By Lillian Willett

Physical
Education
Portfolio
for Year 2

Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

S00132791

The Australian Curriculum and Theorists

Activity 1: Rob the Nest

Activity 2: Scavenger Hunt

Activity 3: Which noun is which?

Activity 4: The Commonwealth Games

Activity 5: Musical Statues

Reference List

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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

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The Australian Curriculum states that when it comes to Physical Education in

Year 2, that they build on the learning from Prep and supports students to make
decisions to enhance their health, safety and participation in physical activity.
(Australian Curriculum, 2014).

Some of the areas that are stated in the Physical Education

curriculum for Years 1 and 2 include personal, social and community health,
movement and physical activity. Gardners theory of multiple intelligences
suggests that combining different areas can help students understand activities
better.
Using Piagets theory of cognitive development, teachers are able to develop
activities that are in his stages of development. When it comes to Year 2,
students are in the Concrete Operational Stage which is a period between ages
seven and eleven during which children gain a better understanding of mental
operations. Children begin thinking logically about concrete events, but have
difficulty understanding abstract or hypothetical concepts

(psychology.com, 2014).

Using

these five activities, teachers can help develop this stage of development. It is
also useful for teachers to also incorporate Vygotskys sociocultural perspective
in activities that include PE, as it helps builds students learn about the world and
that it helps students engage

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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

S00132791

Rob the Nest is a fun game that involves the counting and number aspect of the
mathematics curriculum.
1) The students are divided into four teams and each have a hoop or a nest
they have to protect.
2) Each of these hoops are on the corners of a square. This activity would
best be executed in a hall or a tennis court where the teacher can pick out
a square and place the hoops on the corners.
3) In the middle of this square, there would be another hoop that would have
a number of balls that are different shapes and sizes.
4) The teams would then collect the balls from the middle, one student per
team at a time.
5) Once all of the balls have been collected from the middle hoop, the teams
are then allowed to steal the balls from the other teams.
6) Once the time limit is up, the teams then count how many balls they have
in their hoop. The team that has the most balls wins.
This fun activity can last around 2-4 minutes with Year 2. Not only does it get the
students active and running, it also helps them improve their counting skills at
the end of the game. The Key Learning Areas that are incorporated in this
activity are from the Mathematics and Physical Education areas of the Australian
Curriculum:
Students are able to explore the connection between addition and
subtraction. (ACMNA029). After the game has finished the students can then
find the difference between the teams by adding or subtracting from their
teams total amount.
Students need to recognise model, represent and order numbers to at least
1000 (ACMNA027).
Identify and explore natural and built environments in the local community
where physical activity can take place (ACPPS023)
Use strategies to work in group situations when participating in physical
activities (ACPMP030)
Gardner (1995) suggests that using the bodily kinaesthetic and logical
mathematical can be combined in activities such as this as it involves controlling
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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

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the bodily motions in holding the ball and the students will be thinking about
numbers when it comes to counting how many balls they have in their hoop.

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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

S00132791

Scavenger hunts have always been a fun activity with students. Using the areas
of Geography and English, students are able to discover new areas of the school.
For this activity to work, the teacher will need to:
1) Divide the students into team of either 2 or 3.
2) Each team will be given a set of clues in which they have to find the
objects that are hidden around the school.
3) Once the students have been divided into their teams, give each team a
set of clues that lead to different objects around the school or area that
the teacher had laid out
4) Once the students have gotten their clues, let the hunt begin
5) The first team to come back with all of the items wins
6) Once all of the teams have returned, give the students time to reflect on
what they found
This activity incorporates these KLAs from the Humanities and Social Science,
Physical Education and English areas of the Australian Curriculum:
Present findings in a range of communication forms, for example, written,

oral, digital and visual, and describe the direction and location of places,
using terms such as north, south, opposite, near, far (ACHGS017)
Reflect on their learning and suggest responses to their findings

(ACHGS018)
Create short imaginative, informative and persuasive texts using growing

knowledge of text structures and language features for familiar and some
less familiar audiences, selecting print and multimodal elements
appropriate to the audience and purpose (ACELY1671)
Describe ways to include others to make them feel that they belong
(ACPPS019)
Vygotsky (1978) states that social interaction plays a fundamental role in a
childs process of cognitive development. This activity is very important to a
childs social interaction as it encourages the use of teamwork and it develops

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Physical Education Portfolio

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their social interaction as they have to communicate to their other team

members while on the scavenger hunt.

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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

S00132791

In year 2, students start to understand that there are three different types of
nouns: common, proper and pronouns. In this activity, students will need to
point out which noun is which by standing in certain areas of the classroom or
outside.
1) Get the students outside or sitting on the carpet
2) Go through the different types of nouns
3) Explain that they are going to work out whether the words that the
teacher is about to call out are common, proper or pronouns
4) Begin calling out words
5) Continue this process until all of the words have been called out
This activity incorporates these KLAs from the English and Physical Education
areas of the Australian Curriculum:
Understand that nouns represent people, places, concrete objects and

abstract concepts; that there are three types of nouns: common, proper
and pronouns; and that noun groups/phrases can be expanded using
articles and adjectives. (ACELA1468)
Propose a range of alternatives and test their effectiveness when solving

movement challenges (ACMP031)

This activity is related back to Piagets theory of Cognitive development, more
specifically: Adaptation and assimilation. Woolfolk and Margetts (2010) state
that Assimilation takes place when people use their existing schemes to make
sense of events in their world. This relates back to this activity as the teacher is
able to relate the nouns to words that the students know.

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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

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This activity is incorporating the recent Commonwealth Games. The students

would be out on the oval and would have to recreate a sporting event that
happens in the Commonwealth Games. Make sure to give them examples. Also,
name some famous Australians athletes that have participated in these games.
Steps:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Explain the activity to them

Demonstrate an event (for example, swimming)
Make sure the students have some space around them
Get them to swing their arms around them, making sure theyre not

touching anyone
5) Call out the events one by one
6) Name famous Australians athletes that have participated or won a medal
in these events
The KLAs that are incorporated in this activity are from the Physical Education
and Humanities and Social Science areas of the Australian Curriculum:
Sequence familiar objects and events (ACHHS047)
Perform fundamental movement skills in different movement situations

(ACPMP025)
Construct and perform imaginative and original movement sequences in

response to stimuli (ACPMP026)

Theorists believe that incorporating recent events has always been essential.
Erik Eriksons view of the development of a person is culminated between the
body, mind and culture

(Hardner, 2009).

People have always been influenced by the

culture around them and using the Commonwealth Games in activities will help
students to easily understand the games and their significant influence in the
world today along with the Olympic Games.

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Lillian Willett

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Physical Education Portfolio

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Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

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Musical Statues is a great activity to incorporate both physical education and

music. The students will be able to move around and dance before the music
stops and they have to stand still like a statue. The teacher will then walk
around to make sure that all of the students do not move. The steps are quite
simple when it comes to this activity:
1) Get the students into a big open space (preferably a hall or multipurpose
court)
2) Explain the activity to them:
a. When the music starts playing, they can dance as much as they like
b. However, when the music stops, they must stand still like a statue!
3) Once the music starts, make sure that everyone is dancing or moving to
the music
4) When the music stops, walk around the class to make sure that no one is
moving
5) If they are moving, they are out
6) Start the music again
7) Once the music has stopped again, let the students who are out walk
around to see if anyone is moving
While this activity has people losing, it does let them participate in a different
role which will give them a sense of importance as they can take a leadership
role and make sure that their friends are playing the game properly. Also, for the
teachers, it gives them another set of eyes to make sure that all of the students
who are still in are standing still like a statue. Also, after the lesson, the teacher
can add on to the lesson and ask whether they know where the music came
from. This means that the music can come from the people of the Torres Strait
Islands or Aboriginal people.
The KLAs that are incorporated in this activity are from the Physical Education
and Music areas of the Australian Curriculum:

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Respond to music and consider where and why people make music,

starting with Australian music, including music of Aboriginal and Torres

Strait Islander Peoples (ACAMUR083)
Perform fundamental movement skills in different movement situations

(ACPMP025)
Create and participate in games (ACPMP027)

Using Eriksons stages of affective development theory, teachers are able to use
this activity as it is social, uses bodily movement and the power of the mind, and
if they want, can us the cultural aspect as well. People are heavily influenced by
the world around them and therefore, if they learn about different cultures early,
they can see how different their lives are compared to others.

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(Meldrum, K. Peters, J. 2012)

Lillian Willett

Physical Education Portfolio

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Reference List
Unknown (2014) Australian Curriculum
<http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au>, accessed 13th August, 2014
http://edr.sagepub.com/content/18/8/4.short
Gardner, H. (1995) Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st
Century
http://www.toolsofthemind.org/philosophy/vygotskian-approach/
http://www.learning-theories.com/vygotskys-social-learning-theory.html
Hardner, A F. (2009) The Development stages of Erik Erikson, Learning Place
Online, <www.learningplaceonline.com/stages/organize/Erikson.htm>, accessed
14 August, 2014|}
Margetts, K. Woolfolk, A (2010). Educational Psychology (2nd edition) French
Forests, NSW: Pearson
Meldrum, K. Peters, J. (2012) Learning to teach health and physical education.
French Forests, NSW: Pearson
http://psychology.about.com/od/developmentalpsychology/ss/early-childhooddevelopment_3.htm
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher mental
process. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

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