We joined a rather new homeschool co-op in my area and are really enjoying it. Really the only thing I'd like to see run a little differently is the gym class. Right now the kids are led to the gym for about half an hour and they are to find something active to do during that time. It's generally something with balls but nothing structured. I'm going to make a suggestion that planned activities be done during that time.
There are some shy kids in the group that don't just jump in where the action and usually stay on the fringes watching everyone else. Yes, I'm mostly talking about my two that I take. I don't take my oldest one as there are no other kids their his age and he'd be annoying beyond belief if I forced it on him, so I let him stay home.
I was doing some searches online yesterday for some ideas that I could implement into a gym class if they are interested in letting me help with it. I worry, though, since many of the kids seem to enjoy themselves as it is now, will they rebell if I try to add structure? The kids in this class range in age from 9 through 14. I'd like to stay away from competitive games and have the kids do things just because it's fun. Kind of hard to go totally non-competitive, but that's my goal eventually.
Here's a list of a few ideas I found or thought up, I wonder how they'd be received by the kids.
- Table tennis ball spoon race - balance a ball on a spoon, walk to the other end of the gym and around one or more obstacles and back to the next person in line. If dropped, pick it up and continue from where it dropped.
- Paddle ball balance - balance a table tennis ball on a table tennis paddle and continue as above.
- Frisbee toss - take three plastic flying discs and toss them one at a time either through a hula hoop or into a large trash can.
- Javelin throw - use pool noodles to throw through a hoop, into a large can or past a certain point on the floor.
- Chop Stick Relay - Using chopsticks, lift a stuffed chicken out of a bowl and transport to the other end of the gym and deposit into a frying pan, come back and give the chopsticks to the next person. The next person retrieves the chicken and brings back to the bowl. Continue until everyone has a turn. Chopsticks cannot be used to poke or stab the chicken, but must be used properly.
- Obstacle course - take whatever I can find in the gym area and create an obstacle course. For example, weave around cones in a line, bounce a ball around a chair, crawl under a table, etc.
- Wacky Walk - The kids would be spread out around the perimeter of the gym and would start walking in the same direction. Every 30 seconds or so a new way will be called out. They will continue with that for 30 seconds then return to walking for 30 seconds. Some ideas: crab-walk, reverse direction, backwards, jog, skip, jump, big steps, tiny steps, sideways, sideways jumping.
- Jump rope - teach some jump rope rhymes and teach how to jump in the middle of other people twirling the rope.
I hoping to find more ideas. I'm not sure if the co-op is interested in changing the way the gym class is run but if so, I'd like to be ready. The class is around 30 minutes and we have another 6 or 7 classes left in this semester. So if they'd be interested in holding off on it until the spring semester, then I'll be ready for that too. |
