WIGGLE-BUTTS

Wiggle what? Wiggle-Butt!

Engaging kids’ imagination is the easiest way to connect with them. We do it all the time at LPB with the toys we use as tools and with the words and phrases we say. Fun fact: our teacher training manual has a two-page glossary of fun terms we use during lessons to help our young swimmers better understand what we’re asking them to do.

Wiggle-Butts is just the tip of a silly iceberg. While in this particular case, using the technical term (dolphin kicks or body dolphin) is still imaginative, Wiggle-Butts is just plain silly and funny. “I get to wiggle my butt?” Yes! If you wiggle your butt forward and back, your body will follow and you’ll begin swimming the kick used in Butterfly! 

Of course, simply telling a kid to wiggle their butt could yield some different interpretations, so we pair the words with actions. Pairing is an effective method for helping concepts sink in. When students feel what their body is doing while hearing what their body should be doing, they learn faster.

So, how should you wiggle your butt? Let’s do some yoga to begin building that muscle memory. On all fours, we’ll do cow, then camel, and back to cow. In other words, we drop the tummy, then arch the back. Sometimes we also say, “mad cat, fat cat” to help students with the visualization.

Kids learn best when they are able to learn by doing, not just by hearing an instruction. When we pair a skill with creative, fun, silly, imaginative language, children can better understand what they are supposed to do.