Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 06 — My Changing Body in Motion

Learners describe how movement changes during puberty — lengthening limbs, a shifting center of gravity, and changing strength and coordination — and, crucially, how to adapt activities to their own changing body. Growth is named as normal, uneven, and never shameful, and every body is honored.

D03 P2: Physical & Somatic Awareness D03.S2 50 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

How does movement change as my body grows during puberty, and how do I adapt activities to my own changing body?

pubertygrowth spurtcoordinationcenter of gravityadaptpace

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

Two human figures side by side. The left figure is shorter and younger, labeled before the growth spurt. The right figure is taller with lengthened limbs, labeled during the growth spurt, with a small dot marking the center of gravity moved slightly higher. A caption reads every pace is normal. One figure uses a walking aid, shown as an ordinary part of the picture.
Two human figures side by side. The left figure is shorter and younger, labeled before the growth spurt. The right figure is taller with lengthened limbs, labeled during the growth spurt, with a small dot marking the center of gravity moved slightly higher. A caption reads every pace is normal. One figure uses a walking aid, shown as an ordinary part of the picture.

Lesson 6 — My Changing Body in Motion

Summary

Learners describe how movement changes during puberty — lengthening limbs, a shifting center of gravity, and changing strength and coordination — and, crucially, how to adapt activities to their own changing body. Growth is named as normal, uneven, and never shameful, and every body is honored.

Objectives

  • Describe how movement changes during puberty and adapt activities to my own changing body. (D03.S2.07.02)

Connection

During these years your body is not just getting taller — it is rearranging itself, and that changes how it moves. Your arms and legs lengthen faster than you are used to, so a reach you once knew now overshoots; your center of gravity shifts as you grow, so balance feels different for a while; strength and coordination come at their own uneven pace. This is not something going wrong — it is the ordinary work of growth, and it happens at a different time and speed for every person. The skill is not to stop growing; it is to adapt the activity to the body you have today — the same way every athlete, dancer, and worker does all their life.

Materials

  • Changing-body diagram
  • Movement adaptation cards

Preparation

  • Print or draw the changing-body diagram.
  • Copy and cut the movement adaptation cards.
  • Arrange a space with room to try a few simple movements at different reaches and tempos.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). Hold it with care: growth during puberty is normal, uneven, and never shameful — and no learner’s body should be singled out or compared. The science to land: during the adolescent growth spurt the long bones lengthen, which shifts the body’s center of gravity and temporarily changes coordination, while strength catches up at its own pace (WHO, 2024; WHO, 2006). Name every pace as normal — growth begins at different times and speeds for different people, and a wide range of heights and shapes is normal, not a ranking. Frame adaptation as skill, never limitation: adapting is what skilled movers do. Avoid measuring anyone publicly or commenting on any individual’s body; keep all examples general. See docs/facilitation.md and docs/development.md.

Procedure

  1. Gather and recall (5 min). You have been moving with strategy. Today you notice something that changes how you move: your own growing body. Think: has a movement you used to do easily felt a little different lately? (No need to say it aloud.)
  2. Meet the changes (10 min). Look at the changing-body diagram. During puberty the body goes through a growth spurt: arms and legs lengthen, so your reach changes; your center of gravity — the point the body balances around — shifts as you grow taller, so balance feels different; strength and coordination catch up at their own pace. All of this is normal, and it happens at a different time for every person.
  3. Match changes to adaptations (15 min). Sort the adaptation cards: longer limbs → adjust your spacing and reach; shifting balance → widen your stance and slow the tempo while you relearn; changing strength → pick the load and pace that fit today; shifting coordination → practice a skill a few times rather than expecting it to feel instantly familiar. Try one of these adaptations with a partner — a reach, a balance, or a throw.
  4. Adapt an activity of your own (10 min). Choose one movement or game you like. Name one change you have noticed in your body, and write one adaptation you will try. Example: My reach has changed, so I will adjust my spacing and take one extra practice before I aim.
  5. Close (5 min). Growing is not a problem to fix; it is the body doing its job. Adapting to the body you have today is a skill every good mover uses — and it will serve you for life.

Differentiation

  • Support: Use the sentence frame “My body has changed in ___ , so I will ___ .” and match one change to one adaptation at a time.
  • Extension: Design an adaptation for a specific activity (a dance step, a throw, a climb) and explain the body change it responds to and why it helps.

Assessment

  • Formative (observation): Can the learner name one way movement changes during puberty and describe one adaptation to their own body?
  • Portfolio: The written “movement-adaptation reflection” (one change + one adaptation), kept as a portfolio artifact.

Home connection

Ask a trusted adult or older sibling about a time their own body changed and a movement felt different — what did they adapt, and how did it turn out? Share one adaptation you wrote today.

Resources