Dec 16, Coordisports P.E. Report

Preschool December 16, 2022

Mr Shuhei comes to CGK Preschool every two weeks to lead his super fun PE lessons.
Each column will feature some insights or stories about physical development, reports for each PE lesson, and share some YouTube videos showing some physical activities that you can try at home with your child.

Expert Column

The next skill that I'll talk about is keeping the rhythm. Keeping the rhythm means to move your body to external stimuli without any unnecessary movements. An example of this is dance! Dance can be cool when your body moves to the rhythm or music (the external stimuli). The dance can't be cool when you can’t keep the rhythm. But, if you intend to control the rhythm, you can dance well even if you miss the rhythm. Dancers have a very high level of rhythm. As well, good rhythm skill is needed for interpersonal sports such as soccer. During one-on-one situations, the defensive player has to track the offensive player, not letting them go. Tracking the player requires good rhythm too. The offensive player needs good rhythm to disrupt the defensive player’s movement and rhythm. This is the same as controlling the rhythm in dance. Keeping the rhythm is moving and controlling your body to the external stimuli. A person who has high rhythm has the skill to be a great impersonator.

Jungle (3-year-old) Class Lesson Report

[Enjoy Upside Down]
The last PE of 2022 was held in the park. The following two activities were held: 1) ring and cone Jumping, 2) forward rolling over balls and horizontal bars and bats. First, the children jumped over rings and cones with various types of jumping. In the middle of the activity, cones were placed in the rings, and the children had to jump over the rings and cones as well. Cones were also stacked on top of each other, so that the children had to jump higher or they would knock over the cones. The children who maybe weren't so confident in jumping in April showed their growth when they can now jump over cones that were 20cm high. On the horizontal bar, the children played rock-paper-scissors with a teacher helping them while they were hanging upside down with their backs of their knees on the bars. Some of the children were a little scared, but by supporting their backs, they were able to enjoy playing rock-paper-scissors. We will continue to make PE fun in 2023! We are looking forward to seeing you again next year.

[Video] Hanging upside down and playing rock-paper-scissors-rock-paper like a bat.
Mountain (4-year-old) Class Lesson Report

[Exercising the Senses, Not the Muscles]
The last PE session of this year was held inside the school due to the cooler temperatures. The children did (1) rock-paper-scissors, (2) wheelbarrow, and (3) horizontal bars/backwards roll. In the rock-paper-scissors game, the children played rock-paper-scissors in pairs, with the winner sitting on the floor upright like chair and the losing child jumping over the legs of the sitting child. In the next game, the pairs also played rock-paper-scissors. This time, the winning child gets on all fours whilst the losing child has to hold their legs and maneuver them around like a wheelbarrow. Until now, the pairs have been told to take turns after moving ten steps forward. But this time they were told to take turns after flipping over three cones that were placed on the floor. By flipping the cones over, the children have to put their weight on one shoulder and arm. This experience will lead to the inverted movement that we plan to implement in the future. On the horizontal bars, we practiced arm bending and hanging. The children placed their chins on the bars, hung with their arms bent, and counted for ten seconds. Teachers assisted the children who had difficulty in maintaining the position. The idea is not to train arm strength, but rather to get a sense of bending the arms and pulling the body toward the bars. It is not muscle strength that is being trained, but rather the sensation. We will continue to make PE enjoyable next year by incorporating a variety of movements. We look forward to seeing you next year.

[Video] Let's train the sense of pulling the body to the bars by arm bending and hanging.
Sky (5-year-old) Class Lesson Report

[Same exercise, different aim]
The last PE in 2022 was held in the room. We did (1) gooper jump and (2) wall inversion/iron bar. The gooper jump is done in pairs, with one child sitting on the long legs and the other child standing across the legs of the child sitting on the long legs. The child in the long seat opens his/her legs and the child standing jumps to close his/her legs. Again, the timing is matched, and the child returns to the initial position. If the timing is off, the child who is sitting will step on the leg of the child who is standing. As one would expect from the Sky class, they spontaneously call out, "Se-no! and they were able to match the timing of the challenge. In the wall stand, the students climbed up the wall, and although it had been about three months since the last PE class, they remembered the point we had talked about before: "Keep your stomach away from the wall. If you put your stomach on the wall, it is easy because you rely on the wall a lot, but when it comes to inverting without the wall, you cannot do it well. Therefore, I told him to keep his stomach away from the wall while doing wall inverts. I felt his resilience as he remembered the points of improvement and worked on them voluntarily. After the new year, there will be only a few more PE sessions left at CGK. We will continue to provide enjoyable PE until the end of the year! I wish you a happy new year!

[Video] Wall inversion, Keep your stomach away from the wall and straighten yourself.