Bean bag exercises

The beanbag is a very popular tool among the nursery and primary school children. In general, it is home-made, so children bring true color cavalcade of bean bags to class.

The textile bags, mostly filled with beans, are light, can be placed on head, back, feet, knees and ankles, they are well-formable, and they can be slipped and tossed.

We should always check the devices before using them in class, and prepare them, put them in the net, in a chest, on a bench, so that they are in an easily accessible place. Their distribution can take place when children stay in place or are on move. If the bean bags are made at home, let us allow the children to use their own.

Let us determine a unified mode of carrying them, for example, in the left hand, down at the side of the body. It is important that the teacher should also have a beanbag for the presentation of the exercises.

For beanbag exercises the children can be arranged in the free practice formations mentioned earlier.  When practicing with beanbags we can use only such forms of movement which have already been mastered by pupils through free practices. In particular, we use beanbags to develop coordination skills, but let us not leave out the imitative, playful, or competitive practices, which help us make our sessions varied and enjoyable. Tossing and sliding the bean bag should always be included in the teaching material; we should also unconditionally employ posture correcting tasks (with the bean bag placed on the head) when using bean bags. We can practice those individually, in pairs and in groups. It is necessarily to draw attention to the danger of injury because stepping on a beanbag can result in slipping, while the unexpected, powerful throws can cause pain and injury. (Table 13)