Children’s engagement in physical education could be improved by stories and imagination.

Introduction: The development of fundamental motor skills is essential during childhood and should be a learning outcome in the physical education (PE). With the children between 3 to 6 years old it could be sometime difficult to get their attention and motivation during PE lessons. Teachers have to use a very adapted pedagogical approach in order to get all children’s engagement.
Experience: The CEReKi is a research center of the University of Liège (Belgium) that has developed adapted activities where preschools children are playing and at the same time developing perceptuals and fundamental motor skills. From our field experience one of the more efficient ways to get children attention and participation is to introduce the activities with stories and imagination. Teachers from CEReKi are using fantasy in order to invite children into a funny world where everything could become possible like the "the never-never land of Peter Pan". The way of telling the story as well as the used characters (like the wolf) must be adapted to the age of the children.
Critical analysis: From our experience, using stories and imagination is effective in increasing children‘s engagement during PE as it makes activities more fun and more enjoyable. Even if we don’t have any measurement on its effect, we are convinced that such approach improve children’s motor learning. However using stories and imagination with the children is neither a natural nor an easy thing for inexperienced teachers. The use of fantasy with the children should be introduces in the vocational training.
Conclusions: With more than twenty years of experience, we believe that stories and imagination are powerful factors that makes physical activities funny and enjoyable for the children. Such strategy may positively enchase young people’s attitudes towards physical education and ultimately, physical activity participation.