Grade 3 Body Systems

Central Idea:

• The interactions between human body systems contribute to personal well-being

 

Learner Outcomes:

• Active Living:

  • Identify new capabilities and other benefits that may result from improved cardiovascular fitness

  • Begin to understand that there are substances that can cause harm to health

  • Describe and act on personal goals related to physical activity during exercise

  • Assess their degree of physical exertion during cardiorespiratory fitness using simple self-assessment methods

  • Explain how the body’s capacity for movement develops as it grows in relation to the body systems

• Identity:

  • Explain how a person’s identity is made up of many different things

​

Learner Profile:

• Inquirer

• Knowledgeable

​

Attitudes:

• Enthusiasm

​

Approaches to Learning:

• Research:

  • Formulating questions​

  • Collecting data

  • Organizing data

  • Recording data

• Self-Management:

  • Healthy lifestyle​

​

Lesson 1:

• This unit was a fully integrated unit with grade 3. The homerooms and I met and unpacked the unit together over a couple of hours and were in contact regularly throughout the unit. Furthermore, since the school has a Seesaw for Schools account, I could easily see what the students were doing in the homerooms as well.

• To start of this unit I used the great assessment tool called Plickers to gauge student’s knowledge of Body Systems. In grade 2, students did a Body Systems unit as well, both in the homeroom and PE as a collaborative unit. Therefore, I wanted to investigate their prior knowledge.

• I asked the following questions with the results of the pre-assessment sent to the homerooms to help with their planning as well:

  1. ​What do you think we will learn in our Body Systems unit?

  2. What body system is the heart part of?

  3. What system are the lungs part of?

  4. What system is this showing? (Refer to anatomy image shown to the right)

  5. One of the main purposes of the skeletal system is to support the structure of the body. True or false?

  6. What is included in the nervous system?

  7. Choose the answer that best represents what happens to our body systems when we exercise.

  8. Food contains energy? True or false.

  9. How do we measure the energy content of food?

  10. What does this represent? (Refer to MyPlate image to the right)

• When designing the questions, I referred to the current unit’s Lines of Inquiry and PE learner outcomes. Overall, the class results were quite impressive, ranging between 85-98%. However, these results need to be taken as a guideline rather than a true representation of their knowledge as there was a fair bit of “collaboration” within the class.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Afterwards, we engaged in team Stuck in the Mud:

• • ​Break class up into 4 teams.

  • One team are the catchers, others run away.

  • Once caught by the catchers, the person is stuck – arms out stretched to the side, legs apart.

  • Only people on the same team can rescue their teammate.

  • ​To free a teammate, the rescuer needs to crawl underneath their legs.

• I wanted to emphasize the learner profiles of the unit: Inquirer and Knowledgeable. Therefore, after each game, I asked the class if anyone had any questions about the unit. Some questions were:

  • ​Why does our heart beat faster when running?

  • How can we get stronger?

  • Why are some people bigger than other people?

  • ​How can we be better at Stuck in the Mud?​

• I then asked the class if anyone wants to try and be knowledgeable and share their knowledge with the class.

• Following this format, I am merely a facilitator or learning, rather than a direct teacher. But, obviously, I am there to correct any misinformation the students would be sharing. However, I do applaud their confidence to share their learning, correct or not. This type of questioning procedure is something I am trying to utilize more often in my lessons.

​

Lesson 2:

• Considering this is a collaborative unit, I did not need to spend a lot of time unpacking the central idea. But discussed with the homeroom, we agreed that for this unit I would not focus on the function of each body system – the anatomy side of things. But rather, I would teach the students how to keep the systems healthy and how they could promote their knowledge to others.

• Therefore, in this unit, the following was planned to happen:

  • ​Fitness test on 3 areas of fitness: cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance and flexibility

  • Set goals for each of these areas

  • Teach the students exercises for each of these areas

  • Create an exercise program

  • Train a partner and a family member

  • For the PE outcome regarding “substances that can cause harm to health”, I will primarily focus on sugar.

  • Throughout the unit, the kids will use the following “Approaches to Learning Skills” under the Research branch:

    • ​Collecting data:

      • ​Choosing exercises appropriate for their program

    • Organizing data:

      • Creating the fitness test results table

      • ​Creating the table for their exercise program

    • Recording data:

      • ​Fitness test results

      • Sets and reps completed by the person the students train

• The students will have their iPads with them for every class in this unit.

• The fitness test consisted of the following tests:

  • ​6 min run – count the number of laps completed around a basketball court

  • 1 min sit-up test – arms on the chest

  • Sit and Reach

• To help the kids learn how to organize tables, I projected the table below onto the whiteboard. They needed to work out how to create this table in Pages using their iPads and copy the information down in preparation for their fitness test.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Once this was done, we undertook the fitness tests and students filled in the results as they progressed.

​

Lesson 3:

• Prior to the start of the lesson I uploaded the first 10 minute challenge onto Seesaw. The challenge consists of a selection of 4 exercises that should take them less than 10 minutes to complete.

• Afterwards, we discussed the following question, “Why did we do a fitness test?” Then I asked, “What was it assessing?”

• We then opened up their fitness test results and filled in the goal section of the results and uploaded them onto Seesaw.

• Next, I took them through their first hit of cardiovascular fitness: Footy Drops. I named the exercise this because I first encountered it when I interned at a rugby league club. You can see the workout below (Note: The girls were supposed to get the chest to the ground but they did well nevertheless). We did 5 sets, roughly a 1:1 work to rest ratio of 30s. (Apologies, currently this video can only be played on desktops)

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• Our next exercise was 5 minutes of a 3 level run – 30s intervals. I announce 1, 2 or 3 with each number indicating a different level of intensity. 1 = walk, 2 = jog, 3 = run/sprint.

​

Lesson 4:

• Started the lesson with their second 10 minute challenge.

• Afterwards, I introduced their Body Systems tool box where we will gradually add on different exercises to the different areas of fitness as the unit progresses. They can use this poster to help design their exercise programs.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• I then airdropped their training logs. Here, they record any exercise they do, may it be at home or at school. Click on the link to access the log.

• We went through the meaning of muscular endurance – how long the muscles can keep contracting and extending for. Their first exercise to try was Tuck-Ups, 3 sets, 6 reps.

• I did want to introduce them to a different way to exercise and plus to give them a serious challenge – Tabata. 20s:10s work to rest ratio, 5 sets. We did this with sit-ups since it was the simplest and most accessible exercise for everyone to do.

• We finished the lesson by filling in their training log.

​

Lesson 5:

• We started the lesson with their 3rd 10 minute challenge.

• Afterwards, I slapped this magnetic question card onto the whiteboard, quite dramatically and comedically to get a few laughs and engage the kids. I found these cards from the Physical Educator. They are great as it gets the big ideas from the lessons in order. So, I asked the kids, “WHY? Why are we doing this?”

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• We are roughly halfway through the unit so I wanted to recap a few things. Opening with the “Why?” question gets the learning into perspective and adds meaning to the lessons rather than blindly doing it because the teacher said so.

• We then undertook a flexibility program that I got from my own training that has dramatically helped me achieve improved mobility and flexibility – gymnastics strength training.

• Students filled in their training logs at the end of the lesson.

​

Lesson 6:

• The kids came to class seeing a bunch of cups overturned with cards underneath each of the cups. They were confused and excited to see what was in store for them. I have done this Food Challenge a few times before but it never gets old.

• The students need to pick one of the cups and they can choose to eat the food item that's hidden in the cup but they need to do an exercise if so.

• I got 22 plastic cups and turned them upside down to cover the items of food

• I selected:

  • Hardboiled eggs

• • Carrots

  • Grapes

  • Apples

  • Starbursts

  • Dove Chocolate

  • Snickers bars

  • Skittles

• Underneath each cup I wrote down the following information on a flash card and placed it faced down:

  • The item of food

  • The amount of energy in kilojoules

  • The amount of exercise it would take to burn it off

• For example:

  • 2 carrot sticks

  • 18 kilojoules

  • 1 minute jump rope

• Prior to the challenge, I showed the kids this clip from "That Sugar Film". This clip really shocked some of the kids – juice is really not that good for you. If you have not seen the movie, I really recommend it. Was eye-opening.

• Afterwards, we got into the Healthy Food Challenge. Quite a few of my students chose not to eat the junk food. Several of my “unique” students chose short-term satisfaction and will do their consequences in the next lesson. But what was really interesting is how they started to understand the difference between the junk food and healthy food in terms of the energy content – 1 serving of Skittles (25g) is 425 kilojules. That is 23 carrot sticks. I asked the class which one would keep you fuller for longer. Still, one student at the Skittles.

• This was an important lesson that did require extra effort to set up but it was really worth it. The students started to question their food choices and I did see more fruit and vegetables for snacks afterwards. (Apologies, currently this video can only be played on desktops)

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lesson 7:

• Students started the lesson a bit differently this time. We played Stuck in the Mud, however when caught by the catcher, you hold a plank until your rescuer comes to your aid. The rescuer needs to do a burpee and jump over your plank.

• Afterwards, the stage was set for the kids to start designing their exercise program. We covered all 3 areas of fitness, they know sets, rest and rest periods. They have 2 lessons to create a program that has 3 cardiovascular endurance exercises, 3 muscular endurance exercises and 3 flexibility exercises. To help them design their program we mind-mapped on the whiteboard places they can go to collect information: Seesaw, Tool Box, Safari, friends, teachers, etc.

• I uploaded onto Seesaw 2 videos they can use to help design their program as well:

  • Muscular endurance:

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• • ​Flexibility video (Apologies, currently this video can only be played on desktops)

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Lesson 8:

• The kids had 10 minutes to finish making their exercise program.

• Afterwards, the kids were divided into pairs. Partner 1 had 15 minutes to take partner 2 through their exercise program and recorded their results. Next, after 15 minutes, partner 2 took them through their exercises.

• Here is a video of the kids training each other. They were awesome. (Apologies, currently this video can only be played on desktops)

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

Lesson 9:

• The kids started the lesson with any exercises they know to warm-up their bodies. Jog, a few sit-ups, stretches etc. 5 minutes.

• Afterwards, we broke up into 2 groups to start the fitness tests and to see whether they improved and/or achieved their goal.

• The kids went really hard in this lesson. Particularly after their Athletics unit, the kids knew what it meant to persevere, the push themselves, to never give up.

• After the testing, the kids filled in their results. They also needed to do a short review of their results through Seesaw – audio, video or comment, the choice was theirs. (Apologies, currently this video can only be played on desktops)

​

​

​

​

​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion:

• We completed a great deal in this unit. Unfortunately, we just ran out of time. This was the final unit of the year and the final unit consistently gets pillaged with other events. I did not have a choice of when this unit takes place as it is a collaborative unit with the homeroom.

• If we did have the full 6 weeks I would have liked the kids to train their parents and video the session. Furthermore, I would have like to have gone a bit deeper with their training and relate it more to their learning in the classroom.

• However, with the limited time we had, I am really proud of the kids and what they achieved. I encouraged them to be knowledgeable and share their new knowledge with their parents, family and anyone else who wants to be healthier.

• Questions, comments, please let me know here!​​​