Preparation for the first grade- games suggestions

The first grade is the starting point of any person's academic life; it's an adventure full of excitement and fears. The educational plan by the ministry of education is full of educational- pedagogical assignments that affect the child's play time, recess time, and the development of social skills and emotional maturity, while placing a lot of burden both on the kg teacher and on the child.

Entering the first grade is transferring from a world of less rules, contingency movement and flexible structure, to an entirely different setting,with structured classes, longer sitting times, less mediators and less play time (there are, off course, more differences; and there are different schools and approaches).

It's preferable to play with our children as a preparation for the first grade, and not to  burden them with learning more academic skills, since they will do it any way in the Kg (some love to do it at home too).

You can play games and sing songs about letters, numbers and more; read books, talk and develop spoken language and work on social and emotional skills.

You are welcome to enter the following posts and play to improve the key aspects that will lead to their success in entering the first grade; educators-  - it is highly recommended to work on those skills in the first few months of the a school year and you'll see a lot of  improvement in the children performances:

1.       Sitting and concentration

2.       Strong shoulder belts and hands

3.       Balance, posture

4.       Emotional expression abilities

5.       Basic motor skills- for girls and boys

6.       Social skills- cooperation, empathy, loosing and winning

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We'll be happy to have you in our community, and we'll love answering any question you might have.

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All the responsibility is on the parent and/ or educator.

All the posts and materials belongs to togi let's play, and Sharon Michaeli- Ramon  ©

Stretches are the muscles meditation

Most of us spend most of the day sitting down; in the office, in meetings, in classrooms and in our car. One of my dreams is that all educators will hold a stretch time and/ game time at least once a day. Until then, we would like to suggest you with some stretch exercises that we recommend to do with your kids, for four critical areas in your body.

Flexibility and range of motion are two parameters which greatly influence our ability to move, help preventing injuries, influences our everyday activities and our posture.
We chose to focus on those areas:

1. Shoulder belt and the upper back.
2. Lower back and hamstrings (back of the hip).
3. Feet.
4. Joints.

You can do all of the stretches alone, but we recommend that you turn it into a family activity - shared implementation gives motivation, collaboration, closeness and new ideas. You can help others in their stretches, but do it gently and with their approval.
We recommend that you exercise 2-3 times a week, 4-5 stretches every time.

* It is imperative to keep still in each posture for 10 sec. minimum.

1. Shoulder belt and the upper back

In this stretches you need to feel the work in your upper back, the area between the shoulders and the center of the back. The more you will curve your back, your buttocks and belly will also workout.
For six revisions- convex and arch your back (A)
Bring your knee toward the chest (B)

Send your hand up and far back while arching your back (A). If done correctly, you will also feel the stretch in the side of your and ribs (B).

Sit straight, and slowly move your chin back and forth. Don't force your chin to touch your chest if it's not comfortable. In this stretch we work on our upper back and the back of the neck.

2. Lower back and hamstrings (back of the hip)

The next stretches work on the area which tends to shortens and stress due to prolong sitting, too many power exercised at the gym and too little flexibility exercises. During the following exercises you will feel your buttocks, back-thigh and lower back. It is important to remember that stretching is not supposed to hurt us! If you are experiencing an uncomfortable pain – stop and rest.

Stand-up straight and then bend and stretch your hands to the floor, stay still in the most remote point you can for a few seconds.

For six revisions-  Lift your pelvis up, keep your heels on the ground and chest headed to the floor. Then lift one leg, and then the other. You can see that the back is a bit arched. You need to aspire to slowly straighten it as straight as possible.

Sit on the floor with straight legs, and then pull your feet with a towel.

Sit in a cross-legged position while sending your hands as far as you can, while making sure that your pelvis stay on the floor and does not lift up.

3. Feet

We stand on our feet most of the day, they are wrapped in shoes and they are our connections to the ground; let's give them some respect.

Open and close your fingers.

Open and close your feet.

Stand on your toes, and walk on your toes.

4. Joint

We have many joints, and we must keep working on our range of motion since it decreases on a yearly basis (starting from adolescence)

Spin them.

Open them to various sides (carefully and gently).

Twisting games.


Do all the stretches calmly, with no pressure or over stretching. Remember that the main purpose is quality time with benefits.

Remember that we are stretching our muscles and some of our tendons a bit outside our comfort zone, but don't hurt yourselves!

Enjoy.



! All the exercises in this film are professional recommendations.  However, the implementations are under  parents and/ or educators responsibility.
* If you see no improvement, or have multiple challenges consult a professional.

Do you have questions? Comments?
We will be happy to hear them, here, our facebook page, twitter, or our Youtube channel.
You can tag your instagram photos with #Togiletsplay

:)

All the posts and materials belongs to togi let's play, and the writer © 

Four dimensions of children's health, and how to increase it

Most of the time, while talking about children's health people are talking about two main parameters: Physical activity and food / diet.

We believe that there are four parameters:

1. Food / diet

• What we eat
• How much we eat
• Balancing food (yes, including snacks and sweets)
• Personal example

2. Parent- child connection

• Trust
• Personal example
• Fun mutual time
• Respect

3. Community

• Security in the neighborhood/ play ground
• Play dates
• Ideas
• Special events- by the communities /the schools & kindergartens / the municipality

4. Physical activity

• Fun, challenge & creativity !!
• Variety
• Time
• Different space challenges
• Collaboration
• Personal example.

Researchers have shown that PA (physical activity) improves our health, brain performance, concentration, self esteem, confidence, decreasing anxiety and more. mutual activities helps to profound relationships, deepen trust, increasing intimacy and openness. combining PA and mutual time together can use to give a role model and give our children quality time set with significant appraisal.

Children have group activities, we have our daily/ weekly walk/ gym time/ other PA and we hope that it's a role model, but when we are coping together, sweating, laughing and more the impact is much more significant, and the children enjoy it with and without us.

Only 15 years ago we had more time and more freedom- we spend more time out side, we walked more, we spent more time with our parents and more time with our peers as children. the challenges that play and PA brings contribute to all life aspects and to all the motoric development.

we, as parents and community need to make sure that we have time and space to move- in the yards, the park the play ground; and we play with our children and not just stand there we all benefit from it; parallel of course giving our children time to play alone and with their friends.