The following are videos in English about Young Athletes learning Foundation skills. See same videos in Spanish on the right.
Encourage the child to follow the movement of the scarf with his/her head and eyes. Try dropping the scarf and encourage the child to “catch” the scarf with his/her hand, head, elbow, foot, etc.
Sing with the melody of “The Wheels on the Bus.” Encourage the child to perform the actions of the song. Use motions you have seen the child do spontaneously. See if they can be replicated on cue from the songs.
Sing this well-known action song and encourage the child to perform the activities. Try replacing “clapping” with stomp your feet; rub your belly; shake your body; tap your head; etc.
Use high energy and enthusiasm to encourage participation in all the activities. Make note of the child's ability to remember lyrics, activities and/or body parts and reinforce those areas in other activities such as eating and dressing.
A player calls out the name of an object that is visible and then everyone races to the object by walking, running crawling, etc. Progress the game by calling out a feature of an object (color, shape, etc).
Encourage verbal, color recognition, object recognition and counting development by calling out colors, names and numbers of objects used in each activity. Ask children to repeat the objects you reference, including their name, color and number.
Make note of the concepts the child has mastered and those that are still developing (e.g., knows on/off, not up/down; identifies red, not blue). Incorporate concepts into other activities.
Bend forward so that hands and feet are on the ground and encourage the child to move like an inchworm by walking the hands forward and then walking the feet up to the hands.
Bend forward so that hands and feet are on the ground and encourage the child to hop like a bunny by moving the hands forward and then hopping the feet up to the hands.
One player forms a tunnel. The other player crawls, walks...etc. through the tunnel.One player forms a bridge by pushing his/her bottom up in the air. The other player crawls, walks... under the bridge.
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Georgie is emerging as the only bona fide athlete in the Seigenthaler-Hayes family. There is no sport he won’t try, no athletic endeavor he’s won’t pursue. No fear. No trembling. Just do it. That’s how George rolls.
Posted on 2013-04-23 by Tim
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