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 Children enjoy physical activity, and to encourage balanced physical
development it is important for a wide variety of movement experiences
to be made available to them.
Every practitioner and parent recognises the vital importance of
play in a young child’s learning process. When children
enter a pre-school setting they have probably had limited experience
of focused or adult-structured activities and will be unaware
of the scope offered by an outdoor play space, indoor hall or
carpet area. Certainly, few will have had easy access to stimulating,
small and large equipment or apparatus.
Motivation is no problem at this age and children’s natural
interest and inquisitiveness will lead them to explore all the
possibilities of the environment or equipment, invent new ideas
and movements, and practise new patterns of behaviour and skills.
It is the role of the adult to allow these opportunities to take
place safely and encourage the build-up of self-confidence and
success.
Children must experience this initial confidence-development
through individual play, whether planned by the practitioner or
initiated
by the child, and it is essential they are not hurried through
it. However, it is equally important that they are not left too
long at this stage of development or they will lose all sense
of achievement and purposefulness. Practitioners will recognise
when children in their care are ready to move on to more adult-structured
or directed activities and will begin to introduce them at the
appropriate time.
This manual provides a set of
interesting, exciting, well-balanced activity plans containing
adult-structured or adult-led activities
designed to progress and develop children’s physical skills
and understanding. Within each of the activities there are ample
opportunities for children to have fun, to explore emotions,
and to develop their own ideas.
From this Physical Development core it is possible
to access directly or indirectly over 90% of all the other Early
Learning Goals.
The practitioner can choose to access and to link to other Early
Learning Goals and emphasise certain aspects of the physical activities
to access e.g. ELG’s
in “Knowledge
of the World” etc. A guide to just some of the possible
links are given at the end of each activity plan.
About the manual
For ease of use and to aid in the planning of a broad and balanced
physical activity programme the manual has been designed and
presented in well defined sections:-
The Practitioners Guide examines the nature of physical development,
the importance of physical activity, access for all children, and
stages of development. The component parts of physical development
are identified and clarified, resources are examined in detail
and aspects of safety are addressed. Understanding the planning
involved in creating a balanced session and knowing how to adapt,
refine and "layer" activities to suit the ability / stage of development
of the child is fully explained and guidelines are offered to enable
the effective use of the session plans.
The remaining sections of the manual comprise the 90 Activity
plans with their own activity-specific introduction. They are arranged
in the following order:-
 Cards 1 – 15 - Spatial Awareness development
Cards 31 – 45 – Activities leading to games
Cards 16 – 30 - Activities leading to gymnastics
Cards 46 – 60 - Activities leading to dance
Cards 61 – 75 – Parachute games
Cards 76 – 90 – Responding to sounds and music.
Although we do not want to stereotype movements rigidly at this
stage of a child’s development, it will be obvious that
some activities which focus more on balancing, climbing, traveling
in different ways, jumping and turning, fall much more naturally
into the area of “gymnastics”. Similarly, those activities
which focus more on manipulation of small pieces of equipment,
sending and receiving balls etc. in different ways, traveling
with a ball, and aiming activities, are more naturally categorised
into the area of “games”.
Some warm-up, cool-down, “gymnastic”, “games” activities
use action rhymes, percussion or music to extend them or to add
interest, but activities leading towards dance and responding to
sounds and music are contained within separate sections. They involve
balance and stillness, traveling in different ways, jumping and
turning, but are set within a creative context which also utilises
gesture and mime. Within these sections different stimuli are used
to encourage and develop imagination and creativity.
Parachute games are more co-operative, social, sensory, large group
activities and form an important part of a young child’s
education.
At the end of every activity plan, a list of "Benefits of
Action Kids Activities" identifies 6 - 8 ideas for links to
Early Learning Goals in all other areas of the Foundation Stage
curriculum.
Throughout the manual, there are references to the accompaniment
for specific activities. These pieces of music are arranged as
76 tracks on two CD's and are an integral part of the pack.
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