Summer, Autumn, Winter, Spring...
Our seasons give us great inspiration to move, play and learn at Kindergym.
With the sun out in Summer, the beach is calling us☀️. We look forward to jumping over waves and looking for little fish in the water! Autumn brings the coloured leaves and the wind to blow those leaves off the trees🍂. It’s so much fun to pretend to be a leaf and sway in the wind before swirling and twirling all the way to the ground. In Winter it’s so cold❄️, but the puddles are fun to jump in. And when Spring arrives, we see the new flowers growing in the garden🌷 and the grass start to get long again!
Discover the Set Up
This theme we will be spending our time on the Tumbl Trak, beams, parallel bars & floor.
The summer sun is beaming over on the Tumbl Trak! We will use our fast feet to run quickly over the sand (it gets so hot in the sun!) and then bounce and jump with two feet over the waves. We’ll need to cool down after that, so we will also practise precision by using little tongs to pop the cold ice cubes in their trays.
The autumn leaves are falling at the Beams, so we will be sure to step with care! With our arms stretched wide for balance, we will lift our feet over each leaf so that it doesn’t crunch in our toes. Caterpillars are creeping out on our low beams. They move in a unique way and we’ll move just like them by walking our hands out first and then using our feet. This movement pattern is tricky, so it takes patience to master, but it is great for improving flexibility in our legs and shoulders, building upper body strength and developing handstand readiness.
At the Parallel Bars the flowers have blossomed and the grass is growing, yippee - it’s Spring time! Here is where we will pretend to be a seed, before pushing up through the ground and into a tall support hold - just like a flower growing. The clothes are hung outside again and we will climb our way past jumpers, t-shirts and shorts before using our pinch grip to carefully peg petals to make flowers. With rainbows decorating our bars, we will reach two hands up high, keep our eyes on the rail, and jump to catch the bar with two hands to hang among all the colours.
On the Floor you’ll find all things winter- from launching snow balls to rolling into the igloo - you might even find a furry penguin friend in there! We will climb over the icebergs and even try skating too.
Movement Matters
So, what is heavy work? Heavy work is activity that requires effort from our muscles and these tasks usually involve pushing, pulling or lifting. At Kindergym, heavy work may look something like walking like a bear or caterpillar or lifting our own body weight between two blocks. Take a look at the heavy work being undertaken by these Kindergym kids:
The sensory system that is activated during heavy work activities is the proprioceptive system. Heavy work activities create resistance input to the muscles and this feedback contributes to regulating this system. The proprioceptive system receives messages when muscles work, these messages flow back and forth to the brain and the brain then decides how much force and pressure a muscle should use based on the task at hand. This practice allows children to learn to use the correct amount of force when they need to hold something gently in one hand or when they need to lift something heavy and when they need to push a friend on a swing with force compared to tapping a balloon to keep it off the ground.
It’s a complex system that is constantly adjusting to make sure the brain is providing the right information to all the joints and muscles in the body to make sure the muscle output is appropriate to the task.
One form of “heavy work” that we have incorporated during this theme is weight bearing.
Weight bearing is exactly what it sounds like: supporting the body’s weight through the limbs. Sure does sound like heavy work! While kids are often standing, walking, running and putting pressure through their legs, it’s also very important not to forget about weight bearing for the arms! Why? Because weight bearing not only helps to strengthen muscles and improve bone density, it also helps to shape the joints of growing kids. So, at Kindergym we’ll strive to strengthen all 206 bones and 600 muscles!
Along with stronger bones, weight bearing ultimately leads to improvement in a child’s balance, strength, and coordination.… and what better place to practise all this, than at Kindergym!
Did you know that weight bearing ability is the most essential element for handstand success? Have a look at where our support balances, caterpillar crawling and front support shapes lead to: