Today was an open day for our sports classes at Ishida kindergarten. Any parents, that wanted to, could come to observe the classes that were being held in our hall. At this time of year, lessons are usually held outside in the yard, but if it is rainy the lessons take place up in the hall. Only the older kids have sports classes – year 2 (Bear and Momo), and year 3 (Tsubaki) classes. The sports teacher, as always, was Samejima-sensei.

The lesson started with some warm-up exercises, such as jumping, arm rotating, stretching, and wiggling. Some of the stretching involved becoming different things, including a sea lion, a woven basket, and even Superman!!  The children then did some straight-line sprint races – at first just with running as fast as possible, but then with variations such as jumping, hopping, and skipping. They then practiced doing forward rolls on cushioned floor mats, vaults over vaulting boxes, and balanced walks along a balance beam. Finally, they did races in two teams whereby they combined four different activities in order: a vault over a box, a forward roll on a mat, a walk along a beam, and then jumps in hoops on the ground, before returning to the team line.

All the children tried their best to do the different sports activities. Some found the vaulting a little difficult, especially in gaining enough height to pass their legs over the top of the vaulting box. Even so, they could complete the course and did not give up trying.

I hope that all the parents that attended could see the great effort that the children put into their sports classes.

– Mark –

(今日は石田幼稚園で，体操教室の参観日の日でした。保護者の方は，参観希望であれば遊戯室での体操教室の様子を見学して頂けました。通常，体操教室は園庭で行われているのですが，雨の場合は遊戯室で行っています。体操教室は年中（もも組・ベアー組）と年長（つばき組）のみがあり，先生は鮫島先生です。

体操教室は，ジャンプや腕回し，柔軟体操，グルグルと手首回し等の準備体操から始まりました。準備体操の中には，アシカのポーズやゆりかご，さらにはスーパーマン等のポーズをして身体を伸ばすものがあります！！そして子ども達は，出来る限り早く・まっすぐ走る練習をし，両足跳びや片足跳び，スキップ等も行いました。次に，マットの上での前転，跳び箱，平均台です。最後に，２チームに別れて，４つの運動：跳び箱・マット上での前転・平均台・フープを両足跳びを行い，走って列に戻るというものを行いました。

子ども達みんな，異なる体操の動きを一生懸命に行おうとしている姿が見られました。特に，高く跳んで箱を飛び越えるという動きがある跳び箱は，動きが難しかったようです。それでも，子ども達はあきらめずに練習を続けていました。

保護者の皆さまに，体操教室での子ども達の素晴らしい努力を見て頂けたことと思います。

マーク先生より）