WAG Preschool/Mommy & Me Class Ideas

[flippinam]

I know this has been discussed a lot, but I can't seem to find any threads that are exactly what I'm looking for. The classes I teach have 18-month-old (mommy and me) up to age three in the same class. I'm having trouble coming up with warm ups/circuits that would work well for these age groups together. The equipment I have to work with is a very small floor space, one beam, one floor beam, a very small tumble trak, preschool sized rings, p bars, high bar, low bar, & uneven bars, one wedge mat, a small barrel/octagon mat, a tunnel, & a springboard. There are also some carpet squares and colorful dots. I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with circuits that both age groups can follow and will stay engaged in while also challenging the older kids. Does anybody have any ideas of a sample warmup/circuits? Thanks in advance!

 

[gymisforeveryone]

I coached several classes for this age group during the summer. These are the warm up games that I used:

Color game:
The kids run freely in the gym with their parents when music plays. When the music stops, you ask them to find something yellow and touch it with their nose. The parents help the kids to find the color and the right body part. Easy, fun and simple enough.

Animal game:
Before starting the game, introduce the parents and the kids different animals and movements that they do together when you yell the chosen animal name. Some examples:
A monkey in a tree - the parent lifts the child on her back and the kid pretends to be a monkey
A fish under a bridge - the parent puts hands and feet on the floor and the kid goes under him/her and pretends to be a fish swimming
A flying bird - the parent lifts the kid up and the kid pretends to be a flying bird
A baby kangaroo with her mother kangaroo - the parents goes down on her knees and makes a circle out of his/her arms when the kids jumps inside pretending to be a kangaroo
Crabs on the beach - the parents and the kid put their hands and feet on the ground belly facing upwards and they pretend to be crabs
When the music plays the kids run freely and when it stops you yell an animal.

Car game:
Put all the carpet squares on the floor. When you yell the word GREEN and show a green colored card the kids run freely pretending to be speeding cars. When you yell the word RED and show red card they freeze. YELLOW card means that they get ready to drive and run in place. When you yell the word GARAGE they find a carpet square to sit on. You can keep going with the car theme stretching on floor (sitting in a pike, touching gas pedal foot and brake foot etc)

Carpet square game:
Put all the carpet squares on the floor. When music plays the kids move around the floor. When the music stops they find a square to sit on. Then you ask them get up again and now move on their tiptoes / on their heels / crawl / jump / stomp... And again when the music stops they find a new square. You can also ask them to do something on their place before starting moving again, like touch your toes three times with your nose or something else silly and fun

The circuits can be anything... The most important thing is that nothing is too hard or too scary and that the parents can modify the "skill" if the kid doesn't have the ability to do something quite yet. You can also move around and when you notice that the three year olds do well on some stations you can show them a harder version that they can try if they find it too easy.

Stations that you can do with your equipment:
- hanging and swinging on rings for mommy and me, spotted skin the cat for preschoolers
- rolling down the wedge mat for mommy and me, front rolls for preschoolers
- jumping on square mat on the tumble track for mommy and me, jumping jacks (or side straddle hops, what do you call these?) with feet only on and off the carpet square for the preschoolers
- crawling through the tunnel for both
- "front roll" using the barrel to land on soft mat for both. the parents can spot the mommy and me kids
- bear stand on p bars for mommy and me, bear walks on the p bars for preschoolers (I hope you have a big mat to put under the bars and a spotting block that they climb on first)
- put colorful dots on the floor beam. the mommy and me class just steps over them and the preschoolers try to jump over
- put colorful dots on the floor next to beam. the kids walk across the beam and squat to touch the dots
- on beam the mommy and me kids can just stand or walk holding their parents' hands. sloth hang under the beam for preschoolers (they grab the beam with their arms and feet and try to hang a second. make sure that you have high soft mats under)
- on bars the mommy and me kids can just hang and hold a stuffed animal between their feet. the preschool kids can do the same or try to swing a little and then throw the stuffed animal as far as they can with their feet
- bear walks, crab walks, jumping from square to square etc on floor
- jumping on the spring board for mommy and me, donkey kicks hands on spotting block / tumble track / wedge mat for preschoolers

 

[flippinam]

I coached several classes for this age group during the summer. These are the warm up games that I used:

Color game:
The kids run freely in the gym with their parents when music plays. When the music stops, you ask them to find something yellow and touch it with their nose. The parents help the kids to find the color and the right body part. Easy, fun and simple enough.

Animal game:
Before starting the game, introduce the parents and the kids different animals and movements that they do together when you yell the chosen animal name. Some examples:
A monkey in a tree - the parent lifts the child on her back and the kid pretends to be a monkey
A fish under a bridge - the parent puts hands and feet on the floor and the kid goes under him/her and pretends to be a fish swimming
A flying bird - the parent lifts the kid up and the kid pretends to be a flying bird
A baby kangaroo with her mother kangaroo - the parents goes down on her knees and makes a circle out of his/her arms when the kids jumps inside pretending to be a kangaroo
Crabs on the beach - the parents and the kid put their hands and feet on the ground belly facing upwards and they pretend to be crabs
When the music plays the kids run freely and when it stops you yell an animal.

Car game:
Put all the carpet squares on the floor. When you yell the word GREEN and show a green colored card the kids run freely pretending to be speeding cars. When you yell the word RED and show red card they freeze. YELLOW card means that they get ready to drive and run in place. When you yell the word GARAGE they find a carpet square to sit on. You can keep going with the car theme stretching on floor (sitting in a pike, touching gas pedal foot and brake foot etc)

Carpet square game:
Put all the carpet squares on the floor. When music plays the kids move around the floor. When the music stops they find a square to sit on. Then you ask them get up again and now move on their tiptoes / on their heels / crawl / jump / stomp... And again when the music stops they find a new square. You can also ask them to do something on their place before starting moving again, like touch your toes three times with your nose or something else silly and fun

The circuits can be anything... The most important thing is that nothing is too hard or too scary and that the parents can modify the "skill" if the kid doesn't have the ability to do something quite yet. You can also move around and when you notice that the three year olds do well on some stations you can show them a harder version that they can try if they find it too easy.

Stations that you can do with your equipment:
- hanging and swinging on rings for mommy and me, spotted skin the cat for preschoolers
- rolling down the wedge mat for mommy and me, front rolls for preschoolers
- jumping on square mat on the tumble track for mommy and me, jumping jacks (or side straddle hops, what do you call these?) with feet only on and off the carpet square for the preschoolers
- crawling through the tunnel for both
- "front roll" using the barrel to land on soft mat for both. the parents can spot the mommy and me kids
- bear stand on p bars for mommy and me, bear walks on the p bars for preschoolers (I hope you have a big mat to put under the bars and a spotting block that they climb on first)
- put colorful dots on the floor beam. the mommy and me class just steps over them and the preschoolers try to jump over
- put colorful dots on the floor next to beam. the kids walk across the beam and squat to touch the dots
- on beam the mommy and me kids can just stand or walk holding their parents' hands. sloth hang under the beam for preschoolers (they grab the beam with their arms and feet and try to hang a second. make sure that you have high soft mats under)
- on bars the mommy and me kids can just hang and hold a stuffed animal between their feet. the preschool kids can do the same or try to swing a little and then throw the stuffed animal as far as they can with their feet
- bear walks, crab walks, jumping from square to square etc on floor
- jumping on the spring board for mommy and me, donkey kicks hands on spotting block / tumble track / wedge mat for preschoolers

Thank you so much! This is very helpful. I just moved and am coaching at a new gym that does things very differently than my old gym. At the first gym, 18 mo-2yrs was open gym mommy and me with no class structure. 3-5 was preschool, and I was given a list of equipment and what could be done on each piece in a circuit. So coming up with new things for a different age group on my own with a new gym has been a learning curve! I want to be the best coach I can be with these littles so they love gymnastics lol. Another question, how do you keep kids moving smoothly through circuits? One problem I've had is some kids will rush through each one and then more than one kid will be at a station at a time causing chaos. At my old gym I had the kids stay at each station for 1 min then I'd tell them to switch. But the classes I have here are smaller (last time there were only two kids) so I don't see this working too well