“Whenever children say ‘let’s pretend’, a new landscape of possibilities for learning is revealed. When children pretend, they try on new feelings, roles and ideas. The stretch their minds along with their imaginations.” - Curtis Carter
You came through the doors of Eclipse to learn gymnastics, right? And when you think of gymnastics you probably think of handstands, cartwheels and forward rolls. So you might be wondering, why is my child learning about Fairytales in their Kindergym class?
Using a special theme throughout classes encourages our Kindergymers to explore movements, actions, make-believe scenarios and languages in ways they might not have before. Using a combination of deliberate and unstructured play through our sessions, with different themes to fuel their imaginations, ticks so many boxes in terms of their Physical Literacy (physical, psychological, social, cognitive) development. But most importantly, it’s so much fun!
In our Fairytales Theme, our little gymnasts will be…
- Building the ‘3 Little Pigs’ house where we will work on grip strength, problem solving and sharing with others.
- Acting out the 7 dwarfs along the beam to work on balance and to also help with developing their understanding other peoples emotions based on their body language and facial expressions.
- Bunny jumping like the White Rabbit and forward rolling down the hole to Wonderland. Bunny jumps are one of the most important stepping stones to mastering an awesome handstand, and forward rolls are helping create strong spacial, body, and aerial awareness.
You can read more about Physical Literacy development at sportaus.gov.au and see how many boxes gymnastics ticks off. (SPOILER: It’s a lot!)
And until next time, Happy Handstanding!
Comments