WAG Ideas for big age range?

[gymnastbeth]

I'm volunteering at a community center in my city that aims to provide low-income families with good child care. The majority of these children are children of immigrants who do not speak English very well.

My job is to come in twice a week and teach a one hour gymnastics class to these kids, which I'm super excited about doing! My main roadblock is that there are 12 children, with ages ranging from 5-11, and I don't know how to structure a class for such a wide age range. None of the children have gymnastics experience, so it would mainly be a game-based class, with a focus on balance and flexibility, not any advance "skills." (I'm thinking jumps, leaps, handstands, rolls, and cartwheel progressions at most)

There are both boys and girls in the class. Does anyone have any ideas for what games to do with them, or how to structure the one hour that I have with them? I want it to be fun and challenging for everyone, but not too easy for the older kids! The equipment that I have available is mats and a small folding floor beam that sits about an inch off the ground. The space is a large room with a matted floor.

Any help is seriously appreciated!!

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Wow challenging, I would say can you rope in some more help another volunteer or parent, and then split the class into stations for part of it, also if they largely speak one other language, and I'm guessing in the states it will probably be Spanish, have that helper Spanish speaking to help translate for you.

 

[gymnastbeth]

Wow challenging, I would say can you rope in some more help another volunteer or parent, and then split the class into stations for part of it, also if they largely speak one other language, and I'm guessing in the states it will probably be Spanish, have that helper Spanish speaking to help translate for you.

Yes! I forgot to mention that while I am running/organizing the class, the owner of the community center is also helping out with the class, she just has no experience with gymnastics.

 

[Becauseisaid]

Obstacle course races - jump over mat, crawl under tented mat, hop on 1 leg, etc, etc.

Handstand contests - our girls do one where 1 set of girls form a circle and get into handstand, 2nd set of girls holds 1st set up, coach yells and all girls on the outside circle move 1 handstand kid to the right. If the handstand kid falls, both that kid and the one supporting her/him are out.

Layer mats to different heights, the kids throw a large yoga ball to a different kid, jump down and then back on to the mat, if you miss a catch or throw badly - you're out

Wheelies - 2 kids form a wheel and roll the length of the room

 

[coachmolly]

What kind of equipment do you have? How much space?

 

[penelope20_1999]

i would spend a good bit of time in warm-up teaching the names of everything.

"straddle" during straddle stretches, "pike" during pike stretches, bridges, table tops, splits, point/flex, names of body parts.... wrists, toes, etc. then move into a lined or double lined exercise with forward rolls all the way and then all the way back, then backward rolls, then straddle forward rolls, teach them finishes, teach them lunges, cartwheels, candlesticks, jump half turns, straight jump , tuck jump, split leaps (jump the river style), etc.

i would do beam skills on a tape line and on your folding beam. if its a gym, there already may be a line you can use. teach releve, dips, pivot turns, knee scales (a seemingly lost progression these days), bent knee scale, straight leg scales, tuck jumps, straight jumps, forward rolls, straight jump dismounts.

i'd use the last 15 minutes as game time and make it superrrrr fun! that way you are organized and everyone is not loud and chaotic.

i'm all for always making the last 10 minutes incredibly awesome. that's what they will remember most imo.

 

[nastia1]

I agree with the last post

 

[ayyyrial]

A big age range is challenging. I'd gear it towards the little kids and add things in for the older ones - since it will be hard for the little kids to follow along otherwise.

Good gymnastics games for an age range are things like Simon Says - you can incorporate gymnastics positions and skills (i.e. - make a straddle! hold an arabesque!). Obstacle courses are also great and lend themselves well to progressions. Ie. this particular part of the obstacle course could be just to put your hands down and hop your feet over, or it could be a cartwheel, depending on the kid. Little kids can just climb over stuff and try different walks, whereas older kids can do strength exercises and try skills.

If some of the kids don't have a grasp on English yet, it shouldn't be a problem. They will all need a lot of visual demonstration anyway since probably few of them have gymnastics vocabulary, and in gymnastics words aren't as meaningful as visuals especially for beginners.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

ours used to play a conditioning game that they really loved (strange things). We had a pack of giant cards, each suit was an exercise, so sit ups, pull ups etc , and the number was the number you had to do, 10 for court cards, 1 for aces. the cards were spread out on the floor face down and it was a team race. One person form each team picked a card and the whole team did the exercise. Then when they had finished the next person picked a card and so on. The team with the most cards at the end was the winner. You could do a similar thing but with moves. It can get quite competitive though

 

[Becauseisaid]

ours used to play a conditioning game that they really loved (strange things). We had a pack of giant cards, each suit was an exercise, so sit ups, pull ups etc , and the number was the number you had to do, 10 for court cards, 1 for aces. the cards were spread out on the floor face down and it was a team race. One person form each team picked a card and the whole team did the exercise. Then when they had finished the next person picked a card and so on. The team with the most cards at the end was the winner. You could do a similar thing but with moves. It can get quite competitive though

Oooh. I like this one. I'm going to suggest it to DD's coaches.