Fresh ideas to bring the season into your circuits and stations!
Spring is the perfect time to refresh your preschool gymnastics lesson plans with bright, imaginative themes that match the season. The longer days, budding flowers, and buzz of nature create a fun backdrop for movement-based learning. Here are five spring-themed activities to bring the magic of the season into your gym!
🌸 1. Flower Garden Balance Beam
Skill focus: Balance and coordination
- Set up a “flower path” using balance beams, foam blocks, or poly spots.
- Scatter silk flowers or flower cutouts along the path for kids to “step over,” “pick,” or “smell” as they go.
- Encourage arms out wide “like petals” to help with balance.
- Allow the kids a handful of “petals” (or “seeds”) that they can hold out to the side and scatter out to the side into the “garden” as they walk.
- Add mini watering cans or flowerpots at the end for pretend play!
💡 Coach tip: Use a garden-themed rhyme while they balance, like “Tiptoe, tiptoe, through the tulips, nice and slow!”
🌧️ 2. Rainy Day Jumps
Skill focus: Jumping and two-foot takeoffs
- Lay out hula hoops or blue mats as “puddles” and invite kids to jump over or into the puddles with two feet.
- Add umbrellas or raindrop visuals hanging from the ceiling for extra fun.
- Cue them to “splash like a puddle frog” or “hop like a bunny escaping the rain.”
💡 Coach tip: Add rhythm by playing springtime music and timing jumps to the beat.
🐣 3. Egg Hunt Obstacle Course
Skill focus: Gross motor skills & sequencing
- Hide plastic eggs around a circuit. Each child gets a basket and completes the circuit, collecting eggs as they go.
- Inside the eggs, you can include simple movement prompts like “do 3 bunny hops” or “balance on one foot like a flamingo.”
- Scatter the eggs at one end of the playing area. The kids hop like bunnies to collect them (one at a time) and bring them back to a basket or they can sort them into hoops by colour/size or any other defining feature.
💡 Coach tip: Use different coloured eggs to guide kids through a specific path or difficulty level.
🦋 4. Butterfly Rolls
Skill focus: Forward rolls and body awareness
- Invite kids to pretend they’re caterpillars crawling on their bellies (army crawls), then curl up in a “cocoon” (tuck hold), and finally turn into butterflies doing forward rolls. After rolling, they can flap their arms and “fly” down a runway or across a spring-themed mat.
💡 Coach tip: Add a storytelling element to tie in the life cycle of a butterfly—great for keeping engagement high!
🌱 5. Plant a Seed Stretch & Warm-Up
Skill focus: Flexibility and full-body warm-up
- Start the class with a stretch activity that mimics the growth of a seed.
- Have kids curl into a ball on the floor (seed)
- Then slowly stretch upward (sprout), reaching tall like growing flowers or trees.
- Add in wind-blown side stretches and light jumps like “spring showers” watering them.
💡 Coach tip: This can be a great way to settle the group and bring calm focus before active circuits begin.
HAPPY SPRING TIME IN THE GYM!
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