Health, Physical Education, and the Arts
What to know
This domain covers health, physical education, and the arts (visual art, music, dance, theater). In health, know nutrition (food groups, balanced diet), personal hygiene, disease prevention, safety and injury prevention, mental/emotional health, and substance-abuse awareness appropriate to young children. In physical education, know motor skill development (locomotor, non-locomotor, manipulative skills), fitness components (cardiorespiratory endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility, body composition), and the value of cooperative games and lifetime activity. In the arts, know the elements of art (line, shape, color, texture, form, space, value), principles of design (balance, contrast, pattern, rhythm), music elements (rhythm, melody, harmony, form, timbre), and the creative process. Understand arts integration-using the arts to teach other content-and that arts support motor, cognitive, and social development.
Traps
Questions confuse locomotor (running, skipping-traveling) with non-locomotor (bending, twisting-in place). Another trap: mixing elements of art with principles of design. In health, distractors may overstate a single food or activity as a cure-all, or present a fad diet as balanced. Watch for answers that treat physical education as free play rather than planned skill and fitness instruction.
Rule of thumb
Classify the skill or concept by its category. Worked example: a lesson has students jump over a rope while moving forward. Jumping and traveling are locomotor skills, so the lesson targets locomotor development; a lesson where students balance on one foot in place targets non-locomotor (stability) skills.