Movement Curriculum

What if I don’t think my child will ever be a gymnast? Is ROOTS Preschool still appropriate for them?

Some children will learn to love gymnastics and will stick with it and excel at it. For others it a stepping stone, or an avenue and opportunity to learn some of life’s important lessons.

Our first priority in all of our programs is to help children learn to love the process of learning and discovering their own skills and abilities in a safe environment. Our second priority is to help children have authentic opportunities to experience success so that the belief that “I am able….” becomes a solid part of their self-concept. And thirdly, we want to help children develop the essentials of physical fitness.  Success at any athletic endeavor flows naturally out of a mastery of motor skills, strength, co-ordination, and body awareness. We believe establishing “roots” in these three areas will enable children, as they grow, to open wide their own doors of opportunity, joy, and success.

How we move at ROOTS Preschool

One of the things we love about gymnastics is that it shares elements of a variety of artistic and athletic disciplines. So even though gymnastics is our area of expertise, we feel very comfortable exploring related areas of movement. 

At ROOTS Preschool, our movement curriculum includes:

Motor Skill Development

Our gymnastics facility provides a fun and challenging environment for physical play, physical problem solving, and motor skill development. There are ropes and ladders for climbing, rope swings to develop upper body strength, trampolines which are great for learning awareness and control of the body, bars that develop upper body and core body strength, beams for learning to balance (and to be brave)…… In other words, the opportunities to practice essential skills like running, jumping, climbing, twisting, swinging, and overall coordination in our gym are authentic and varied. We believe that this is just what every child needs.

Gymnastics

In preschool gymnastics, we teach the skills that are foundational to gymnastics. Children have opportunities to learn skills, on beam, floor, trampoline, and bars. The primary result of gymnastics training at the preschool age is the mastery of motor skills as well as the development of social and emotional abilities (like listening, enjoying the process of learning, self-mastery, and bravery.) 

Creative Movement

We are so excited about the opportunity to offer creative movement in our preschool. One of the things we love most about creative movement is that there really is not a right or wrong to it. With teachers providing the environment, and starting concepts, children have the opportunity to tap in to their own imagination and express themselves in movement without any need for correction. We believe creative movement can help children avoid or overcome self-consciousness and social inhibitions. They will also be learning basic concepts of dance and gaining exposure to a variety of genres of music. 

We love making Movement Fun

Whether it is turning on the black lights for some glow in the dark movement, adding a game or a contest to a rotation, or bringing a teddy bear to creative movement class to dance with you, we do all we can to make movement fun!