Our Jnr GymKids are heading off on a journey of movement and awareness with our next, Cars theme. Working on agility and spatial awareness in locomotion, our Under 5's will be driving cars, stopping at traffic lights, bunny hopping over speed bumps & working on their U turn swings!  This program is full of purposeful play! Beep Beep! A favourite for our Jnr GymKids is the Tip Truck! Tipping over backwards is so much fun, especially off the edge of our soft shapes! Children will be working on controlling their early handstands with a lunge shape tipping to a little hop! Vestibular input is a key factor in children’s growth and development. Knowing where our body is in space and how to move it safely & effectively, organising our brain and paying attention all relies on lots of round & round & upside down movement in early childhood! Jnr GymKids will be focusing on lots of shapes in this theme: TRAFFIC LIGHTS (straight shape): Focuses on core control & coordinating arms. Our Jnr GymKids will be starting & finishing their forward rolls straight as a traffic light, as well as rolling down mountains, jumping straight with arms up and of course landing in MOTORBIKE. RAMPS (Back/rear support): Rear support is a tricky shape to find the right balance. Children need to us different muscles in their arms, core, bottom and legs. Taking on their own body weight deepens the pressure through the joints and muscles, which brings feedback through the proprioceptors – the ‘big body awareness’ sense. This is one of the reasons why gymnastics is soooo good for our strength and awareness. Driving the toy cars up and down those straight tight legs brings another fun sensory input to support the brain body connection - it’s the way kids learn! BRIDGES (front support and plank): This theme will see our under 5's playing some more with those shapes. Getting the shapes just right needs lots of sensory feedback. Bottoms down, chest up, legs & arms straight, shoulders over hands, is a lot to think about! Thank goodness driving the toy cars will help us sort it all out with some giggly fun! Our Groovy Groovers will be getting ready for Prep in term 4 and coaches will be turning up the expectation physically, cognitively and socially to assist in this transition. Physically our coaches will be asking for good start & finish shapes when Groovers are practicing their skills. Cognitively coaches will challenge children's sequence of skills and up the language by adding gymnastic terminology! Groovers will be working together, in pairs and teams to help challenge those social skills while achieving clever gymnastics skills! Watch out big school, here we come! With every theme and every week, we are amazed by our Jnr GymKids and how much they are learning through gymnastics!