Teaching Rhythmic Gymnastics

Bring your students the joy and excitement of activity, music, and movement! Rhythmic gymnastics provides endless opportunities for movement as children use their natural creativity and imagination to manipulate ribbons, balls, hoops, ropes, and scarves in fun and spectacular ways.

With Teaching Rhythmic Gymnastics, you don't need any specialized training to put together a developmentally appropriate program; this book will lead you through the entire process. It's so easy to implement that you'll be able to lead classes through the basics of rhythmic gymnastics from the very first day. This book has everything you need to get going:

• Practical ideas for making your own hand apparatus from everyday materials
• Lesson plan ideas and strategies for class management
• Activities that you can use to develop each of the movement elements: locomotion, jumps, leaps, balances, turns, and pivots
• Learning challenges for every fundamental movement using each apparatus
• Tips for selecting music, including basic information about tempo, rhythm, and beat

The book takes a developmental approach that places you, the teacher, in the role of facilitator, using themes, guided discovery, and problem solving to help students learn spatial awareness, fundamental movements, use of hand apparatus, and related vocabulary. Through a series of learning challenges, students ultimately learn to combine skilled movements to create their own rhythmic sequences. It's an individualized approach that encourages students to work at their own ability levels, and you can casily include special-needs populations by using simple equipment modifications or program adjustments.

The open-ended approach and extensive illustrations make this resource easy to use. The book also includes ready-to-use checklists, assessment guidelines, lesson plans, word searches for vocabulary development, and routine-planning posters that you can enlarge on a copier and post in the gym.

Rhythmic gymnastics is an enjoyable sport that develops fitness, inspires creativity, and enables every child to work at his or her own level. With Teaching Rhythmic Gymnastics, you can add variety to your gymnastics and rhythmic units, start a rhythmic gymnastics club, or introduce a safe, enjoyable alternative to traditional gymnastics programs.