Ideas based from Veronica Sherborne

Organising

Keep the group small. If you can have an adult to work with each, child this will build a good relationship. Adults can work with children, children can partner each other, or older children can partner younger children. Both partners should gain from the experience.

Decide Aims

To develop an all round, balanced movement experience, children should be successful. Base the experience on what they need. i.e to build: communication, body awareness, or confidence. It maybe based around one particular child’s needs or based on the whole groups needs

Develop structure that can then be adapted over time

For example: 1. a hello time, 2. active session, (bring children together between activities) and 4. finish with a calm activity, talking about what they enjoyed or things they did well. Use of visual clues.

What will the session work on?

Confidence- Children build confidence from achieving things that they have not done before. They feel confident from working together and getting praise for working together. When they support friends they will feel enjoy the feeling of security and will build up how to be caring and supportive to others.

Body Knowledge: The child experiences the trunk, the centre of the body and the link between extremities. The child develops a sense of wholeness and awareness that the parts of the body are well connected.

Communication: The very young child can communicate through movement. i.e reaching arms up for another go. Later the child may respond with verbal responses or pointing to a symbol to indicate a need. A wide variety of language can be developed such as ‘strong’, ‘gentle’, ‘lie down’, ‘crawl’. Prepositions such as ‘over’, ‘under’, ‘behind’. Eye contact is important and some activities encourage this

Relationships: Caring or with relationships Supporting Against

Caring

• cradling – may lean back

• Rocking horses-rocking backwards and forwards

• Rolling –rolling on own, in blanket, over a line of people The more anxious child may need support as they tense up. (More anxious children may feel happier to roll an older person) As a relationship builds up the child will be more aware of needs and act kindly.

• Sliding –along slippery floor, or on a quilt or parachute

• Tunnels- and trains – under adults and then under each other, and adult under child (good for prepositions)

• Swinging – in blanket

Supporting

• Rowing – aim for each person lies back and then pulls their partner up. (good eye contact

• Balancing with partner- trying to raise together while holding wrists.

• Back to back raise, grasp arms back to back and push up w Against

• Rocks (hands and knees, pushing against)

• Sticky mud( lying on floor, partners try to raise legs and arms

• Engine- back to back ( pushing along slippery floor )

• Parcels( making a tight parcel with body and trying to unwrap it)

Sherborne book – Developmental movement for children – Veronica Sheborne ISBN number – 1-903269-04-0