Last month I attended a circus workshop where they taught us a fun, non competitive warm up game they like to do with the kids of their circus school. I ran across this game with a zoo story once and decided to make a gymnastics story out of it. My 6 and 7 year old girls loved it and if it was for them, we would have played it three times in a row, so I thought I would share.
Feel free to use and modify it and to eleminate possible mistakes, turns out it is a lot more difficult to translate a german story into english than to write one in english to start with.
A gymnastics story
For gymnasts starting age 4/5
Instructions: All kids sit down at the end of a floor carpet or another place with space to run. A cone is put on the other end of the carpet. Every child is assigned a character. Now you read the story out. Every time the character of a child is mentioned that child has to get up, run up to the cone on the other side and return to sit back down. It is possible to make this more difficult f.e. by making them hop on one foot on the way back or do 5 froggy jumps at the cone. If the gymnasts are more advanced you can make them do easy holds instead of just sitting while they wait. If you have a bigger number of kids one character can also be assigned to several kids. If the term “gymmies” is mentioned, everybody has to get up and run.
The gymmies → everybody
The coach
The water bottle
The bars
The splits
The mats
The balance beam
The handstand
The springboard
It's a perfectly normal (insert convenient day of the week) afternoon. The gymmies rush into the gym and put their water bottles onto the cupboard next to the balance beam. The coach is still setting up the bars for them. The gymmies immediately start to jump on and off the springboards and run around on the mats. One girl is doing a lot of handstands. Another is shouting out to the coach: “Look! I almost got my splits down!”
Finally the coach calls all the gymmies up to sit down on the big blue mat. They warm up and then they practice their handstands. They also have to do all their splits, even if they hurt just a little bit. After that all the gymmies are happy to get a sip out of their water bottles.
On to the bars! The gymmies all love swinging on the bars and some can even do the tricky pullover all by themselves.
On their last turn, they get to go to the balance beam, which is pretty high and thin but everybody is proud of not being afraid of it anymore. The coach puts a springboard in front of the balance beam to make it easier for them to do their mount. One especially brave girl tries a handstand and falls down but luckily there are enough mats beneath the balance beam so she doesn't hurt herself. Another girls isn't paying attention because she is again practicing her splits and misses her turn. The other gymmies have to call her out a few times before at last they can continue.
After that our gymnastics class is already over. Did everyone have fun? (make pause here to let everybody shout "YEEEES!")
The gymmies line up, say goodbye and pick up their water bottles. Then a lot of tired but happy gymmies make their way home.
Feel free to use and modify it and to eleminate possible mistakes, turns out it is a lot more difficult to translate a german story into english than to write one in english to start with.
A gymnastics story
For gymnasts starting age 4/5
Instructions: All kids sit down at the end of a floor carpet or another place with space to run. A cone is put on the other end of the carpet. Every child is assigned a character. Now you read the story out. Every time the character of a child is mentioned that child has to get up, run up to the cone on the other side and return to sit back down. It is possible to make this more difficult f.e. by making them hop on one foot on the way back or do 5 froggy jumps at the cone. If the gymnasts are more advanced you can make them do easy holds instead of just sitting while they wait. If you have a bigger number of kids one character can also be assigned to several kids. If the term “gymmies” is mentioned, everybody has to get up and run.
The gymmies → everybody
The coach
The water bottle
The bars
The splits
The mats
The balance beam
The handstand
The springboard
It's a perfectly normal (insert convenient day of the week) afternoon. The gymmies rush into the gym and put their water bottles onto the cupboard next to the balance beam. The coach is still setting up the bars for them. The gymmies immediately start to jump on and off the springboards and run around on the mats. One girl is doing a lot of handstands. Another is shouting out to the coach: “Look! I almost got my splits down!”
Finally the coach calls all the gymmies up to sit down on the big blue mat. They warm up and then they practice their handstands. They also have to do all their splits, even if they hurt just a little bit. After that all the gymmies are happy to get a sip out of their water bottles.
On to the bars! The gymmies all love swinging on the bars and some can even do the tricky pullover all by themselves.
On their last turn, they get to go to the balance beam, which is pretty high and thin but everybody is proud of not being afraid of it anymore. The coach puts a springboard in front of the balance beam to make it easier for them to do their mount. One especially brave girl tries a handstand and falls down but luckily there are enough mats beneath the balance beam so she doesn't hurt herself. Another girls isn't paying attention because she is again practicing her splits and misses her turn. The other gymmies have to call her out a few times before at last they can continue.
After that our gymnastics class is already over. Did everyone have fun? (make pause here to let everybody shout "YEEEES!"
)The gymmies line up, say goodbye and pick up their water bottles. Then a lot of tired but happy gymmies make their way home.
