Sunita Williams Elementary Physical Education

MAHPERD Presentations 2018

3-5 Educational Gymnastic Progressions - MAHPERD 2018

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to attend my presentation at MAHPERD 2018 and I hope you found some of the information useful and relevant to you. This was my second ever presentation (I did my first one yesterday on K-2 progressions) and I am open to any and all feedback that you might have for me. Feel free to email me at rob_tatro@needham.k12.ma.us.

It was my goal to show you some simple progressions that you can add immediately to your educational gymnastics unit whether you are a crafty veteran like myself, a newbie on the block, or anywhere in between. I've been testing and tweaking these learning experiences in my gymnasium for the past 20 years and can wholeheartedly say that they have given my students the ability to see themselves as gymnasts no matter what their level of experience. Educational gymnastics can and should be accessible to everyone, not just the formally trained. I know, teaching educational gymnastics can be intimidating but when you set up a safe, developmentally appropriate learning environment, centered around explicit instruction and comfortable routines, your students can and will be dressed for success!

Routine is still not the enemy!

As I talked about in yesterday's presentation, when it comes to gymnastics, routines are necessary and comforting for students, even for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. They know what they are going to do, when they are going to do it, and also know that if they do what they are supposed to, they will be rewarded!

These routines become a little more student driven rather than teacher driven as students become more independent and can take on more responsibility during class. Here is what the typical routine looks like:

The Warm-up routine is written on a whiteboard that students read on the way into the gym, before they get ready for gymnastics. These warm ups are more or less fitness based and designed to help students gain strength, flexibility, and conditioning needed for gymnastics. Here though, routine IS the enemy and the warm-ups take on a crossfit kids undertone to constantly vary what we are working on so that the body can react and adapt.

Each grade level is working up to a standard that we are trying to meet and the students have learned about the progressions we use to try to get to that standard. Students spend 5-10 minutes working up the progressions that are challenging for them. Conversations about hard work, determination, student centered learning, and overcoming obstacles are very common during this time. 5-10 minutes doesn't sound like a long time but when it's focused, deliberate work done over the course of 10 lessons, it adds up and a lot of learning can and does take place here.

Sometimes, early in the unit, the lesson focus may be working up through the deliberate practice progressions but once those are learned, this is where we introduce new topics. These topics are integral in giving students the tools necessary for them to be able to create their very own gymnastics sentences (routines).

"Explore time" is time students can explore how they can use concepts learned in class and try to adapt them to the environment around them. This is also an opportunity to ask for help. Very often, "explore time" can be used as a carrot on a stick, so to say, in order for you to get what you want out of the lesson focus and it is not guaranteed if you are not getting what you want from the lesson. Explore time tends to diminish as students get later into the unit and begin to center their attention on creating their gymnastic sentences.

Nothing fancy here but I will point out that this time can be valuable. Reminding students that if they don't transition quickly from explore time to socks and shoes, then we will stop earlier next class to make more time for the transition to take place. Similarly, if students are lingering while putting on their socks and shoes, students will be reminded of the same thing. Trying to get this time be as short as possible is our goal so that we can spend more time in gymnastics.

Examples of Learning Progressions

Third Grade

Inverted Balances

A reminder that Balances are shapes that are strong and still for 3 gymnastics and that they are a fun way to demonstrate what amazing control you have of your body. Balanced can be made more or less difficult depending on how many bases of support you use, what kind of shape you decide to make, and which body parts you balance on.
A very simple way to make your balances pop as to add inversion to them. Inverted is a fancy way of saying upside down, in our case, we'll say head lower than our shoulders.
Let's try to create some wheelbarrows. We all know that a garden wheelbarrow has a point of contact on the ground, while the handles are held up in the air. We're going to create wheelbarrows by having a point of contact on the ground and have our "handles" (legs) supported by a piece of equipment until our head is lower than our shoulders. Wheelbarrows can vary in difficulty depending on what we use as a point of contact, what we use to support our handles, and what kinds of shapes we use. Let's explore the space around us and try to create as many different kinds of wheelbarrows as we can. Remember to keep them strong and still for 3 gymnastics.
We can also make these inverted balances a little bit more challenging but not using the equipment to help us stay balanced. Let's learn about an inverted balance called a tripod. A tripod uses three (tri) bases of support in the shape of a triangle - two hands and your head. The bigger and wider you can make your triangle, the stronger your base of support will be. To get center your body, get up on your tippy toes, and walk them into the triangle, try to put one knee up on the elbow step, then the other. That's our tripod. Now, you can make this tripod balance on it's own in space if you're body is strong enough but if you need to, you can use a helper mat to lean against if need be.

Fourth Grade

Tripods/Headstands

After reviewing inverted balances like wheelbarrows and tripods (assisted and unassisted). Talk to the students about there being a progression of skills which can help you get to a handstand. The progression is kind of like a ladder, you take on step at a time to get up to the top rung which, in this case, is an Unassisted Handstand. We've already gone up the first three steps of the ladder with our wheelbarrow, our assisted tripod, and our unassisted tripod. Let's keep going.
Assisted headstand, get into an assisted tripod against a helper mat. Tuck your knees in and keep your knees together while you try to lift your feet all the way up the mat. Try to do this on your own with your muscles, don't let anyone lift your feet for you.
Headstand. Get into your tripod in space, try to slowly lift your feet up with control. Try not to move to fast so that you don't lose your balance.

Fifth Grade

Headstands/Handstands

Kickups. In space, start in a lunge and in one motion, try to get your hands down to the ground and kick up off of your dominant foot/leg. Try not to kick so hard that you risk tipping over and be super strong with your arms so that you don't collapse. Try to get as close to vertical as you can.
Walk ups. Find a helper mat. Turn with your feet against the mat and slowly start to walk your feet up the mat, as you do this, slowly walk your hands toward the mat and try not to let your body bow. See if you can walk your body all the way up the mat and hold.
Kick ups to assisted handstand. Against a helper mat, do a kick up so that your body gets vertical to the mat and the mat helps support your body straight up and down. Stay strong with your arms. Challenge - can you get your heels off of the mat? How about the back of your knees? Your hips?
Kick up to tip over. Using a crash pad as your back drop, kick up to vertical, try to pause as long as you can, before your body begins to tip over. Stay straight and land flat on the crash pad.
Handstand with bumpers. Ask a friend to put out a bumper (straight arm extended) kick up to the bumper and while you do that, the partner will "trap" your legs by extending their other bumper. See if you can push off of the bumpers and try to stay between them.
Unassisted handstand. Kick up to hold a handstand, count how long you can hold. Extension - find a who can also hold a handstand and have fun challenging them to a handstand battle.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse