Physical education Year 5: Safety, hygiene and taking care of equipment
Physical education, Year 5 (Portugal): Three questions before you start: am I safe, are the others safe, and am I looking after what I use?
Three checks before you start
Before any exercise, run three checks. Safety: trainers tied, hair up, no rings, necklaces, bracelets or watch, warm-up done, and clear space around you, for your classmates too. Hygiene: bring water, change your T-shirt and wash your hands and face afterwards. Equipment: balls, mats and cones are used for what they are for and put back where they belong, undamaged.
Small things cause accidents
Many accidents in class do not come from hard exercises but from small things: an untied lace, a bag in the middle of the court, a ring that catches, a mat out of place or someone stepping into the throwing area. All of this can be avoided before you start. Hygiene prevents bad smells and skin problems and makes you feel good after the effort. And looking after equipment means the next class can use it too.
A case: the roller-skating lesson
You have a roller-skating lesson in the sports hall. Step 1, before: skates fastened tight, helmet and protectors for wrists, elbows and knees, hair up, no necklaces or bracelets. Step 2, space: everyone skates in the same direction, with room between you and the next person, and anyone who stops moves off the track. Step 3, falling: bend your knees and fall forwards or sideways, onto the protectors, not backwards. Step 4, afterwards: put skates and protectors away and drink water. Each rule prevents a real risk: collision, fall, lost equipment.
Safety is not only for beginners, nor only the teacher's job
Some people think warm-ups and protectors are for the weak, or that safety is the teacher's job alone. It is the other way round: someone faster or stronger can also get hurt, and can hurt others more, and everyone is responsible for their own safety and their classmates'. In combat activities there is a signal to stop, for example tapping your partner or the mat, and it is obeyed at once. At the pool nobody runs or pushes anyone.
Where you see it outside school
The same ideas appear in cycling with a helmet, in swimming with an adult watching, in gymnastics halls with mats and in any club training session. A good athlete does a quick check before starting: equipment, space, clothing and teammates. And hygiene, with water, dry clothes and washed hands, applies after any effort, at home or out and about.
Test what you learned
Which of these is a personal safety measure before a PE lesson?
- a) Wear a necklace for luck
- b) Leave your bag in the middle of the court so you can find it
- c) Tie your trainers well and remove rings, bracelets and watch
- d) Skip the warm-up if you are already good
Correct answer: c) Tie your trainers well and remove rings, bracelets and watch — Right: tied shoes and no loose objects prevent trips and snagging. They are part of personal safety.
In a roller-skating lesson you feel yourself starting to fall. What is the safest reaction?
- a) Stiffen your legs and fall backwards
- b) Bend your knees and fall forwards or sideways, onto the protectors
- c) Grab the nearest classmate
Correct answer: b) Bend your knees and fall forwards or sideways, onto the protectors — Right: bent knees keep you low and in control, and landing on the protectors takes the impact where it is padded.
Tomás is very fast and says he does not need to warm up or wear protectors. What is the right answer?
- a) Wrong: safety is everyone's job, and fast people can be hurt or hurt others too
- b) Right: warm-ups and protectors are only for beginners
- c) Right: safety is the teacher's job, not the students'
Correct answer: a) Wrong: safety is everyone's job, and fast people can be hurt or hurt others too — Right: everyone is responsible for their own safety and their classmates'. Speed does not remove the risk, and it can make a collision worse.
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