Water Familiarity: 20+ Practice Cards for Swimming Lessons

These illustrated exercise cards bundle exercises for water familiarization for children who have little experience in the water. The children can make waves, do jumping jacks in the water, blow a table tennis ball across the water, or transport a cup on a kickboard. The exercises can help reduce fears and insecurities and allow children to gain a variety of experiences in the water, which can then help them learn basic swimming skills.

What is included in the material

• Exercise cards for individual exercises, ranging from arm circles and jumping to exercises with a kickboard and pool noodle, as well as exhaling underwater, each with instructions and an illustration
• Exercise cards for partner exercises, in which one child holds, pulls, pushes, or carries the other on their back
• Overview of all exercises with their names and instructions at a glance
• Station signs with numbers
• Preface with guidance on how to use the exercises

Tips for using the material

• At the beginning of the swimming lesson: The exercises are ideal for starting a swimming lesson in the non-swimmer area.
• Tailored to the children: The exercises can be selected based on the children's individual abilities. Children with no experience in the water should be introduced to it very gently.
• Increase the difficulty if needed: If an exercise is too easy, the variation under "Too easy?" on the same card can be used, for example, jumping on one leg instead of two or opening your eyes underwater.
• Cards as visual aids: The teacher can hold up a card to explain the exercise. This reduces noise in the swimming pool and helps protect their voice.
• As stations: The station signs can be used to carry out the exercises at numbered stations.

These skills are developed

• Breathing in the water by blowing into the water, exhaling underwater, and taking turns submerging with a partner
• Body position and balance while floating on your back and sitting on a pool noodle and kickboard
• Leg propulsion by moving the legs up and down while holding a kickboard
• Movement in the water by walking, jumping, and climbing along the edge of the pool

Organizational notes

Some of the exercises require kickboards, pool noodles, a table tennis ball, a tennis ball, a water ball, a cup, and objects to retrieve from the water.

To complement these, there are exercise cards for diving and jumping into the water, as well as swimming games for swimming lessons.