ABSTRACT
Chapter 5: Introducing gymnastics
This chapter addresses the contributions of gymnastics-related activities to the physical competence and overall physical literacy of young learners as they enter and progress through their early years in school. Based on the three themes of locomotion, stability and object control, much of the chapter focuses on the development of mature balance and locomotion. Recognising and valuing the accumulated experiences gained from physically active play in the pre-school years, suggestions are made of ways in which learners can extend their body awareness, movement vocabulary, movement memory and movement quality, through exploration and through creative teaching in an environment, which capitalises on opportunities to work on the floor, on mats and a range of fixed and portable apparatus. Examples of children's pictorial records of their learning open up consideration of ‘charting progress’ as a means of recording personal assessment of achievement, based on ‘what I can do’ and what I need to learn next.
