Drop Spots

Here at Playforce we are passionate about the education and health of children, and we are committed to providing the very best solutions for schools and nurseries to ensure every child has access to high quality, engaging outdoor spaces. Following research with our partner settings, our campaign work around the topic of Healthy Children, and our partnership with the Youth Sport Trust, we have developed Drop Spots – a flexible resource for children to use in free play, or for teachers as part of lesson time, to encourage physical literacy, and the development of Fundamental Movement Skills.

How Drop Spots were developed?
When developing the Drop Spots we wanted to work with an expert in physical education. After a bit of research we discovered Liz Myers, a School Sports Coordinator and founder of popular physical education resource website, PE Scholar. Liz works with Primary Schools in her region to help class teachers provide outstanding PE lessons and she has helped us to make sure the Drop Spot Resources are a useful tool for doing just this.

Find out why physical literacy is important from one of Liz’s blogs.

What are Fundamental Movement Skills?
Fundamental Movement Skills (FMS) are movement patterns that involve different parts of the body. They form the foundations from which other more specialised and complex skills used in games, sports, dance, gymnastics, physical education and recreation can be developed and refined.

Why are Fundamental Movement Skills Important?
Fundamental Movement Skills do not evolve naturally, they have to be learnt, practised and refined. These skills should be developed early in childhood to develop physically literate individuals, and be able to perform a variety of skills necessary to maintain a healthy active lifestyle.

If Fundamental Movement Skills are not developed early, there can be a negative effect on physcial skills resulting in an inability to access more complex movement patterns, vital for advancing and developing sport specific skills.

More about Drop Spots
There are three different sets of Drop Spots available, each focusing on agility, balance and coordination. Each of the sets come with a range of spots that are both grippy on both faces so can can be jumped on and too without slipping, as well as having a low profile so are not a trip hazard. The spots come in different colours: red, blue, green and yellow. They also have a range of actions on them. The activities for which the spots are used can utilise either the colours, or the actions on the spots, or both. The actions included are bend, stretch, jump, leap, hop, run, balance as well as hand and foot symbols, go/stop symbols and change direction. Two of the sets also include a range of resource cards, each with a suggested activity for use with the spots. They can either be used with a whole class, or for small groups. They have been designed for development of agility, balance and coordination and each have different levels for development and different levels of ability in a class. These are designed so that teachers can use them for lessons, but also for older children to use themselves at playtime for their own development. The larger set has been designed with enough spots to create activities for the whole class. The smaller set is for smaller class sizes and in conjunction with other activities in a PE lesson. Each of the sets come in a handy box that can be stored away and accessed easily.

To purchase one of our Drop Spot Sets visit our online Playforce Shop .

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