Feb 3, Coordisports Physical Education
Mr Shuhei comes to CGK Preschool every two weeks to lead his super fun P.E. lessons.
Each column will feature some insights or stories about physical development, reports for each P.E. lesson, and share some YouTube videos showing some physical activities that you can try at home with your child.
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Commentary Article on Exercise
Let's take a slightly more in-depth look into Differentiation Ability, the fifth of the seven coordination motor abilities. Differentiation considers the body as a tool. Especially in early childhood, children can have difficulty with the control and use of their own body. For example, they may trip over themselves or collide head first with another child. Adults often watch on confused, thinking "How on earth did that happen!?" Children grow bigger every single day. “How long are my arms and legs?” “What is my height and weight?” They constantly need to change their perception of their body size. This is called Body Awareness. Before they start using equipment like bats, rackets, balls and gloves, we think it's best if the children first learn how to move their own bodies. Our goal is to have fun trying various movements, like the 36 basic movements we discussed previously.
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Jungle Class (3-year-olds) Activity Report
Learn When to Engage Your Core
The first activity in February was held indoors. ① Rock-Paper-Scissors ② Flexibility Exercises ③ Mat and Bar Exercises The winner of the Rock-Paper-Scissors game creates a "tunnel" by standing and widening their stance. The loser of the game then goes through the "tunnel". Everyday, they're getting better at knowing how to win a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, so this activity always ends up going well. For the next exercise, the winner sits on the floor with their legs straight out ahead of them and the loser jumps over them. For safety, the child sitting on the floor keeps their hands behind their backs. The winner of the final game of Rock-Paper-Scissors also sits on the floor with their legs out. The loser holds the ankles of the winner and using the winner’s hips like a pivot, makes one sideways turn. If their core isn't engaged, they will fall backwards. At classes, parents often ask us, "My child has a weak core, what should we do?" But actually, children don't have weak cores. They just don't understand when to engage them. Through this game of Rock-Paper-Scissors, they will come to learn when to engage their core. Give it a try at home! -
Mountain Class (4-year-olds) Activity Report
Let's Add Some Small Changes
P.E. class was indoors today, as it was a cold day with a high of less than 10°c. We played the ① Rock-Paper-Scissors game and did ② Mat and Bar Exercises The main focus of the Rock-Paper-Scissors game was the wheelbarrow exercise. The winner is in front, the loser stands behind. The winner puts their hands on the floor, as if doing a pushup, and also raises up their feet. The loser stays standing and takes hold of the winner's feet. The loser and the winner then take ten steps forward, making sure to keep in rhythm with each other. They have done this wheelbarrow exercise many times before so this time we increased the difficulty by making them focus on keeping their body straight by engaging their core or by holding only one leg. Next, two mats were joined together length ways so they could add another movement to the mat exercises. In order to connect two movements, they'll need to keep the second one in mind and maintain balance after they have completed the backward roll. By adding a few more steps to an exercise, they can develop new abilities, or improve current skills. Try adding little changes like this in your daily life! -
Sky Class (5-year-olds) Activity Report
Let's Value Purpose
It's now February. There are only 4 more P.E. lessons left during their time at Preschool. We did the ① Rock-Paper-Scissors game, ② Movement games (Bunny Hops) and ③ Bar and Vaulting Box exercises. For our movement exercise, we did bunny hops up to the vaulting box. From some distance away they start in a bear crawl position. Without moving their hands, they bring their feet forward, keeping their legs together. It's called a bunny hop because it resembles how rabbits hop and jump. This exercise then finishes with a closed-leg jump over the vaulting box. A "closed-leg jump" means to jump over the vaulting box while keeping their legs close together. If they can bring their feet in front of their hands during the bunny hop, they'll be able to do a closed leg jump over the vaulting box. We also asked the kids "Why do you think we are doing bunny hops?" In both exercise and study, having purpose is important. All movement is connected. We'd like to encourage the children to stop and think, "Why are we doing this movement?", so we talked about why we did bunny hops. We hope they were able to understand.(Reference) How to do Closed-leg Jumps: Bunny Hops ◯: Hands and then feet move forward. X: Hands and feet don't move at the same time. ◎: Hands are placed as far forward as possible.
coordisports Inc.
Shuhei Otsuka
coordisports
■Books
動画でわかる! 小学校体育 コーディネーション運動50 (体育科授業サポートBOOKS)
1年間まるっとおまかせ! 小学1・2年担任のための学級あそび大事典 (共著)
1年間まるっとおまかせ! 小学3・4年担任のための学級あそび大事典 (共著)
1年間まるっとおまかせ! 小学5・6年担任のための学級あそび大事典 (共著)