I Need Opinions! Teaching my first swimming class :D

[Oceanid]

Merfolk, I would really appreciate some feedback. :)

I'm teaching my first swimming lesson on Sunday, and though my lesson plan's not quite done yet, I've got a fairly good idea of what I'm doing.

As part of my training we have to have a more fun approach to teaching, which I completely agree with as it's way more fun to let the kids be creative and enjoy themselves than make them swim lengths repeatedly for half an hour. So here's what I've got so far - I'd be super grateful to hear your opinions on this!

I'm teaching a 15 minute slot, broken down into three five minute activities.

Activity 1 -

I'm going to throw a mixture of sinkers and floating toys into the pool, and there will be four large floats, each in a corner of the pool (two ladybird shaped, two bear shaped - hey, it's all we got!). One of the aims is to get the kids to show understanding of buoyancy, so for a warm-up I'm thinking of getting them moving by asking them to "take something that floats to a ladybird" or "take something that sinks to a bear". That's all I've got so far for that one, but I'll build on it from there.

Activity 2 -

For the second one I'm going to split them into two teams (I'm thinking team dolphin and team sea-lion). They need to be able to push and glide from the edge of the pool to the floor of the pool, so I'm going to put down two hoops - one for each team. Each swimmer takes turns gliding through the hoop, then swims back and tags the next team-member. It'll be a sort of race to see which team can get all of their team-members through the hoop and back again first.

Activity 3 -

For the last bit I'm going to be teaching breaststroke kick, which they can use woggles for. Haven't quite finished this one, but thinking about some sort of relay race using one of the sinkers?

Anyway this turns out much longer than I thought it would, but honestly I want to make it a really great lesson for the kids and would really appreciate getting a second opinion on it. Thanks guys!

[Merman Chatfish]

Merfolk, I would really appreciate some feedback. :)

I'm teaching my first swimming lesson on Sunday, and though my lesson plan's not quite done yet, I've got a fairly good idea of what I'm doing.

As part of my training we have to have a more fun approach to teaching, which I completely agree with as it's way more fun to let the kids be creative and enjoy themselves than make them swim lengths repeatedly for half an hour. So here's what I've got so far - I'd be super grateful to hear your opinions on this!

I'm teaching a 15 minute slot, broken down into three five minute activities.

Activity 1 -

I'm going to throw a mixture of sinkers and floating toys into the pool, and there will be four large floats, each in a corner of the pool (two ladybird shaped, two bear shaped - hey, it's all we got!). One of the aims is to get the kids to show understanding of buoyancy, so for a warm-up I'm thinking of getting them moving by asking them to "take something that floats to a ladybird" or "take something that sinks to a bear". That's all I've got so far for that one, but I'll build on it from there.

Activity 2 -

For the second one I'm going to split them into two teams (I'm thinking team dolphin and team sea-lion). They need to be able to push and glide from the edge of the pool to the floor of the pool, so I'm going to put down two hoops - one for each team. Each swimmer takes turns gliding through the hoop, then swims back and tags the next team-member. It'll be a sort of race to see which team can get all of their team-members through the hoop and back again first.

Activity 3 -

For the last bit I'm going to be teaching breaststroke kick, which they can use woggles for. Haven't quite finished this one, but thinking about some sort of relay race using one of the sinkers?

Anyway this turns out much longer than I thought it would, but honestly I want to make it a really great lesson for the kids and would really appreciate getting a second opinion on it. Thanks guys!

What level/age are the kids suppose to be? Its looking like high level preschool age or low level school age. The toys would be great for little kids but for the relay race your looking at older kids.

My first day of swim lessons for a 30 minute second level of preschool swim lessons looks like this:
First few minutes is getting in the water and getting our heads wet. Usually its going one step at a time, the chin, the mouth, bubbles with the mouth, the ears, the eyes, the entire head. Later classes we will go under and get a ring. That usually takes about 5 minutes depending on how cooperative the kids are.

Next we will learn about floating on your back. Going for bobbers is a fun activity but it doesn't teach them what they really need to know about buoyancy and floating. There are 3 things I like to do. First is floating on our back. Usually kids will try to look at their feet which makes them sink, so what I will show them is if I have my head back I float, if I start looking at my feet I sink. Sounds boring but oh they get excited when their teacher sinks and I sink faster than I think I would. The same thing works on your belly, if you look straight down you float, lift your head to breath and you sink. Great for getting them to turn their head to breath. The third, which I teach also for getting the diving rings is I have the kids watch (and then do) me curl into a ball and I float. Then I start blowing bubbles and slowly sink*. This teaches the importance of full lungs and breath control. Doing that and practicing will take 10 minutes if your kids are well behaved. Next is floating on their backs or belly and kicking and using the arms.

Usually for kicks we do red light green light on the wall and eventually explain we want to do yellow light kicks when swimming. Good luck with the knee benders.
As for arms I will have kids sit on the wall and try and scoop the water into the drain to drain the pool. This starts the arm motions and allows you to teach about fingers together like spoons. When we get swimming I will take a nerf ball and throw it into the water and have the kids reach as far as they can for the ball. If they can't get it scoop that water they grabbed to their feet and try the other arm. I like to do things twice. This might take another 10 minutes.

Depending on the time we have left we will play a game like sharks and minnows or what time is it Mister/Miss shark, or we will jump into the pool and swim to the wall. Then the last minute of class we will go down the slide (or off the diving board for older kids (catch younger kids off the board after a few classes).

Relays do work quite well if you have enough students and they can swim on their own.
One of the best ways to get the kids interested and keep their attention and even try to do things more is "super high fives". Basically when they do something they give you a high five and when they do you push off the bottom or the wall and go flying into the water behind you. You can add to it pretending its too much for you and you don't want to do it.



*I am a WSIT which means I train swim instructors. I was teaching a class this summer to 4 girls, three of whom are on their school's synchronized swimming team. They were amazed and never realized that if you are floating you can sink yourself blowing bubbles.

[Oceanid]

Thanks for the input! The class I'm teaching are 6 - 8 year olds. I was thinking of maybe including floating in the lesson, because another one of the objectives we have to choose from is to get the kids to do a sequence of shapes whilst floating on their backs. For this particular lesson because it's part of my training I have to stick to three activities that last five minutes each, and I have to stay on the poolside rather than be in the pool with them. But yeah, thank you for the reply, it's really helpful and has given me some great ideas!

[Merman Chatfish]

Thanks for the input! The class I'm teaching are 6 - 8 year olds. I was thinking of maybe including floating in the lesson, because another one of the objectives we have to choose from is to get the kids to do a sequence of shapes whilst floating on their backs. For this particular lesson because it's part of my training I have to stick to three activities that last five minutes each, and I have to stay on the poolside rather than be in the pool with them. But yeah, thank you for the reply, it's really helpful and has given me some great ideas!

Oh ok. So your going to be out of the water and another teacher in the water? If it wasn't training I would call weird.

[Oceanid]

Well in all fairness most lessons here are taught from the poolside rather than in the pool with them.

[Merman Chatfish]

Really? Except for school age levels 5 and 6, you are expected to be in the water.

[Mermaid Fenicia]

Same here in Belgium, all swim-teachers (almost fully dressed most of the time) are standing at the walls of the pool and won't enter the water.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Over here, they get in the water no matter the age or skill level of the learner.

[Oceanid]

This is very interesting! Guess it's different for different places. We just stay on the side of the pool for everything - except if it's a one on one lesson or something like that.

[Merman_Elliot]

Merfolk, I would really appreciate some feedback. :)

I'm teaching my first swimming lesson on Sunday, and though my lesson plan's not quite done yet, I've got a fairly good idea of what I'm doing.

As part of my training we have to have a more fun approach to teaching, which I completely agree with as it's way more fun to let the kids be creative and enjoy themselves than make them swim lengths repeatedly for half an hour. So here's what I've got so far - I'd be super grateful to hear your opinions on this!

I'm teaching a 15 minute slot, broken down into three five minute activities.

Activity 1 -

I'm going to throw a mixture of sinkers and floating toys into the pool, and there will be four large floats, each in a corner of the pool (two ladybird shaped, two bear shaped - hey, it's all we got!). One of the aims is to get the kids to show understanding of buoyancy, so for a warm-up I'm thinking of getting them moving by asking them to "take something that floats to a ladybird" or "take something that sinks to a bear". That's all I've got so far for that one, but I'll build on it from there.

Activity 2 -

For the second one I'm going to split them into two teams (I'm thinking team dolphin and team sea-lion). They need to be able to push and glide from the edge of the pool to the floor of the pool, so I'm going to put down two hoops - one for each team. Each swimmer takes turns gliding through the hoop, then swims back and tags the next team-member. It'll be a sort of race to see which team can get all of their team-members through the hoop and back again first.

Activity 3 -

For the last bit I'm going to be teaching breaststroke kick, which they can use woggles for. Haven't quite finished this one, but thinking about some sort of relay race using one of the sinkers?

Anyway this turns out much longer than I thought it would, but honestly I want to make it a really great lesson for the kids and would really appreciate getting a second opinion on it. Thanks guys!

I've been teaching in the UK for 6 years now and they all sound like good activities. If the children are age 6-8, then it would suggest they are around ASA stage 3. This would make Activity 1 a bit low level in my opinion and would more suit a Stage 1/2 class. Activity 2 could be repeated several times to get them to be competitive between the groups and repeatedly practice the same skill in a fun environment. If you're going to teach breaststroke kick, you'll probably need 5-10mins for them to get a decent understanding of it, and then another 5mins to develop the kick.

Although you're having a fun approach, it doesn't have to be filled with games and activities. You can make boring activities like kicking fun by changing the float, e.g. you can tie the woggle in a knot so they are holding handle-bars to a bike, jet-ski etc. You can incorporate handstands and forward somersaults into collecting sinkers which helps get body position and rotation ready for head first surface dives.

Is this part of your training for your qualification?

[Oceanid]

I've been teaching in the UK for 6 years now and they all sound like good activities. If the children are age 6-8, then it would suggest they are around ASA stage 3. This would make Activity 1 a bit low level in my opinion and would more suit a Stage 1/2 class. Activity 2 could be repeated several times to get them to be competitive between the groups and repeatedly practice the same skill in a fun environment. If you're going to teach breaststroke kick, you'll probably need 5-10mins for them to get a decent understanding of it, and then another 5mins to develop the kick.

Although you're having a fun approach, it doesn't have to be filled with games and activities. You can make boring activities like kicking fun by changing the float, e.g. you can tie the woggle in a knot so they are holding handle-bars to a bike, jet-ski etc. You can incorporate handstands and forward somersaults into collecting sinkers which helps get body position and rotation ready for head first surface dives.

Is this part of your training for your qualification?

Thanks for the feedback! They're actually stage 4 - yeah I'm thinking of something different for the first activity now, that one was quite an early idea.

Yeah this is part of my training, that's why it's only fifteen minutes, which is also why I'm a bit limited in what I can do. I really appreciate what you're saying about the approach not being filled with games, but for this one we actually have to make it a games-led approach. And it also has to be three different activities lasting five minutes each. I think one of the main problems I have is that I don't know how far along any of the kids are - like I don't know if they've just started stage 4, or whether they've been doing it for a while.

Those are some really good ideas, thank you :) (also UK high five!)

[Oceanid]

Okay! So I taught the class and just thought I'd add how it went.

For the first part of my lesson I ended up doing 'Simon Says' with them, which got them practicing tuck float, star float and pencil float. Then they practiced their push and glides to the pool floor by having a race to glide though weighted hoops. We kept moving the hoops further and further away to see how far they could go. They loved that one! Finally got them to work on their breaststroke "frogs legs" swimming, by swimming out and collecting sinkers from the end of the pool, and bringing them back to the "lily pad" (a large float).

It went really well! The kids seem to really enjoy it, and I had some real characters in the class as well which made it a very entertaining lesson. :D