Module 04
Skill Themes & Curriculum Design
Games are not a curriculum. Skill themes are. You organize the year around stability, locomotor, and manipulative work, then dress those skills in play so children will repeat them enough to own them.
You will be able to
- Plan a session from a skill theme, not from a sport.
- Attach one movement concept (space, effort, relationship) to a skill.
- Write a five-step progression and a regression.
- Use one or two imagery cues, never a paragraph.
Three themes, all year
Stability is the home of all other skills: balance, landing, rolling, twisting, dodging. Locomotor moves the body through space. Manipulative sends, receives, and travels with objects. Rotate them. Combine them as children grow.
Movement concepts
Space: where. Effort: how. Relationships: with whom or what. 'Today we jump (skill) in different directions (space).' That one sentence is a lesson.
Concept
Space
Ask the child
Where does your body go?
Example
Personal space bubble; zigzag path
Concept
Effort
Ask the child
How does it feel?
Example
Land heavy vs land like a cat
Concept
Relationships
Ask the child
Near whom or what?
Example
Over the river, beside a partner
The cues approach
Cues are short and often pictures: land like a cat; step with the other foot; make a basket with your arms; stand tall like a tree. One or two at a time. Tell them what to do, not what to stop doing.
Open the Skill library. Bookmark three cues you will actually say this week.
A session skeleton
Warm-up 5–10 min: heart, joints, belonging. Skill theme 10–20 min: teach and try. Play application 10–15 min: the skill inside a game or story. Cool-down 5 min: slower, stretch, one reflection question.
Toddlers: 5–10 min bursts all day. Preschool: 20–30 min. School-age: 30–60 min. Same skeleton, different dose.
Reading notes
First notes of 24+ characters: +10 each.
Developmental Physical Education for All Children
Ch. 3–6 and skill theme chapters
- Skill themes organize content.
- Movement concepts add depth.
- Sequence simple to complex.
- Cues should be short, positive, and sticky.
“The skill theme approach focuses on the development of fundamental movement skills.”
Lab & assignment
20-minute stability session for 4-year-olds
- Write warm-up, skill focus, play, cool-down.
- Add one space or effort concept.
- Write one regression for a cautious child and one progression for a seeker.
Assignment: Two progressions
Five steps for one locomotor skill and five for one manipulative skill. Start easier than you think.
Draft 40+ characters to bank +25.
Your notes
How is a skill-theme plan different from 'let's play soccer'?
Which cue do you over-explain?
Where will you put play in the next session so it is not only the leftover minutes?
Tomorrow
What is one skill theme you will teach on purpose, instead of only playing the game?
One honest sentence · +15
Play this week
Small games and puzzles that only use what this module taught. First complete +50; perfect +25.
Floor call
A random objection this week actually raises. Multiple choice. First correct answer banks +20. Shuffle for a new voice.
Week 4 objection
Drawing a live one…
Knowledge check
0/4 correct · 0 answered · +25 each