Category: Tumbling/Gymnastics

A lot of review and something new today in tumbling/gymnastics. The 4 foot balance beam!

To warm up the class, Ms. Mo had them work on all the routines they did last week. The airplane, the rock-n-roll, and the candlestick. She also had them running in place to get their hearts going.

They did the obstacle course again today. Beginning with the floor level balance beam, doing donkey kicks or the forward roll, then doing more balance beam work, crawling through the long tunnel, doing a handstand, and ending with the 4 ft. balance beam.

Working with Ms. Mo on the floor level balance beam.
Need to work on keeping those arms up!

Practicing those donkey kicks.

Ms. Mo had a name for this pad but I can’t remember now…balance beam work. The trick was to keep from falling off because the mat was so squishy.

Heading into the long tunnel.

She’s finally able to show Ms. Mo that she can do the handstand as well now.
Only 3 of the kids in class are able to do this and Isabel is one of them!

First try on the balance beam.

She made it to the end, now what?
I didn’t get a photo of the dismount… it was to blurry.

Practicing the log roll. Notice her feet are not together… she was rushing through it.

2nd of 3 tries on the 4 foot balance beam. She did great. Ms. Mo was very proud of the class for being so confident on the beam!

Great job!

Today was all about jumping in tumbling/gymnastics class. Isabel was a bit disappointed that she didn’t get to show Ms. Mo that she had been practicing her hand stand at home. Gino told her if we get to class early next week maybe we can show her!

After warm-up Ms. Mo had them go over to the side and do some new movements. I believe I heard her say that the class will continue to work on these new moves throughout the class.

Doing the “donkey-kick”.

Doing the “rock-and-roll”.

Doing the “butterfly” and moving into the “airplane” with arms at your sides with palms toward your hiney.

Doing the “star”, which is like a jumping jack, and moving into dismount position.

I think she called this the “airplane”…raise your upper body and legs off the floor keeping your tummy on the floor. The kids were all complaining that this one hurt their tummies!

After showing the class all the new moves she moved them over to the steps. Where she had them jump off, while keeping feet together, dismount and hop down the long row of mats from color to color. She then had them get back in line, jump again, while keeping feet together, dismount, and then log roll the whole length of the mats. When Isabel got to this one, you could tell she was getting tired of log rolling.

Isabel’s turn. Get ready… set…

Go!

Feet together… and dismount. Good job!

After the 2nd time jumping off the steps, Ms. Mo had the class jump cones and logs while keeping feet together. They did this twice also and then went over to the yellow circles for some fun!

 

For fun Ms. Mo had them jumping for bubbles with her bubble-gun and then
butterflies with her Elefun!

Catch those butterflies!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Today Isabel  (the whole class for that matter!) did a great job in tumbling/gymnastics. I am so proud of her! The practice that we did (and will continue to do) here at home has really paid off! She is so close to being able to do the handstand on her own!! Her forward cartwheel’s are perfect and her balance beam work is getting better too. So proud!

Today’s class was all about practice; start with a handstand, second forward cartwheel, third balance beam, fourth log roll, fifth trampoline bounce with bar, sixth trampoline bounce without bar, and seventh donkey kicks. The class was told to continue going in a circle around the room doing each exercise. I think they all got to go around 3 or 4 times before the class ended.

Ms. Mo explaining the important rules of the trampolines before warming up for class.
(The class has grown a bit with the addition of one girl and one boy; don’t know if Gunner and Kate are still in the class)

Balance beam work. She’s doing so good. Heal to toe and arms up and out! Her balance seems to be improving… when she focuses on it and doesn’t get crazy or rushed.

The first trampoline they had to hold on to the bar, look straight ahead and bounce off their toes. The second trampoline didn’t have a bar to hold, so they had to balance their position on the trampoline and look straight ahead at Ms. Smiley face on the wall (see first photo). We (the parents) noticed when they focused on on their feet and NOT on Ms. Smiley that they would move around (lose balance) on the trampoline instead of keeping the center position.

Practice those donkey kicks! If she pushes hard enough she’ll get into that handstand!

First time practice without Ms. Mo. She almost has it!

Look at that finish! Grab those shins…awesome job with that forward somersault!

Log roll practice…needs work on this. Ms. Mo’s homework for the whole class this week, log roll. Keep those arms up and feet together!

2nd practice with some help from Ms. Mo. So close…

Keep those feet together and I think she’ll have it. Can you see her smile!?!

Butterfly on the balance beam with Ms. Mo.

Last practice with Ms. Mo and the log roll. Keep those feet together.

 

 

Moving along with our tumbling/gymnastics class… Ms. Mo has expanded on what they have learned from last month. It’s great to see them actually focusing more on what Ms. Mo has to say and wanting to do what she does. Enjoy!

To get the classes heart rate up. Ms. Mo had each one run and hop through her slalom course. They did this twice and then headed over to the mat.

Stretching out.

More stretching.

Doing the “donkey kick” for the head stand from last week.

Jump off, do a jumping-jack in midair and land like “superman” or dismount.

Heal-toe, heal-toe, heal-toe, heal-toe… dismount!

Working on the “monkey-roll” with Ms. Mo. Isabel’s got to remember to keep those feet together!

Backward balance beam work; heal-toe, heal-toe, heal-toe, heal-toe… dismount!

After Ms. Mo went through each area of exercise with the whole class. She took each student one-on-one over to the far mat to work on areas of improvement.

No story today because the class went over in time. However Mrs. Mo went over safety issues and they had a treat!

Today we were back at tumbling/gymnastics, since we missed last week due to Isabel not feeling well and it was great. We also learned that the class is going to be on-going each month with the students building on what they have already learned in class to be better tumblers/gymnast. Hurray! We like Ms. Mo!

Today, after warm-ups Ms. Mo had the class do some running/jumping exercises and then balancing work on a floor level balance beam. She also had the class learn to do a handstand. She stressed the importance of never doing a handstand on your own, on your couch and/or your bed! I am so thankful Ms. Mo went over this first thing because Isabel had been trying to this very thing off the couch just the other day!!! I wanted Ms. Mo to stress this again and again (which she did!). Hopefully, Isabel was paying attention…

Ms. Mo showing the class the proper way of doing a handstand. Your weight is not on your head but your arms.

… a bit blurry but that’s Ms. Mo doing her handstand for the class.

Ms. Mo working with Isabel on getting her feet up into the air (donkey kick).

With the help of Ms. Mo, she did it. I think she would have been able to do it on her own if she had kept her feet together. Presley was the only one in class able to do it all on her own (several times!). Way to go Presley!

After working on handstands for awhile, Ms. Mo set up the room so the class could practice doing what they have learned in class on their own. Whether it be the forward somersault on the wedge, balance beam work, or the back-ward jump. Isabel worked on the balance beam several times and then went through Ms. Mo’s tunnel. After class Ms. Mo told them a story about a boy heading to the park to play. It was an action story just like the story from day 1.

Isabel practicing her balance beam. When they got to the middle, they were supposed to balance, lower their torso and raise one leg. Isabel did a great job but got wobbly if she got a little over confident with raising her leg back. Need to practice…

I have tried to get Isabel to practice all she’s learned in her tumbling/gymnastics class at home with me and she never wants to do it. She won’t even show Daddy all the things she has learned. Hopefully, she’ll want to practice otherwise, I think we’ll be dropping the class for lack of interest on her part. As Ms. Mo says,…

“The more you practice, the better you get!“

Today we didn’t make it to tumbling/gymnastics because Isabel wasn’t feeling well. Hopefully she’s feeling better by tomorrow to make it school.

Today was Isabel’s 2nd day of tumbling/gymnastics. She says that she really likes it but she tends to talk about her soccer class more!

Today was learning all about keeping your feet together, whether it be for landing after a jump or rolling on the mat. Keep your feet together! Also, learned the word straddle and how that pertains to tumbling and gymnastics.
BTW…Isabel was the line leader today that’s why she’s standing up by Ms. Mo.

In class today, they learned how to do baby cartwheels, to jump backward (w/out looking) while keeping their feet together, log rolled while keeping their feet together, worked more on tumbling down the wedge, and played with the parachute.

Stretching out!

Keep your knees down while you stretch; getting some help from Ms. Mo.

Learning how to do “baby” cartwheels with “Ned”. “Ned” is the mat, which has placements for hands and feet for learning how to do cartwheels. Very cool.

Isabel’s doing great; feet together and arms up. Way to go!

Working on wedge tumbling (the beginning of doing flips in gymnastics!). Ms Mo wants all the kids able to do this all on their own (or close to it!).

Parachute fun! They waved it fast and hard, flipped around a bear, and ran around in a circle… well sort of.

Where did they go? You should have heard them giggle!!

After the parachute, Ms. Mo let them do some free play. Isabel crawled through the tube before heading back to practice all that she learned today
… remember feet together!

At the end of class, Ms. Mo did a magic trick with a box and a coin. She made put the coin in the box and made it disappear! The marker smell for this week was coconut. Isabel wanted to know why it was green when coconuts aren’t green.

Today was Isabel’s first day of tumbling/gymnastics and she had fun! There are 5 children (2 of which are in her class at school!) in her class and her teacher’s name is Ms. Mo. The line leader today was Presley.

Today was a bit more of an introduction but they did get up and move and tumble! To begin the class Ms. Mo had each child say “here” in Spanish, which is “aquí”. Then Ms. Mo handed out her magic “I can do” dust, to be used during class when they think they can’t do something. Ms. Mo then had the class stand up, they checked their hearts, and then they did stretching exercise to get their hearts warmed up!

Touching our toes…need to remember to keep our legs straight!

Stretching up on our tippy-toes.

Stretching to the side.

And a nice good stretch for our back…
notice Isabel, she’s stretching the wrong way. Silly girl!
Then it was time to get out and tumble and move!

Running and jumping over Ms. Mo’s stick.

Isabel doing the monkey roll! She did a perfect job and kept her bottom off the mat!
(BTW – the kids along the side, sitting down are NOT part of the class)

High jump… I was a bit worried about this one…
I didn’t think she would do it but she did it!!!

Nice landing, Isabel!

Put your toes to the mat, slap your hands on the wedge, bend your knees,
tuck your chin and roll!

A bit of help from Ms. Mo.

She took a tumble but that’s what the class is about! Great job!

The last moving exercise for the day was the slalom run and log jump. They ran the course while the cones were on “fire”!

After the slalom, Ms. Mo had them return to the circles and she rewarded them, with colored marshmallows, for listening very well and for forming great lines! The marker color smell was grape!

Then she told them a body-action story about a boy named, Elliott.

Elliott was outside playing when his mother called him into the house to take a nap. Elliott didn’t want to take a nap because he wasn’t tired but he knew that he had to obey his mother. Elliott’s bedroom was at the very tippy top of the house and he had to run up many flights of stairs to get there. Elliott got to his room and jumped into bed when he heard a knock and his mother said, “Elliott are you taking your nap?” Elliott said “Yes.” but he really wasn’t sleepy. So Elliott crawled under his bed and jumped into a big ocean. Elliott swam and swam around and finally decided to swim to the very bottom of the ocean. So he swam and swam, kicking and swimming all the way to the bottom. When he got to the bottom of the ocean, he saw a BIG squiggly squirmy octopus and he didn’t like that. So Elliott swam away and he swam and he swam. Until a BIG scary shark started to chase Elliott. So Elliott swam really hard and really fast to get away from the shark and then he heard a knock. Knock. Knock. Knock. “Elliott are you taking your nap?” Elliott’s mother said. Elliott swam to the top and jumped out of the ocean and jumped into bed, he pulled the covers up over his head, and he said, “Yes.” and he laid down and fell asleep.