Physical Activity and Its Importance in the Learning Environment.

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It is important to the health and well-being of a student, for an educator working with middle childhood students of the ages 6-10 years old, to introduce physical activity and accommodate the physical needs of all students in the learning environment. To ensure students are not disadvantaged in an activity, teachers must analyse the physical development and understand the physical needs of each student. A teacher may then need to make adjustments to a learning environment so that all students students can successfully participate in the activity. By middle childhood children have developed their fine motors skills and have an increased ability to imitate complex physical movements (McDevitt & Ormrod, 2010, p. 25). The level of skills in each child is different so it is important for teachers to recognise where each student is at physically before introducing new activities into the classroom. Before a teacher introduces a game of dodge ball to the class, it would be wise to have the class play a simple game where a number of balls are passed around a circle, students being a couple an arms length apart. The teacher is then able to see who can pass and catch a ball before the main activity takes place. Engaging the whole class so that those students who cannot catch a ball, if any, are not be embarrassed. By assessing the students and making the learning environment suited to each child's needs, the teacher is reducing the likelihood that the student will be restricted in a future activity. The same can be said for fine motor skills, the educator needs to know the child's skill level before any new activity is introduced. Fine motor skills are the co-ordination of the smaller muscle movements that generally occur with our fingers, in coordination with the eyes. These skills develop through the middle childhood due to repetition of each action. This encourages
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