (e.g., soccer, hockey, basketball). 
• Dribble with the dominant hand, using a change of speed and direction in a variety of practice tasks. 
• Complete a variety of practice tasks; dribble with control, changing speed and direction. 
• Pass and receive with the feet, using a well-developed pattern in a small group activity. 
• Demonstrate a complete skill by dribbling and shooting on goal with power in a game setting. 

Unit 5: Volleying and Striking 

Movements/Skills: 

• Demonstrate a well-developed form of the overhead volley through implementation in a game setting. 
• Apply speed, direction, and force using a long-handled implement, sending it toward a specific target area while in motion. 
• Describe how being physically active leads to a healthy body. 

Unit 6: Sprints and Change of Direction 

Movements/Skills: 

• Create an open space by using locomotor movement and change of speed and direction during activity. 
• Execute an offensive tactic, such as pivots, fakes, or change of direction away from the ball, to create open space. 
• Understand that personal challenges can be positive, and reaction can build personal satisfaction through acceptance of feedback, extending efort, and not being afraid to ask for help. 

Unit 7: Jumping 

Movements/Skills: 

• Create a jump rope routine with repeated patterns and combinations of movement. 
• Record daily activity and identify benefits gained. Describe how being physically active leads to a healthy body. 
• Identify why physical activity participation reduces stress and promotes positive social interaction. 
• Describe how participation in a physical activity creates enjoyment. 

Coming soon.

No texts are required for this course.