A cherished Lower School tradition rolled out this week for all students in junior kindergarten through fourth grade: Beasley Skate Week! Racks of skates and safety gear, along with long strips of “beginner carpet,” showed up in the South Gym, and our students, their teachers, and even some parents took full advantage of the opportunity to cruise around during their Physical Education class each day.
Skate Week offers fun and challenge, of course, but the learning behind it goes much deeper than it may first appear. “We see so many positive gains from the students during Skate Week, including an improvement in balance, coordination, and most importantly, confidence,” said Jim Lohr, Lower School Physical Education Teacher.
Motor Learning
The three stages of motor learning are easy to see throughout Skate Week. At first, students are in the cognitive stage. They think hard about every movement and they might wobble, tentatively moving on their eight wheels. In the associative stage, their movements become smoother and they make fewer mistakes. In the autonomous stage, kids start to relax into their movements. Their skills become automatic, freeing their attention for other things like encouraging their friends or waving at their parents. Daily physical education classes at MICDS let each child move through these three stages in only five days, which is rare. Most skills take months to show visible progress, but our parents can see their children go from tentative first rolls while hanging on to the wall or teachers on Monday to gliding independently on Friday.
Learning to Fall Before Learning to Fly
Skate Week offers children the opportunity to encounter manageable physical risk, which helps them learn to judge danger, regulate fear, and build confidence. Our South Gym becomes a controlled, safe environment for risk-taking—kids are padded and helmeted, taught how to fall safely, and then they do fall and get right back up, over and over. Each student proves to themselves that effort and practice lead to improvement.
Awareness and Development
Roller skating is a great way for students to build balance, body awareness in space, core strength, and coordination between both sides of their bodies. These foundational skills support everything from sitting still at a desk to handwriting to other sports. Skate Week gives kids a chance to build motor, social, and personal skills.
Social-Emotional Learning
Learning to skate touches every core competency of social-emotional learning: self-awareness (I’m nervous, and that’s ok), self-management (pushing through frustration), social awareness (noticing a classmate who is struggling), relationship skills (cheering others on, helping a classmate up after a fall), and responsible decision-making (judging speed and space so no one gets hurt).
At the end of the week, kids are stronger, more balanced, confident, proud of their accomplishments, and have a ton of great memories with their friends. “It is so exciting for me each year to watch the students progress from the carpet to the wood,” said Sue Orlando, Lower School Physical Education Teacher. “I love hearing them shout with joy as they say, ‘Look at me, I am skating, I am skating on the wood!’ with big smiles on their faces. A big thank you to all the teachers who helped make this a fun and great learning experience for the students.”