Teaching juggling / circus skills to 6-8 year olds
I've been volunteered by my kids to help out on what is called a "Spread Your Wings And Try" day. This is a school day where kids get to try out all kinds of crafts, activities and games. I'll be there to allow kids to try out juggling and circus skills.
I was wondering whether anyone has any tips for teaching kids of this age?
I think I will be getting groups of around 10 kids for an hour at a time. My plan is to split them into 3 or 4 groups, with each group trying out diabolo, plate spinning, basic juggling (potentially scarf). I would then rotate the groups every 15 mins, and do a bit of a show at the end.
I really want the kids to feel like the have achieved something, for people who have taught young children before, what have you found works well? I am opting for diabolo and plate spinning because I thinks kids can feel like they have made progress in a short space of time. But what other skills do you think it would be worth trying?
I know that some people teach balancing with peacock feathers - how much success would a 6 year old have with this?
Any other tips would be greatly appreciated. It's been about 15 years since I last did something like this!
Colin E.
Robotic juggle - - Parent #
i would opt scarf, it took me half an hour to do basic balls and i was 15, also balancing peacock feathers is very simple and the kids competitive spirit would drive them to do good (this may cause some to feel bad if there not good at it though) just keep it light and they should enjoy it
I agree, unless you find an exceptionally talented kid, most 6-8 year olds struggle with just thawing and catching one ball in a regular cascade pattern. I'll see how they go with scarf and the other skills and if any look ready I'll give them a go.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
I made a post some time ago at the edge giving many many examples of tricks you can do with young kids.. Is there any easy way to search the edge?
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
Nevermind I found it, copy & paste:
There are many many many one ball tricks which are fun, easy to learn and hopefully increase hand coordination!
Easy ones are:
Normal throws
Under the hand
Arms crossed, throw a ball straight from the top hand and catch it with the same hand underneath the other arm (can be done with 2 balls of course)
Rolling along the back, placing a ball in the neck and catching it above your bum (make sure the kids open their hands, place the thumb in their back). Can be done with one hand too!
'reverse' throws over the head
Kneeling and passing a ball under the leg (can also be done with 2 ball shower)
'monkey cascade', placing a ball crossed under your armpit and dropping it staight into your hand again. Can be done with 3 balls, also you can squeeze a ball between head and shoulder instead of armpit
Floor juggling, throwing 3 balls on the floor in a cascade pattern (cross throw, straight pickup)
One ball pirouette (practise one ball high throws first: Use both hands and keep poining at the ball as it is in the air, do not allow the kids to walk after it!)
All these tricks can be done while balancing a beanbag or a book on your head, or while standing on a chair
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Rotating kids is fine. Make sure you tell them to put their stuff down before they rotate (ideally you make them sit down next to all the stuff before you give the commando that they can rotate).
With plates, teach them to hold the stick in one hand, put the base on the floor and then spin the plate by hand. Then once it is spinning it can balance on finger, pass under the leg or behind the back, throw it, put it on your finger nail.
Diabolo is hard and strings always get knotted, but for some reasons kids always have fun with it. Make up some rolling & running games, lift up the diabolo and step over the string, throw it up drop sticks and catch with 2 hands
I have no experience with teaching kids peacock balance...
My favorite skill is ring juggling. Make sure it is very obvious to them that frisbeeing is dangerous ("once it sticks in your forehead it is hard to pull it out"). Spin around arms & fingers, have them carefully throw them over their buddies arms or even head, 2 at a time is easy. Put over neck and try to flip it off by pulling up the shoulders really fast.
If you manage to teach the kids to flick a ring so it rolls back, this is brilliant. When you demonstrate, pretend you have control over it by snapping your fingers when it returns. You can also spin a ring in another ring.
Rings combine very nicely with balls, you can drop/throw the ball trough in many easy fun ways.
You need even more? Every kid knows what to do with a hoola hoop. Some get really carried away with poi, or even better (and more knots for you) a stick with a long ribbon. Unlimited budget? Skippy balls, wire walking/globe walking (have somebody hold them!!!) and pedalos (google them) come to mind.
Some great ideas there - thanks!
I've taught diabolo to quite young kids a few times and it works quite well. Most of them can understand the very basics of getting started, rolling it along the floor, ten picking it up and continuing the spin by driving with one hand. They struggle to 'steer' it, but having it spin on the string for 10 seconds is enough to make them smile :-)
Thanks for the one-ball ideas, I'd not considered that - I might give them a go.
Rings - that's a very good idea. I am sure I could teach them to spin a ring on their arms. I'll certainly add them to my list. I don't own any poi, but could probably make some simple ones this weekend.
Regarding rotating, and keeping them under control, I have four kids of my own, so am quite used to crowd control ;-)
Thanks very much for the ideas, you've certainly expanded my list.
Little Paul - - Parent #
Gymnastics ribbon is so much fun!!
http://juggling.tv/13164
You could teach younger kids poi (especially good for even younger kids because the gross motor skills taught help with hand writing). I teach a lot of balance skills to that age group but that requires you to have the equipment (strap-on stilts, walking globe, tightrope etc.) Devil sticks are easier than diabolo initially.
Nigel
I'm surprised about that - I always thought devil stick was quite hard to get started. With devil sticks you are constantly having to correct the motion. It takes a lot of precious. Whereas once a diabolo is spinning, it just keeps going.
Anyhow, I do have devil sticks, so I will add that to the collection of activities.
I'll certainly look into making some poi using a few tennis balls.
Thanks :-)
Little Paul - - Parent #
Tennis balls in socks are easier to untangle/unknot than strings. As a bonus you could get the kids to make them.
Good point about sock poi, I am not a poi aficionado, so am not up to speed on the best construction methods!
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Long story short, get some knee length socks from your local market stall. They'll be three of four pairs for a fiver, come in a range of eye-catching teenager-friendly patterns and colours, and utterly indestructible. Insert a tennis ball and knot at both ends so they are reversible. If you look hard enough you can make them for less than a pound each.
I would rather use something a bit heavier than tennis balls. 100g or so of dried beans work quite well.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I wouldn't give a 6-8yr old kid anything heavier than a tennisball, given that the *very* first thing they'll do is smack another kid round the back of the head with it.
The secret of teaching devil sticks is not to start with tick tock. There are at least 10 tricks you can learn before that which are easier and quicker to learn. Another thing when teaching tick tock is not to start from the ground. I can (and have in the past) run a whole workshop in how to teach devil stick to beginners and will probably be doing a basic devil stick workshop at BJC this year.
Sock poi are much better than kite poi for teaching small kids. Many kids spin poi too fast and therefore are a danger to themselves and others. They also tend to bash the poi on the ground and thus wear through them. Hence I now have a whole set of sock poi that are short enough to prevent that.I start with one hand poi moves (in front butterfly style, side, other side, behind, over head and in front horizontal spins), then the other hand and then both doing the same thing or different things. Then move on to 'roller coaster' and 'corkscrew' before attempting a weave.
With spinning plates it is generally better to focus on the tricks they can do after they have the plate spinning rather than which method they use to spin the plate. So spinning on the finger, throw and catch, under the leg, behind the back, curl, passing between two sticks or throwing between two sticks, multiple plates, passing between two people etc.
Nigel
Thanks Nigel - lots of great info there.
Regarding devil stick " ... at least 10 tricks you can learn before that which are easier and quicker to learn" what sort of tricks did you have in mind there?
For plate spinning, I'm with you on that one, they can have a lot of fun throwing, catching, transferring etc with a plate that is already spinning. I personally find getting a splate spinning using the stick quite tricky ;-)
Colin E.
Daniel Simu - - Parent #
Putting the devilstick horizontal on both hand sticks and then:
Tossing straight
Tossing half turn
Tossing helicopter
Tossing and catching above the head (sticks point backwards, stick out index finger to stop devilstick from rolling down)
Roll towards your shoulders over the arm, or towards a buddy
Drop down one handstick and catch the top end of the devilstick squeezing it between the two sticks, then swing back up
Etc etc
Are you going to be at BJC Colin because I can run through it there? Otherwise there are a bunch of throws starting from a static position, rolling along arms, over head and down back, starting with crossed arms and bringing up over head, pushing the devil stick around one hand stick, a single tick, traps etc. I once wrote an article on teaching devil stick to beginners I wonder if it is still on the web?
Couldn't find it on web but I did find a copy of it on my computer. It is nine years old and I haven't read it so there may well be changes in the way I teach devil stick now. I've copied it below:
For years in the juggling world there havebeen zillions of jugglers, trillions of diabolists and a few sad devil-stickersstood alone in the corner of a convention. Why should this be? My theory isthat people try the devil stick, struggle to learn a few beginners’ tricks,decide that juggling or the diabolo is more rewarding and give up.
Following from this I decided to teachdevil stick in a less traditional manner. I wasn’t going to start with Tic-Toc.Instead I would demonstrate a lot of easy to learn tricks based on movementsfrom the rest position. The tricks would be simple enough that seven year oldswould be able to accomplish at least a few of them and with enough variety andvariation that the whole group would both succeed and be challenged.
I generally teach groups of 30 and wantedto be able to help individuals who were struggling, whilst giving the quickstudies enough to do. For this reason I demonstrated tricks in groups of fiveor six at a time and followed with more tricks after five or so minutes.
The success of this policy is that often atthe end of a workshop the students are clamouring to know where they can getdevil sticks where before they all wanted diabolos. Will this increase thenumber of devil-stickers at conventions? Probably not. But it does mean that mystudents and I have a more enjoyable workshop session and enthusiasm is the keyto the growth of juggling around the world.
Below I give an example of a 20 – 30 minutesession suitable for teenagers. The tricks are developed in each group of five.The tricks listed are only a selection of the possible ones available to astructured process such as this. For more ideas on tricks for the devil stickrefer to the ‘Stix Guru’ video or the book ‘Mastering the Devil Stick’ by ChrisDore. Also out there are ‘The Devil Stick Book’ by Todd Strong and a section of‘The Complete Juggler’ by Dave Finnigan both of which are somewhat limited.Further information with demonstration video can be found at www.devilstick.org
The Rest (or starting position):
Handsticks are held in the middle. Devil stick rests horizontally upon the twohandsticks. Each handstick is approximately 1 inch (3cm) from an end of thedevil stick.
The first five tricks:
1) Throw and catch: Devil stick is thrown vertically with no spin and is caughtin rest position.
2) Half turn: Devil stick is thrown vertically with one hand pushing more thanthe other so that devil stick flips through 180 before returning to restposition.
3) Crossed arms: Devil stick is thrown vertically, arms are crossed, devilstick returns to rest position. (Note: don't say cross hands, emphasise howwide arms are crossed).
4) Leg bounce: bring arms down and leg up so that centre of devil stick bounceson thigh before returning to rest position. (Emphasise thigh not knee).
5) Roll: Bring arms up and duck head down, allowing devil stick to roll alongboth arms and over head until it rests on back of neck. Then bring head andarms back so that devil stick drops onto back of handsticks.
The fifth trick is visually impressive but do-able by 7 years plus. Concentrateon keeping centre of devil stick in centre of roll.
The next five tricks extend some of the previous ideas and introduce new ideas.
6) Throw over head with turn: Throw devil stick so that it goes over the headand then turn to catch it in rest position.
7) Catch under leg: Stand on one leg with other leg pointing to side. Throwdevil stick vertically and bring one hand under raised leg to catch devil stickin rest position.
8) Crossed arms to crossed arms: From crossed arm position throw devil stickvertically and then uncross arms and cross the other way. Catch devil stick inrest position.
9) Trap to rest: Start with stick held vertically between the two handstickswith devil stick approx. 1-2 inches from top end. Swing devil stick completelyaround one hand stick (at some point of the swing you have to move the otherhand stick out of the way) and catch devil stick in rest position.
10) Half flip return: From rest perform half flip but catch with one stick andpush upwards so that devil stick does reverse half flip before returning torest position.
Trick 10 is a beginning stage of Tic-Toc, which can be introduced here or leftuntil later. If you do introduce Tic-Toc please do not start it from the groundthis tends to encourage poor technique rather than reduce it.
The next five tricks are again either extensions or introduce new ideas.
11) Cross Arm-Above Head-Cross Arm: From cross arm bring handsticks around sothat hand sticks are held horizontally above head with devil stick stillresting upon them continue rotation so that arms are crossed the other way.
12) Rest-trap-rest: From rest position push devil stick upwards slightly at oneend to allow time to move handstick so it can move to trap devil stick thenproceed as trick 9. Then make this one single flowing move.
13) Half flip to wrist trap (and return): Half flip as trick 10 but instead ofpushing back catch the devil stick between wrist and back of handstick. Thesecond (harder) half of this trick is to then rotate the wrist whilst releasingthe trap so that devil stick is flipped (or half flipped to rest position.
14) Double wrist trap (Scoop): Vertically throw devil stick from rest, bringboth arms up so that elbows are level with shoulders and hand sticks arehorizontal. Then bring handsticks over the top of devil stick before trappingwith both handsticks and wrists.
15) Buzzsaw: See Todd Strong book (The Devil Stick book) for description.
And another five tricks to keep things going:
16) Buzzsaw to reverse: Do buzzsaw, stop and reverse direction of spin.
17) RTR Loops: This is the motion of rest-trap-rest without stopping to rest.That is the devil stick does continue circles with the hand sticks trapping andun-trapping to keep the circles going.
18) Wrist trap to wrist trap: From one wrist trap, devil stick is thrown acrossinto a wrist trap with the other hand.
19) RTR around leg: Devil stick rests on one hand stick and one raised foot. Itis thrown exactly as in rest-trap-rest to finish in rest position.
20) Nigel's Nasty Trick: Hand sticks held vertically devil stick resting onextended index fingers. Handsticks are thrown over the top of devil stick whilsthands pass underneath before catching hand sticks again. Devil stick
ends up resting on fore arms.
All these tricks have the advantage that they can be stopped after one attempt.This means the student can correct any mounting errors quickly and easily.Devil Stick has the advantage over diabolo in that there are no strings to getknotted and over juggling in that there are fewer objects to pick up.
Other avenues to pursue with the devilstick grow naturally from these workshops. I find that students interacttogether with the prop. This can be as simplistic as two people throwing thestick between them and lead from there. I have yet to find the limits of two ormore person devil stick even with inexperienced practitioners.
There is also a greater opportunity forinvention with this prop than with most others. Many times in workshops astudent has developed an idea that I have never seen performed before. Jugglingand diabolo have had much greater exposure and so the opportunity to bedifferent is much smaller. Even whilst writing this article I have conceived anew trick which I could never do with a more popular prop. (For the record thetrick is: Hold devil stick in rest position behind back, drop devil stick andjump up so that both legs hit devil stick at same time propelling it over thehead to be caught in front).
The devil stick is also open toexperimentation in size and shape of prop. In performance I have seen tennisrackets, mops, brooms, umbrellas and clubs used in its place. There must bemany more objects that can be adapted, many of which will also have uniqueproperties to be exploited.
To conclude, the philosophy of teachingshould be to encourage the student to develop quickly early on. The enthusiasmgenerated will help to overcome the difficulties when the tricks start to comemore slowly. Encouraging interaction and experimentation amongst the studentsmakes them feel that they are adding more to the learning process rather thanjust being forced to go along a particular line. Steady progression withsmaller steps mean that many hurdles are overcome in a much less painful way,leading to greater achievement faster. This philosophy works with any object.
Nigel Roder
©2005
I am one of those who has never gotten the hang of devilsticks. I am saving this for when I do find a set.
I will be running a basic devil stick workshop at 11am on one day of the bjc. There will be basic workshops on lots of skills at 11am over the course of the convention. By basic I mean never having done it before and not beginner which appears to mean everything from basic to I have learnt loads of stuff and want to show off to the newbies.
Nigel
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
""By basic I mean never having done it before and not beginner which appears to mean everything from basic to I have learnt loads of stuff and want to show off to the newbies."
Hahaha. Monday morning much?
IMO Beginner means beginner, but is often done by people who aren't very experienced at teaching, and find they run out of beginner material in three minutes.
Do you have a Workshop Workshop on your schedule?
Wasn't volunteering, just sort of trailing the idea in case any more enthusiastic or experienced people felt like picking it up.
Balancing bean bags on one's head is a skill that some three year olds can do. It gets harder as the number of bags increases. It looks silly so they get a laugh out of it.
Cedric Lackpot - - Parent #
Hi Colin,
I could quite literally write an entire book about this, but here's just a handful of ideas :-
Don't try too hard to teach. They are kids, they don't all want to do the same thing, they would rather play. Let them, it's an excellent way of learning, and give them guidance when they need or want it.
Don't get hung up about what they can or can't do. It doesn't matter what they achieve, it just matters that they get to try, ideally in their own way and at their own speed.
DO THE SHOW AT THE BEGINNING!!! Seriously, it's the way to do it, you'll get to introduce yourself and show them that you are charming and charismatic and definitely not a two-headed ogre; by demonstrating each of the props you will show them what they're for, before they go off and try something else anyway; you will enjoy yourself immensely and thereby convince the kids that this day is going to be special! The show totally sets up the rest of the day.
Peacock feathers are great, especially for young children. Every now and then I get a class of reception kids balancing feathers, and it's just as magical for me as it is for them. You need teach them only one rule : Look at the top. If you can get them to grasp that you'll be amazed by what six year olds can do.
Diabolos and plates are popular too, they find them fun but difficult. Likewise any and all toss juggling props, sock poi, ribbons, etc. And it's always nice to add some larger props too, if you have them, such and hand-held stilts, bucket stilts, and unicycles.
If you're going to split them into groups you had better make sure each group has an adult to keep them focussed. But even then you must remember that only one of the groups will have the expert on hand.
Above all, think about how you will present yourself. If you can be happy, funny, excited, and passionate about your subject it will rub off on the kids.
HTH. Break a leg.
Thanks for all the tips - much appreciated. I think you are right about doing the show at the start, I'll definitely do that.
Some of these tips might be possible: https://robzencat.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/3-balls-the-non-traditional-way/
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