Warm Up Stretches

One of our favorite warm up stretches involves pretending to be trees or plants. We begin by imagining we are small seeds in the ground. Next we begin to grow. This helps to develop our balance and coordination as we stretch our arms and stand on our toes. This is also a great activity as it connects to our science curriculum.

We are beginning to balance on one foot while putting our arms to the side or up in the air; this is the "tree" yoga pose.

Spring Relay Races

Last week we celebrated the beginning of Spring with some fun relay races. We had to work together as a team and take turns.

For our first race, we pretended to be rabbits. We hopped to one side of the gym and back. 

Next we had an egg and spoon race; we needed to travel to the opposite side of the gym and back while balancing an egg on a plastic spoon. 

Gym Jam Tennis Program

This week we had two instructors from the Adamsons Tennis Academy visit St. Anne to teach us some tennis basics. We learned about the parts of a tennis racket and how to hold a racket properly.

We did some warm up activities with tennis balls and practiced throwing, catching, bouncing and balancing the ball. We had a great time learning about tennis!

Click here  to learn more about the Adamsons Tennis Academy.

Throwing to a Target

This week we worked on our throwing and catching skills. In order to strengthen these skills, we practiced throwing and catching a ball with a partner.

Our next activity was to throw a ball at a target; our task was to knock beanbags off of some pylons. We needed to make sure we used proper body positioning and kept our eyes on the target.

Relay Races

Since we enjoyed participating in our Olympic games so much, we decided to partake in some fun relay races in the gym.

Our first race was all about balance; we needed to travel across the gym and back while balancing a beanbag on our heads. For our second race we moved using the scooters (this is one of our favorite activities). Lastly we needed to travel to the other side and back while jumping in and out of hula hoops and over some skipping ropes.

We did a fantastic job at working together, taking turns and cheering on our teammates.

Hopping Frogs

This week we played a new tag game in the gym called hopping frogs. Some of us were chosen to be frogs; we used our imaginations and pretended that pool noodles were our long, sticky frog tongues. The rest of us were flies - the frogs tried to catch the flies!

We had 6 hula hoops set up around the gym. If a fly stood in a hula hoop, they were safe; a frog could not catch them. But, flies were only allowed to stay in a hula hoop for ten seconds. This was a great way for us to practice our counting. 

If a fly was tagged by a frog, they needed to sit on a "lily pad" (the blue mat) for a short amount of time and then they returned to the game. 

Not only did we get to practice our counting; this game helped us to develop our spatial awareness as we needed to maneuver around hula hoops when travelling throughout the gym. 

Dribbling

This week we had the opportunity to practice our bouncing and dribbling skills. We began by bouncing the ball with two hands, now we are working on dribbling the ball with one hand while travelling.

To practice these skills, we each received a hula hoop. We began by bouncing the ball with two hands; the ball had to stay inside of the hoop. We learned how to control the ball and properly position our bodies. Next we practiced bouncing and dribbling the ball with one hand while remaining in our space.

Lastly we extended these skills; we dribbled the ball with one hand while walking around the gym.