France Quatrième Physical Education
Chapters: 2
1. Learning fields
Measured performance (athletics, swimming) · Moving in varied environments (orienteering, climbing) · Artistic/acrobatic performance (dance, gymnastics) · Team and duel sports
- Athletics: Running, Jumping and Throwing – Athletics (track and field) is sport where performance is measured: races are timed, jumps and throws are measured in metres. Track events include sprints, middle and long distance, hurdles and relays. Jumps (long, triple, high, pole vault) have four phases: approach, take-off, flight and landing. Throws (shot put, discus, javelin, hammer) depend most on release speed, then on release angle and height. Clear rules on starts, lanes, lines and sectors keep it fair.
- Outdoor Activities: Orienteering, Climbing and Staying Safe – Outdoor and adventurous activities, like orienteering, hiking, climbing and water sports, ask you to move in changing natural places. You need skills (reading a map, using a compass, climbing technique), good decisions (route choice, knowing your limits) and safety habits (planning, equipment, teamwork). You also protect nature by leaving no trace.
- Dance: Elements, Choreography and Forms – Dance is movement of the body, in space and time, with energy, used to express feelings, tell stories or celebrate. Every dance can be described with four elements: Body (what moves), Space (where: levels, directions, pathways), Time (when: tempo, rhythm, pause) and Energy (how: sharp or smooth, strong or light). Choreography is the art of arranging movement using devices such as motif, repetition, canon, unison, contrast and formations. Good performers train technique, safety and expression, and good audiences describe, analyse, interpret and judge what they see. Dance forms, from classical and folk to ballet and hip-hop, grow out of their culture and history.
- Team Sports: How Teams Attack, Defend and Play Fair – Team games are grouped as invasion games, net and wall games, and striking and fielding games. When your team has the ball you attack: spread out (width and depth), move into space and pass quickly. When the opponent has it you defend: get compact, stay goal-side, mark a player or guard a zone, and win the ball back fairly. Each player has a role, the team communicates all the time, and officials apply the rules so the game stays fair and safe.
2. General skills
Motor skills · Rules and roles · Health through activity
- Motor Skills – A motor skill is a movement we learn to do well, with a clear aim, such as running, catching, writing or a cartwheel. Gross skills use big muscle groups (running, jumping); fine skills use small muscles and need precision (writing, a snooker shot). Skills come in three families: locomotor (moving from place to place), manipulative (controlling an object) and stability (balance, holding a position). Skills can also be open (changing surroundings, like a football pass) or closed (fixed surroundings, like a free throw), and simple or complex. Every movement follows a loop: our senses take in information, the brain decides, muscles act, and feedback tells us how it went. Reaction time is the gap between seeing and starting to move. We learn in three stages: cognitive (understanding, many errors), associative (practising, fewer errors) and autonomous (automatic, smooth). Motor abilities such as speed, strength, endurance, coordination, balance, agility and flexibility are the base on which skills are built; practice, good feedback and creativity improve them.
- Team Sports: How Teams Attack, Defend and Play Fair – Team games are grouped as invasion games, net and wall games, and striking and fielding games. When your team has the ball you attack: spread out (width and depth), move into space and pass quickly. When the opponent has it you defend: get compact, stay goal-side, mark a player or guard a zone, and win the ball back fairly. Each player has a role, the team communicates all the time, and officials apply the rules so the game stays fair and safe.
- Physical Fitness – Physical fitness is the body's ability to do daily work, play and sport with energy to spare. It has five health-related components (heart-lung endurance, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, body composition) and six skill-related ones (speed, agility, power, balance, coordination, reaction time). We improve it with a planned programme using FITT (frequency, intensity, time, type) and training principles like overload, progression, specificity, rest and reversibility.