Unleashing the joy of movement at school
Teaching Preps to hop
Evaluating resources is an essential teacher skill. This blog post evaluates a WA resource for teaching Preps to hop. Discover how to teach the delightful art of hopping to young learners in physical education. Explore a detailed review of an online resource, offering step-by-step instructions, assessment guidance, and engaging activities to foster skill development and ignite a love for movement.
Read Time: 5 minutes
In the wonderful world of physical education, it’s not always feasible to have a specialist PE teacher available to teach our adorable Preppies a new movement skill. And let’s face it, movement skills require proper guidance, so time-poor teachers can’t just hop onto the first YouTube link they find. As part of my university assessment, I meticulously reviewed an online resource to assess its suitability for teaching the delightful art of hopping. Brace yourself, because this one’s for the poolroom.
How to hop - the technical steps
Let’s dive into the technical steps of hopping:
🔹 Chin up, eyes looking forward
🔹 Land and push off on the balls of your feet
🔹 Non-hop leg bent behind you
🔹 Straighten hop leg as you push off and bend it as you land
🔹 Swing your arms back and forth in rhythm
🔹 Support unsteady students with a chair to balance against or by holding their earlobe
🔹 Extend students by having them count 5 hops on one leg, then swapping for 5 hops on the other
Now, let’s add an extra dash of excitement and have fun by playing hopscotch! 🎉
Resource details
The selected resource is a website by KIDDO titled “Hopping” (Kiddo, 2019a) and can be accessed at https://kiddo.edu.au/skills/hopping.
Intended age range
Prep / Foundation
Australian Curriculum Links
Version 8.4
Practise fundamental movement skills and movement sequences using different body parts (ACPMP008) (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n.d).
Version 9.0
Practise fundamental movement skills in minor game and play situations (AC9HPFM01) (ACARA, 2022).
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Description of the resource
KIDDO’s website presents an easy-to-follow webpage that outlines a “checklist of skill criteria” essential for children to master the art of hopping. With the aim of fostering skill development, KIDDO suggests various teaching strategies and games suitable for different levels of development: emerging, developing, acquired, and accomplished.
The resource provides specific teaching cues, movement guidelines, and highlights common errors made by children. Additionally, it offers two instructional videos. The first, “Learn how to hop,” showcases a child demonstrating hopping while enumerating the necessary skills. The second video, “Assessing the fundamental movement skill of hopping” [Assessment Video], provides a comprehensive breakdown of skills and common errors across four assessment levels: emerging, developing, acquired, and accomplished.
For easy reference, a two-page PDF document is available, containing all the textual content (excluding videos) in a convenient format.
Evaluation of the resource
Rest assured, this resource is age-appropriate, explicitly targeting 5 to 7-year-olds. It’s an excellent choice due to its credibility and comprehensive nature. The webpage proudly identifies its creators as “academics from Exercise and Sport Science in the School of Human Science at the University of Western Australia” (KIDDO, 2019b).
Notably, it provides detailed visual and written explanations of the skills to be developed. The information aligns with reputable sources such as the ACT Government (2020) and NSW Government (n.d.), delivering precise instructions (Parker & Patton, 2018) to ensure correct skill acquisition. The Assessment Video assists teachers in ensuring consistency in their assessment of student development.
This resource would further assist busy teachers if the pdf document included pictures of each of the skill criteria to ensure consistent interpretation. While KIDDO covers a broad spectrum, teachers will need to supplement it with self-prepared differentiated instructions for children with cognitive/physical disabilities (ACARA, 2016a; 2016b) and utilise visual aids (posters/skills charts) to assist children with poor working memory (Bergin, 2018; Klotzbier et al., 2022).
So, let’s put the hop in their step and ignite their love for movement with KIDDO’s exceptional resource!
🌟 Happy hopping, and let the joy of physical education fill your classroom! 🌟
References
ACT Government. (2020). Fundamental movement skills videos. https://www.health.act.gov.au/about-our-health-system/healthy-living/kids-play-active-play/early-childhood-educators-0
Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority. (n.d). Australian Curriculum: Foundation to year 10 curriculum: Health and Physical Education: Foundation Year: Movement and Physical Activity: Moving our body: ACPMP008 (Version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/health-and-physical-education/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016a). CASE https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/planning-for-student-diversity/steps-to-personalise-learning-case/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2016b). Meeting the needs of students with a disability. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/student-diversity/meeting-the-needs-of-students-with-a-disability/
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2022). The Australian Curriculum: Health and Physical Education: Foundation Year: Movement and physical activity: moving our bodies: AC9HPFM01 (Version 9.0). https://v9.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
Bergin, C.C., Bergin, D.A., Walker, S., Daniel, G., Fenton, A., & Subban, P. (2018). Child and adolescent development for educators (1st ed.). Cengage.
KIDDO. (2019a). Hopping. https://kiddo.edu.au/skills/hopping
KIDDO. (2019b). About. https://kiddo.edu.au/about
Klotzbier, T. J., Holfelder, B., & Schott, N. (2022). Associations of motor performance and executive functions: Comparing children with Down Syndrome to chronological and mental age-matched controls. Children (Basel) 9(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/children9010073
NSW Government. (n.d.). Fundamental movement skills. https://www.wslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/Healthy-Children/Our-Programs/Munch-Move/Fundamental-Movement-Skills
Parker, M., & Pattern, K. (2018). Elementary physical education in the United States. In G. Griggs and K. Petrie (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of Primary Physical Education (pp. 242-254). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315545257
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