Moving and feeling good
Grade 3 adds planning to almost every wellness outcome. Not just being active but planning for it; not just having friends but resolving conflict with them; not just having money but deciding responsibly what to do with it.
What Alberta asks for by the end of Grade 3
The subject: Physical education and wellness
- Planning for active living is an important step in leading a healthy life.
- Apply movement elements when taking part in physical activity.
- People in healthy relationships resolve conflict by sharing responsibility for a fair solution.
- Examine how food-preparation techniques affect the characteristics of common foods.
- Consent is established by clearly requesting, obtaining and giving permission, or communicating refusal.
- Discuss the importance of responsible spending and saving.
The conflict outcome is the demanding one. Sharing the responsibility for a fair solution is a much harder idea than apologising, and it is the first time the curriculum asks for it.
The words, first
These are the terms a teacher will use at a parent interview, defined before anything below uses them.
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Active living | Being physically active as part of ordinary life rather than as an event. Planning for it is what makes it happen. |
| Movement elements | Body, space, effort and relationships — the vocabulary for describing how a movement is done, not just which one. |
| Conflict resolution | Reaching a solution both people can live with. Sharing responsibility means neither person is simply told they were wrong. |
| Food-preparation technique | Boiling, baking, frying, freezing, chopping. Each changes the texture, taste, colour or nutrition of a food. |
| Consent | Four parts by Grade 3: requesting clearly, obtaining, giving, and communicating refusal. All four are practised. |
| Responsible spending | Deciding with the consequences in mind — what else the money could have done. |
| Saving goal | Something specific being saved for. Saving without a goal is much harder at eight, and naming it is most of the work. |
Say it
What happened, and how it felt. Without blaming.
Listen
Let the other person say theirs, all of it.
Find a fix
Something both can live with — not who wins.
What to do at home
- Plan the week's activity together — Written down, on the fridge. Planning is the outcome, and a plan nobody wrote is a wish.
- Name the movement, not just the sport — “That was a fast change of direction in a small space.” Movement elements are the vocabulary for coaching anything.
- Let them resolve it — When two children argue, ask each what happened and then what would be fair — rather than deciding for them. It takes longer once and less time forever.
- Cook the same thing two ways — A potato boiled and a potato roasted. The outcome is noticing what the technique changed.
- Practise all four parts of consent — Asking, hearing yes, hearing no, and saying no. A child who has only practised asking has done a quarter of it.
- Set a saving goal with a number — And a way of seeing progress. Responsible spending is easier to discuss when there is something being given up for.
Sheets you can print for this
- Plan a week of moving — planning is the outcome
- A saving goal — spend, save, share — with a number
- Same food, cooked two ways — what the technique changes
The expectations above are paraphrased from Alberta Education's New K–6 curriculum fact sheets, which publish a snapshot of each grade rather than the complete program of studies. Alberta's full programs are at alberta.ca/curriculum.