As gymnastics coaches, we know it is far more than just cartwheels and walkovers that we want teach our gymnasts. We are in the business of teach kids how to use their bodies!
Gymnastics teaches gross motor skills easily — it’s the nature of the sport.
“Gross motor (physical) skills are those which require whole body movement and which involve the large (core stabilising) muscles of the body to perform everyday functions, such as standing and walking, running and jumping, and sitting upright at the table. They also includes eye-hand coordination skills such as ball skills (throwing, catching, kicking) as well as riding a bike or a scooter and swimming.” (from Kid Sense )
The majority of what we do in the gym relates to gross motor skills in some way. It’s a natural things for us to teach them, but there is a lot of power in being intentional about it!
Here are 6 of my favourite activities that really includes the hand-eye (or hand-foot) element of gross motor skills:
1) Feet Ball Pass
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2) Bean Bag Matching
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3) Drumsticks on Beam
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4) Ball rolling!
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5) Bean Bags on a Plate
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6. Side to Side Jumping
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Fine motor skills are a little bit different.
“Fine motor skills involve the use of the smaller muscle of the hands, commonly in activities like using pencils, scissors, construction with lego or duplo, doing up buttons and opening lunch boxes. Fine motor skill efficiency significantly influences the quality of the task outcome as well as the speed of task performance. Efficient fine motor skills require a number of independent skills to work together to appropriately manipulate the object or perform the task.” (from Kid Sense)
Teaching fine motors skills in gymnastics classes is sometimes overlooked in favour for the big tricks, but imagine if we could all give these kids the chance to practice even more skills that requires dexterity? These kids will be more ready for school skills & also self care tasks like brushing their teeth, doing up zippers to dress themselves or opening containers.
Here are 4 ways to help develop these fine motor skills in a preschool class:
1. Fish Roll Up
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2.Egg Balancing (she makes it look easy!)
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3. Clothespin Climb
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4. Tongs (great side station idea!)
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Do you have any ideas about teaching fine & gross motor skills?
Feel free to post them up online and tag me on facebook or instagram (@recgympros)!
Love sharing ideas and learning about topics like this one?
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