Health and Physical Education for Elementary Classroom Teachers

In elementary schools across the United States, teachers are often tasked with teaching health education or physical education, although they may not have specialist training. Health and Physical Education for Elementary Classroom Teachers: An Integrated Approach is the perfect resource for these educators. It covers both health and physical education while giving current and preservice teachers the skills to deliver appropriate lessons to their young students.

Retta Evans and Sandra Sims, respected educators and physical education advocates, provide everything teachers need in order to seamlessly incorporate health education and physical education into an integrated curriculum. Based on national health education, physical education, and state-specific academic standards including the Common Core state standards, this is a guide that will help teachers empower elementary students to become healthy and active.

The text is complemented with a full suite of ancillary products:

&; Sample syllabus and course outline

&; Chapter resources, including an overview, outline, review questions with answers, and learning activities

&; Chapter questions to help in creating quick assessments of student learning or in building custom tests

&; Approximately 150 slides to reinforce key points

The text also features lab exercises that allow students to practice the material they are learning, including designing their own standards-based lesson plans that integrate health and physical education. By learning the essential knowledge and using the invaluable strategies in this book, every teacher will be equipped to create a healthy and active school environment that maximizes student achievement.

Health and Physical Education for Elementary Classroom Teachers is organized into two parts, each dedicated to different components of incorporating health and physical education into the elementary classroom.

Part I focuses on the foundational knowledge needed for teaching health and physical education. It addresses the health risk behaviors of today&;s generation of students, a team approach to coordinated school health, how physical growth and brain development in children are related to health, and the many characteristics and benefits of a high-quality physical education program.

Part II emphasizes the strategies necessary for incorporating health, physical education, and physical activity into the curriculum and school day. It discusses how teachers can become advocates of healthy and active schools, identify habits that promote everyday health in the classroom, and incorporate physical activity and the national standards into each school day. It also presents teaching methods, assessment tools, and evaluation strategies to ensure teaching success.

Throughout this book, practicing and training teachers will find websites, tips for best practices, sample lesson plans, and tables with innovative strategies. The result is a great resource that teachers can use to fulfill what is both a tremendous responsibility and a unique opportunity&;promoting health and wellness in the elementary classroom using an integrated approach.

Retta R. Evans, PhD, is associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a master certified health education specialist. Dr. Evans has spent more than sixteen yearsteaching and mentoring aspiring health educators at the undergraduate and graduate levels. During this time she has also worked to improve health curricula and develop health initiatives in schools. With the Alabama State Department of Education, she has revised the state course of study in health education and is part of a team that worked with school systems to implement comprehensive physical activity plans across Alabama. Dr. Evans received the Health Educator of the Year Award from the Alabama State Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance as well as the College/University Health Education Professional of the Year Award from the Southern District Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Dr. Evans was principal investigator on a National Institute of Health grant investigating the effective of classroom-based physical activity on cognitive performance in elementary-aged children.

Sandra K. Sims, PhD, associate professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has more than two decades of experience as a public school teacher. Since 2005 she has taught physical education methods courses as well as the course for elementary classroom teachers integrating physical education and health education into the classroom. Besides being named Physical Education Teacher of the Year for Alabama and Southern District SHAPE America for two years, Sims was selected as Teacher of the Year for her school, system, state, and district.