Advisor Tania Atkinson says âthe skills which they learn at preschool are applied more fully when the children start p
Fun with Fundamentals A big congratulations to the four Wellington Pacific Early Childhood Centres who received their completion certificate at the end of last year for taking part in the Sport Wellington Fundamental Movement Skills Project. Aoga Amata EFKS Newtown, PIPC Aoga Amata Newtown, Sagata Ana Aoga Amata, and Te Punanga O Te Reo Kuki Airani have been working extremely hard on developing their knowledge and understanding of Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS). This project looks at the importance and development of FMS in under 5’s, with a focus on basic movement skills such as jumping (and other locomotion), hand eye coordination, balance and rotation. FMS not only benefits children for physical activity and skill development for games but they also help form the foundation for formal learning and general day to day activities. Sport Wellington’s Young Persons Advisor Tania Atkinson says “the skills which they learn at preschool are applied more fully when the children start primary school, as they help aide physical and cognitive development”. The objective of the project is to ensure that children are doing activities every day to help develop their FMS so that they become automatic skills. The project worked alongside the ECC’s through teacher training and modelling sessions. The lead teacher at Aoga Amata EFKS Newtown says, "The teachers have a lot more confidence in demonstrating and doing many of the skills learnt… It has also provided us with a lot more in depth reasons why these skills are essential and we are also able to share these with our parents.” A lot of the activities used are very simple and can be incorporated quite easily; they also use easily accessible equipment such as balloons and cardboard made bats, or ping pong balls and spoons.
