Prep – Grade Two

This term we started with a unit on skipping. As short rope skipping is a difficult skill for most children of this age, the emphasis was on gaining a smooth movement and experimenting with basic jump combinations e.g. side to side, forward and backward, jumping slow with a rebound jump in between them a continuous quick jump. The grade one and two children tried jumping with a partner in front of them and beside them.

The other skills we explored were all in a long rope, jumping and leaping the rope, running through the rope, running into the rope to jump, skipping rhymes and helicopter.

The children then participated in a week of water awareness lessons. In addition to progressing the children on with their swimming skills, it is also a perfect opportunity for those social skills of following instructions, keeping track of their belongings and the independence required to change before and after lessons.

As part of their water awareness, we discussed that as children, they should always have adult supervision in and around water and if uncomfortable in water, floating and waving to gain attention was the safest option. The children then practiced in the water, receiving an object that floats and using that for support. They also experienced being towed to the side with the weighted ropes.

Three – Four

The middle primary grades also started the term skipping, with running into the long rope from either side, jumping with a short rope in the long rope, using skipping rhymes, miss a beat, down the line and long rope running in and out, with a figure of eight and triangle.

With the short ropes we tried jumping with a partner in front, beside and various feet combinations. 

THREE / FOUR EXPO

This year we decided to run our own in-house sports expo. The sports were Tae Kwando, Basketball, Soccer and King of The Court (lead up to volleyball).  Unfortunately, the weather only allowed us to get three quarters of the way through all the sports, but the children certainly had fun with the three that they tried.                      

Five – six

The upper primary children skipped, they practiced running in and out of the long rope from either side, bouncing a basketball as they jumped, miss a beat, eggbeater, Double Dutch, all our friends, bounce pass to a partner in the rope and jumping a short rope within a long rope within an extra long rope.

Our short rope challenges, the same as the other grades required jumping in the rope and co-ordinating their feet to do other combinations (rather than conventional jumps), also manoeuvring the rope in unusual ways, e.g. holding one handle of the skipping rope with one arm under the knee of a raised leg.