LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Our learning activities are a great tool for extending the GymZOOnasium program for your class and achieving additional outcomes identified in the Australian Curriculum and Early Years Learning Framework.
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Discussion Activities

These Discussion Activities pose many varied opportunities to be incorporated within broad curriculum plans from early childhood to later primary years, and cater for individual needs and strengths.

  • Discuss changes you’ve noticed in your body and mind since starting GymZOOnasium.

  • Discuss how your body felt during and after various exercises.

  • Identify and describe emotional responses you or others may have in different situations (e.g. if you do or don’t achieve your goals; or if you can’t yet do an exercise that others can).

  • Growing strong muscles and bones…
    Why is strength important for children?  How can you strengthen your muscles and bones?

  • Warming up…
    Why warm up before exercise? How to do a great warm up.

  • Cooling down…
    Why cool down after exercise?  How to do a proper cool down.

  • Australia’s 24-hour movement guidelines…
    Why should we be physically active?  How much physical activity should we do each day?  How much screen time should we have each day? Fun ideas to increase our physical activity.

  • Good sportsmanship… 
    Why is it important? What is it?  Discuss examples of good and bad sportsmanship.

  • My muscles…
    Learn the names of the main muscle groups; how we can strengthen them; and how we can stretch them.

  • What can we do to keep healthy and well…? 
    Discuss physical activity, healthy eating, mental wellbeing and sleep.  Brainstorm and plan simple changes you will make to be a little healthier in any of these areas.

  • Healthy, safe, active spaces|
    Plan, describe and implement strategies to make the classroom and playground healthy, safe and active spaces.  Incorporate GymZOOnasium and other concepts.

  • Goal setting… 
    Why set goals; how to set SMART goals; practise setting a SMART goal; set a strategy to achieve your goal; evaluate and adjust your goal.

  • Growth mindset…
    Fixed mindset vs growth mindset.  Ways to help shift from a fixed mindset towards a growth mindset.  Growth mindset phrases and questions to use each day.  Think of some growth mindset phrases that are helpful to use when doing GymZOOnasium.

  • The power of “yet”… 
    What is ‘the power of yet’ and what difference does it make?  Think of an exercise or progression in GymZOOnasium that you can’t do ‘yet’?  What will you do to keep improving at this, so that one day you WILL achieve it?

  • GymZOOlympics
    Within the GymZOOlympics discuss success, challenge and failure, and how they strengthen our identities.

* Some of these Discussion Activities could be used as an assessment for language and physical education.

Practical Activities

These engaging activities mapped to the Australian Curriculum are ideal for building confidence, leadership, communication, collaboration, problem-solving, persistence, decision making and class connections.

 

GymZOOlympics Team Challenge

See GymZOOlympics for instructions.  Arrange students into teams of four and challenge them to do the GymZOOlympics (eight exercise assessments) as a team.

Each team needs to decide which participant from their team will complete each of the assessment exercises.  One representative from each team will participate in each exercise, with teams needing to make sure that each student completes two of the exercises.

The team’s results will be recorded on one ‘My Achievements Handout’.  Instruct students to analyse their team members’ unique strengths to plan a strategy for achieving the best possible outcome for their team. 


GymZOOnasium Obstacle Course

Plan, set up and complete an obstacle course using GymZOOnasium flashcards, obstacle course equipment and/or natural obstacles.  This can be given as an individual or group task.


Plan a GymZOOnasium Session  

Plan and practise the session; make any adjustments needed; then teach the session to your family or class.  This can be given as an individual or group task.

Show and Share Activites

These ‘Show and Share’ topic suggestions are mapped to the Australian Curriculum and provide students opportunities to share their GymZOOnasium learnings and experiences with the class.

  • Describe a positive achievement or experience you have had in the GymZOOnasium program, and how it felt.

 

  • Describe a challenge you have experienced in the GymZOOnasium program, and how you overcame it.

 

  • Choose one of the GymZOOnasium exercises and teach the class how to do it.

 

  • Create your own animal exercise and teach the class how to do it.

 

  • Share with the class something active or healthy that you enjoy. What do you enjoy about it?  Teach the class something interesting about it.