The USD 475 Physical Education department uses the Physical Essentials Curriculum. Physical Essentials is an elementary education curriculum designed to provide children with the knowledge and skills to be physically active and to enjoy a healthy life.  All Elementary Schools in USD 475 use the Prudential FITNESSGRAM to evaluate if students (grades 3 – 5) are within the healthy fitness zone.  This fitness testing is done in conjunction with the Physical Essentials curriculum.

Physical Essentials Curriculum
Program Overview                                                  Goals & Objectives

Program Overview:

Physical Essentials is an elementary education curriculum designed to provide children with the knowledge and skills to be physically active and to enjoy a healthy life.  Activities outlined in the Physical Essentials Curriculum are varied and challenging, and presented as a means to the greater goal of developing lifelong movers.  Students discover not only the inherent joy of movement, but the relationship of movement to other areas of human functioning.  In learning these simple skills, they also learn about themselves -- their abilities and limitations, boundaries and responsibilities.  Through Physical Essentials, children take the first step toward becoming truly "physically educated," and with it, the first step toward realizing their own potential.

The Physical Essentials curriculum is written with the consideration that healthy children are continually "under construction."  Physical Essentials is the foundation for the Physical Focus (middle) and the Physical Dimensions (secondary) programs.

The curriculum is illustrated through three developmental levels.  The Primary level (K-1) is known as Shining Stars.  The Intermediate Elementary (2-3) level is known as the Shooting Stars.  The Advanced level (4-5) is known as the All Stars.  For each level, 150 daily lessons plus an additional week of special events are planned.  The curriculum is progressive in four ways.
                -Throughout the single lesson.
                -From lesson from lesson.
                -Within the units.
                -From the Primary Curriculum through the Advanced Elementary Curriculum.

Physical Essentials was created by Dr. Joella Mehrhof and Dr. Kathy Ermler and is sponsored by The Kansas Health Foundation.  Dr. Mehrhof and Dr. Ermler are both professors at Emporia State University.  Teachers teaching this program have completed an extensive training course in the Physical Essentials curriculum.  

The mission of Physical Essentials is to provide all students with the opportunity of learning to move, moving to learn, and experiencing the joy of movement.

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