Four Keys to Developing a Catholic Faith-Based PE Curriculum with Video

What does a faith-based PE curriculum look like? In the video below I hope to begin this discussion with a few ideas including some things you can implement this week in your class. Here are the primary points covered:

What is the purpose of school? Two of many answers:

1. to answer the questions: who am I and what am I doing here?
2. to facilitate the development of creative, critical thinking problem solvers.

Isolation vs Integration

Too often we isolate or compartmentalize religion and P.E. classes. Instead, our goal should be to integrate our faith and fitness into the culture of our schools, homes and learning experiences. CCC 364 reads, “Man, though made of body and soul, is a unity.”  We should always treat our body and soul as one, so when we are teaching about one or the other, it only fits we do so together.

Four keys to consider:

1. Teach the Golden Rule of Fitness and Get “Fit to Serve!”
2. Break out the Catechism and Bible, You’ll Be Surprised When Reading the Bible Through the Lens of Personal Fitness.
3. Teach and Build Health as a Foundation or a Pre-requisite to Fitness.
4. Teach Fitness and Movement Literacy, Not Dissimilar to Reading and Math Literacy.

Challenges Briefly Discussed

1. Challenge #1 is that kids, along with the rest of us need to move. Learning terms and ideas cannot get in the way of moving.
2. Challenge #2 is, like religion, to build a culture that spans beyond your classroom or gym setting.

Practical Ideas Discussed

1. Develop a daily warm up and use a dry erase board for students to read and perform the warm up before anything else. No standing or sitting around in the first 5-8 minutes.
2. Work on the culture of the entire school – what is happening in homeroom and science class.
3. Meet with homeroom teachers about ways to integrate personal health and fitness into lunch, recess, between classes etc. How do teachers get the wiggles out? What mobility exercises can you do between classes?
4. If PE more than 1x/week, designate 1 day as fitness day, another as game/sports day.
5. Use a journal with your students – journal prayer, physical activity, and service projects. Teach them to get “fit to serve.”
6. Try a Novena Prayer and Fitness Challenge. Find the Frassati Novena and Fitness Challenge at CatholicFIT.com/challenge
7. Work in individual prayer and practice activities with students during group activity – “hold a deep squat for two Hail Mary’s then jump back into the game”
8. Practice what you preach – pray on all of this. Dedicate a Novena to your work and practice as a PE Teacher – “practice” your faith and your fitness together.

God bless you and your work as a teacher … please contact me any time with more suggestions, to Zoom, or to do a LIVE video to share with others in our faith and fitness journey.