PE, Health & Wellness

List of 10 items.

• Grade 6: Health

  This course will explore ways to enhance students’ mental, physical, social, and emotional health and wellness. Topics will include practicing health-enhancing behaviors like conflict resolution and personal boundary setting; understanding physical development, personal hygiene and healthy body images; staying cybersafe; managing personal stress with healthy coping skills; and examining the importance of nutrition in maintaining good health.

• Grade 6: Purposeful Play

  In this course, students will complete regular fitness activities designed to improve muscular endurance, balance, coordination, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness, and participate in a wide range of physical and recreational sports activities, such as dance movement, ultimate sports, lower extremity sports, racquet sports, and PE elective options - basketball, volleyball, athletic performance and intramural recreational sports. The curriculum prepares students with substantial tools and information needed to live a healthy, long, and active life.

• Grade 7 + 8: Lifetime Wellness

  Our Physical Education program promotes a physically active lifestyle, character development and healthy choices. It accommodates the diversity in our student body, such as previous movement experiences, intellectual differences, athletic interests, and stages of physical and social-emotional maturity. Students will take part in a leadership training seminar and explore a variety of health, fitness and wellness concepts. Students will be able to participate in a diverse mix of recreational sports in which they will engage in skill development, tactics and strategies, and collaborative game play. The program includes elective PE options in which they can pursue personally or socially enjoyable physical activities, and further develop sport-specific skills and athleticism. The 7 + 8 Health program is designed to help students recognize and establish healthy behaviors and make positive choices regarding their physical, mental, social emotional and spiritual health. Students will learn to become critical evaluators of media and its impact on their thoughts and decisions. Students will explore: communication, social and emotional well being, puberty, the effects of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, and healthy relationships through independent and collaborative work.

• Grades 9+10 Health (Required)

  The goal of optimum health is to achieve balance in three areas of one’s life: social, emotional and physical. Students explore definitions of personal wellness, and build and rehearse the skills necessary to make healthy and responsible choices. Major units include: mental and emotional health, nutrition, substance use prevention, healthy relationships, and human sexuality. 

• Grades 9+10: Personal Fitness (Required)

  Students participate in activities that increase physical fitness levels, gain knowledge about the body and health benefits of regular exercise, and develop health practices that value physical activity and its contribution to lifelong fitness. Topics include developing healthy habits related to exercise, wellness and nutrition, health-related physical fitness, training principles and terminology, components of fitness, fitness assessments, goal-setting, skill-development, student-led workouts, and prevention and care of injuries. Students develop responsible personal and social behavior, respect for individual differences, self-control, leadership and cooperative learning skills.

• Grades 11+12: Health and Wellness

  This course is designed for upperclassmen who have already taken our required Health course and will provide students with opportunities to reflect on the changes in their young adult lives, challenges and opportunities that they are currently facing, and what to expect in the years immediately after high school. Students will examine their personal, family, and communal values and feelings and reflect on how those values impact their decisionmaking. The curriculum will build on what students have learned in our 9th/10th grade health course, with deeper dive into the four key units of study - mental health, nutrition, substance use, and sexual health. Topics covered will include: stress management, nutrition, relationships w/food, substance use and abuse harm reduction, identity, decision making around sexual health, consent education, relationships. The course will include: journaling and individual reflection, class discussions, guest speaker, and small group activities.

• Dance

  Students discover the personal fitness, health and wellness benefits, and cultural significance of dance. First semester, students will learn the foundations of dance which may include Jazz, Contemporary, Hip Hop, and Ballet. Second semester, dance genres may include dances from around the world such as Salsa, Tango, and African Jazz. Both semesters will include Israeli dances and will conclude with a choreography unit in which students will be able to create dances based on what they learned. Students will discover healthy ways of moving, how to watch dance, and dance’s historical and cultural significance

• Recreational Sports

  Through participation in team, dual and individual sports, students develop the skills and knowledge necessary to engage in a variety of lifelong physical fitness activities. Students are introduced to a range of activities, such as badminton, pickleball, basketball, volleyball, indoor soccer, and other recreational sports activities. The primary activity for each class will involve active game play for the selected sports. Additionally, students will participate in a fitness component of class that emphasizes a proper warmup, training session and cooldown, which will help students develop their strength, cardiovascular endurance, and flexibility.

• Sports Leadership (Upper School)

  In this course, students develop practical skills for working and volunteering in the field of athletics. Students will learn about childhood development, lesson and activity planning, space management, and safety and then have the opportunity to put those skills into action by leading sports programming for Milken’s middle school students and other youth groups in our community. This course is taught through the lens of Milken’s WILDCAT Way, with a particular focus on the attributes of being welcoming, determined, collaborative, and of service. Students will be trained to work and volunteer in sports programs in ways that promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. Students who complete this course, including volunteer hours spent leading sports activities on and off campus, will fulfill their grade-level service learning requirement.

• Total Fitness/Weight Training (Upper School)

  Students learn strength and conditioning concepts and techniques used for obtaining optimal physical fitness. This class promotes a physically active lifestyle and the ability to make safe fitness choices. Students learn weight training and cardiorespiratory endurance activities that reduce the risk of injury, improve physical performance, and improve body composition. Topics include the fundamentals of core training, strength training, aerobic training, balance, coordination, flexibility, and overall fitness. Students are empowered to make wise fitness choices, design a fitness program, and develop positive behaviors in fitness and wellness.