Primary School Gymnastics

Teaching Movement Action Successfully

Lawry Price

• Publisher: David Fulton Publishers
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136765940
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book is designed to help teachers develop well-structured and progressive programs of gymnastics activities for primary-aged children (3-11 years). In gymnastics, children learn not only how their bodies move and how body parts work in co-operation with other parts, but they are also able to develop awareness of space and a sense of control.

Practical Primary Gymnastics presents themed activities appropriate for infant, junior and upper junior levels, and shows how teachers can plan to use these in structured themes of work. The activities aim to broaden children's abilities in: jumping and landing skills; rolling actions; taking weight on different body parts; using a range of traveling actions; and working at floor level and using gymnastic apparatus at varying heights.

Gymnastics is a fundamental part of the PE curriculum. This book offers practical help for teachers in this vital area and focuses on enabling individual children to succeed at their own level.

1	Using These Teaching Materials

Drawing on my own teaching experience, as well as that of teachers whom I have worked alongside over the years, has brought home the key message that teaching gymnastics to primary school aged children presents a unique set of challenges. These often focus on ideas for practice, progression in the work and how to transfer the work covered on the floor (and therefore low-level apparatus) on to the more demanding large apparatus work. Supporting teachers’ own development as effective practitioners in the area, as well as meeting their desire to provide meaningful and real learning opportunities for their children, has prompted this teaching resource. The teaching materials presented here aim to meet such needs, are prompts for ongoing work in the area and ultimately satisfy the remit of a gymnastics curriculum for primary aged children.

When help and support are called for in the teaching of primary school gymnastics it helps greatly if there is a basic framework in place in which to set potential work. Knowing what actions and movements to expect from children is a starting point, but an awareness of the dynamics involved is equally important if the work is to progress sequentially and in line with the growing bodies that primary children present us to work with. Picking out a number of progressive themes that cover key essentials can ensure the relevance and appropriateness of activity offered.

This book presents a thematic approach to learning through gymnastic activities. This is not ‘new’ but is a restatement that the aim of gymnastics provision in our primary schools is to teach movement by focusing clearly on the body, its constituent parts and how these work together with the natural actions that young children perform daily in their everyday movement, play and recreation. The starting point is to build on what children do quite naturally in their everyday lives, through their play and their natural inclination to move through their immediate environment.

The materials are divided for ease of reference into three key age phases:

• Reception, Year 1 and Year 2;

• Years 3 and 4;

• Years 5 and 6.

A further division of the aims of teaching gymnastics into four key subheadings will help teachers to understand where work in this area is focused at particular points and support progression in the work to be covered. If, as suggested here, body, dynamic, spatial and relationships are aspects of movement education central to learning in this area, so is a movement vocabulary to support this. These are referenced within the teaching content section of this book and as a further appendix in the materials, and are hugely significant for communicating ideas, setting learning tasks and prompting responses from children, and need to be at the forefront of a teacher’s delivery style when teaching gymnastics.

The ideas and structure presented here are models to work from, to refer to when the work needs further consolidation or extension. They match (in six cases) to medium-term planning, again subject to rates of progress. A rationale for the teaching of gymnastics, markers of child development to assist decisions when to teach what, and extension work possibilities, are provided for teacher reference and potential use. The materials also seek to promote confidence in individual teachers’ abilities to present work in this area positively, with enthusiasm and effectively, by presenting an increased knowledge base to this particular subject.

They should not be seen in isolation from other resources and support materials. Indeed, the very best practitioners will look for links with other sources of subject knowledge in this sphere and harness what is presented here alongside what they commonly use already. Expanding one’s own source of backcloth materials helps to address the alternatives that are on offer and meets much of the demand for ideas and practical solutions to everyday planning concerns.

Teachers are therefore invited to use these materials freely, with their own interpretations, and openly share what they have to offer with others. Do keep in mind the importance of teachers being prepared to repeat and consolidate previous work, to cover tasks and themes that have been covered previously in a variety of different ways and with different approaches. Just such an approach will take account of children’s development, their differing growth patterns, the need for provision of work that includes provision for children’s developing strength, and also allows for teacher’s own personal delivery style to surface. This will entail different task setting in floor work, and alternative ways of teaching through a fuller range of organisational methods on the apparatus (to include different layouts and ways of organising children in their use of portable and fixed equipment). It is the primary aim of these materials that teachers profit from their detail and utilise them accordingly for everyone’s benefit.

2	A Rationale for Primary School Gymnastics

The place of gymnastics in a child’s education has reached a point where its importance needs to be restated. The primary school has long been the place where the individual child’s ‘whole education’ is looked after, where teachers value the opportunity to see advances in the full range of educational experiences and activities and to witness strides made in intellectual and physical capabilities. Gymnastic activities, as a fundamental part of the physical education curriculum, have traditionally been the area of the curriculum where physical and therefore movement capabilities can be closely witnessed. It is the area where children learn about how their bodies move, what different body parts can do in cooperation with other parts and how their bodies can move in space and in relation to other children. It is also the place where the challenges of working at different speeds, heights and levels and coming into contact with a range of different surfaces occur.

Moreover, the contribution that work in the area makes to learning in other PE areas, like dance and games, is an added consideration to be borne in mind when justifying the importance of gymnastic activities. The development of a movement vocabulary that promotes, for example, a variety of responses to ways of travelling, using space, making different body shapes, balancing on different body parts, jumping and landing skills and working at differing speeds, is very clearly required in the performance aspects of those core PE areas too. Teachers’ awareness of the potential for transferability of skill learning will enhance the overall knowledge, skills and understanding referenced as part of National Curriculum PE requirements. It could also be added that as children do acquire greater control, accuracy and versatility in their motor competence, so gymnastics can also bring a discipline to their motor performance.

A rationale for teaching gymnastics in the primary school setting could be summarised as follows:

•   Why? To service the need for children to become increasingly controlled and skilful in their physical movements and competences. Gymnastics is primarily concerned with both gross and fine motor development and contributes markedly to gradual and progressive improvement in coordination, balance, flexibility, strength and stamina (specifically on improving cardiovascular efficiency).

•   What? To broaden children’s abilities in jumping and landing skills, rolling actions and taking weight on different body parts, and to promote a range of different travelling actions.

•   Where? The ability to display the broadening range of skills on the floor, initially on low apparatus level surfaces and increasingly on the varied surfaces offered by a full provision of gymnastic apparatus, including apparatus that provides opportunities to work at increased heights.

•   How? Through a full range of teaching methods and an approach that promotes children succeeding at their own level – using teaching methods that focus on promoting the individual child’s learning and success in physical activity.

•   When? Consistently through well thought through planned units of work over concentrated periods of time, consolidating what has gone before and extending children’s repertoire of skilful body actions.

It would be useful to add a further question: what would be the result of children not experiencing this area of learning? It might be appropriate to suggest that if this were the case then a vital cog in children’s all round development would be missing, and there would inevitably be a shortfall in their physical performance capabilities. Furthermore, the wider brief of PE should not be understated. The subject generally, and gymnastics specifically, makes a major contribution to speaking and listening skills, children’s aesthetic and artistic development and their ability to develop problem-solving skills, as well as nurturing interpersonal and observational skills. These are all invaluable life skills and part and parcel of the wider curriculum.

3	Motor Development

When we identify the notable physical differences between children in the age phase it is very obvious that what marks out children between the ages of five and 11 is their differences in height and weight. However, this is less marked for children between five and seven, and very evident when children begin to sprout in all directions at varying rates across the later childhood period. The work to be covered in gymnastics needs to reflect these physical differences, as well as taking note of the types of activities that promote physical (and therefore motor) development. Table 1 logs typical motor characteristics by age groups and the types of activities that will promote further development.

An ultimate aim of physical education in the primary school is to provide learning opportunities that promote a series of movement activities that continually service the need for improved and increased efficiency in overall motor function in children. This is achieved by the broad and balanced curriculum advocated by National Curriculum PE, includes adherence to individual and group activity across a spectrum of activity and is sequenced to match with the growth and developmental needs of children across the age phase. The ten distinct components of ‘efficient motor function’ should be embedded within planning considerations, whatever area of PE is intended to be delivered (see below).

Ten distinct components of efficient motor function

1	Symmetrical activity
2	Basic body movement
3	Large muscle development
4	Fine muscle development
5	Ey...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Using These Teaching Materials
• 2 A Rationale for Primary School Gymnastics
• 3 Motor Development
• 4 Ensuring Continuity and Progression in the Work
• 5 National Curriculum Physical Education
• 6 Developing the Work
• 7 A Checklist for Health and Safety in Gymnastic Activities
• 8 Gymnastics Teaching Material for Reception, Year 1 and Year 2
• 9 Gymnastics Teaching Material for Years 3 and 4
• 10 Gymnastics Teaching Material for Years 5 and 6
• 11 Further Gymnastic Themes
• Appendix 1: Record Sheets for Assessment of Pupil Progress
• Appendix 2: The Content of Primary Gymnastic Activity: Movement Vocabulary
• Resources
• Index