Who Let a Zoo Loose?
This theme focuses on wild animals their special characteristics and their habitats. Animals provide a strong developmentally appropriate theme for children or all ages and animals are a tangible (truly living and breathing) subject that is relevant and interesting. Learning about animals helps children learn about how other creatures look, move and live. This lesson plan provides comparative thinking opportunities as we guide our students to perform activities like animals! Our sweet peas will have fun flapping their wings like birds, flipping those dolphin tails, flexed arm hanging like a monkey and spraying like a skunk!
Lesson Plans
1 and 2 Peas Who Let a Zoo Loose?
Warm Up Song
Skill of the Week
This week, we will be working on safety rolls. A safety roll allows gymnasts to fall safely by allowing them to absorb the impact of a fall over a greater area of their bodies. To perform a safety roll, students make a fist with their hands, pull their arms in toward their body and across their chest, and roll back into a tuck position.
You can substitute candlesticks for safety rolls in the warm-up, floor station, and vault station. For the bars and beam, please add a side station!
Warm Up Stations
- Bear walks: students walk on their hands and feet, trying to keep knees straight, in and out of the cones.
- Alligator crawl under the bridge: Similar to an army crawl, students will lay on their belly and stay low to the ground. They will alternate using their right arm and left leg, and their left arm and right leg to move forward under the bridge.
- Frog hops from hoop to hoop: Students will start in a deep squat with their hands on the ground. They will jump as high as they can from one hoop to the next with their hands and feet leaving the ground at the same time.
- Donkey Kicks: Students will start with their hands on the floor (or on a block if needed for the younger kids) with their feet on a spot marker. They will jump their feet into the air at the same time, returning to the spot marker. For the older 5 and 6 peas, feel free to work on their levers and L-handstand kicks.
- Dolphin candle sticks: Have the kids sit on a spot marker, or on a panel mat. They will lean onto their back, bring their legs straight up towards the ceiling, and return to a seated position. Students should aim to no use their hands to lay back or to push themselves back up. For the older 5 and 6 Peas, you can have them start standing, squat into a seated position, perform their candlestick, and stand back up.