Locomotor and ball skills strategies to support at home

Locomotion movements

The Junior Primary classes in PE have been working on Locomotion movements with a focus on jumping, galloping, hopping and skipping. Locomotor skills allow children to move through different environments. The main locomotor skills are walking, marching, running, jumping, crawling, hopping, climbing, galloping, sliding, skipping and leaping. In a nutshell, locomotor skills are all the ways we move and the foundation for most sporting and leisure activities. It is essential that children get plenty of practice with these as they are the building blocks of coordination. Most children master these without any instructions from adults, but it is important to consolidate them and use these skills regularly to maintain their ability and help with their development.

Below are links for you to watch yourself to see what we are aiming to see in PE. It can be a fun way to incorporate movement and games at home that you can do together. Maybe even set some goals and challenges together.

Locomotor movements

A rundown of what we are looking for in your child 

• A breakdown of how to teach each skill to your child at home:

Jumping 

• Hop like a bunny

Galloping 

• Continuous side step slowly then speed it up to be smoother.
• One foot leads and the other quickly catches up then the first foot leads again.
  • If struggling teach them to reach for the leaves to help give them flight.

Hopping 

• Knee to chin

Skipping (without a rope) 

• Consolidate hopping first then introduce hop – step – hop – step slowly
• Once got that try faster – clap for them if need to

A recap on all locomotor skills (in a slightly different order than explained above) 

Catching

We have also just started with our ball skills, with a focus on catching. This video shows the basics of what they need to do. When practicing this start with a large softish ball like a beach ball or foam ball as they master this move on to different size balls and textures. 

• Teach them to hug the ball
• Make a triangle with their hand
• Practice over and over
• Guide the ball in

Good luck and I hope you enjoy going back to Locomotor skills and it brings back memories from your childhood.

Regards

Ros Mazurek

PE Teacher