Newbie LTS Instructor

[holdontilmae]

I've recently been hired as a LTS instructor for the tots/pre-alpha levels. I am totally new to it and was hoping someone out there might have some tips and tricks for teaching the wee ones? Specifically, what to do when you have a whole group of tiny terrified kids who don't want to be there and spend the whole class bawling. I want them to have fun, but I can't seem to get through to them....any advice is appreciated!

[AgnesNitt]

I'm no coach, but I see our LTS coaches use lots and lots of stuffed toys from the dollar store as on ice motivators.

[DrillingSkills]

If your club allows it, I've found that drawing on the ice keeps their mind off the fear of the ice. Some children particularly enjoy the challenge of 'erasing' a drawing with their blades, which I find is a fun way to teach them to make snow (an eventually stop). Roadmaps also work well - they follow the path (draw an outer and inner line to make the 'path', not just one line for them to follow), and we give them plastic steering wheels to make them feel like they are driving. Sometimes we add in available props to make it more interesting - the more props the better with the tiny tots!

At the really beginner level, we drop beanbags at one end of the group's devoted area, and a plastic box at the end - the goal is to bring the 'treasure' back to the 'chest', and while the point is to do so by walking (or eventually skating), it's OK to crawl at first, because you want skating to be something FUN at the beginning Hope that helps!

[Query]

The first lesson should have been at least partly off ice. Concentrate on falling and getting up, and marching with blades.

A small number of kids will never get over it, because their muscles aren't strong enough to balance on blades. Take them back to their parents off-ice.

For whatever reasons, words are not very useful for dealing with small kids.

[JSM]

Teaching the tots can be fun, but it is exhausting!  I have had nightmare classes, but they can also be the most fun!

We try to have more than one instructor with a class larger than about 6 kids.  At these levels, games, games, and more games is the best way to get the kids moving.  Bubbles are fun for the three and four year olds.  We like to do simple counting games with moves like "stomp".  Animal noises, throwing and picking up stuffed toys, driving a car (duck or dip under bridges, hop over the river, stop at the stop sign) can be fun and take up time.

I still prefer the older students and higher levels, but working with the little kids has been a very good learning experience for me!  Most kids and their parents are just looking for a confidence builder and a fun time.

[Query]

At these levels, games, games, and more games...

Yes!

Along the same lines, don't expect rapid progress, or regimented order. For the very young, this ALL needs to be a fun game for them, not a school class. If you have a student who progresses rapidly, it will create less chaos if you promote them out to a more advanced class. Or ask him/her to help teach.

One student got very mad at me, because I stopped paying attention to her continuous complaints during a class when I was alone - but what else could I do? One student can't grab all the teacher's attention, or the rest will be neglected. I really do think it makes sense to let kids who don't want to participate leave, or be left alone to do their own thing. A LTS class should be a fun opportunity, not a jail.

To my complete surprise, one instructor at our facility successfully got a lot of would-be figure skating students' interest by playing pseudo-hockey with lightweight foam pucks, using foam noodles as hockey sticks. Amazing: Remove the danger, and hockey can actually be fun. But with really young kids, someone could still get hurt, so maybe you just let the kids take turns shooting at a target, without the scuffle? Regardless you certainly don't want a goalie or human target (or maybe just yourself?), because they can be easily hurt.

Relax, and enjoy the process. Smile. If you get frustrated, so will they.

P.S. I think the worst problem is kids who are cold because they aren't dressed right. There are no good solutions. What can you do but let them leave?

[davincisop]

I've recently been hired as a LTS instructor for the tots/pre-alpha levels. I am totally new to it and was hoping someone out there might have some tips and tricks for teaching the wee ones? Specifically, what to do when you have a whole group of tiny terrified kids who don't want to be there and spend the whole class bawling. I want them to have fun, but I can't seem to get through to them....any advice is appreciated!

I GOT YOU.

I was a tot coach at my old rink and am looking to see if my current rink will hire me. But!!

- Stuffed animals: get some small stuffed animals, have the kids line up on the wall, and toss the animals into the "water". Kids have to retrieve them and can only grab one at a time. You'll be amazed how many kids can suddenly skate when there are animals to save. Works on stroking, two foot glide, stops, and bending knees down.

- Red light/green light: My co-coach and I had different colors for different elements. But kids LOVED red light green light.
red - stop
green - skate
yellow - glide
pink - swizzle
etc etc

- Simon Says: easy game, can run through tricks with them

- If you have a marker and can draw on the ice, we used to draw out "obstacle" courses for the kids to follow down the width of the ice. Usually a caterpillar for swizzles (one swizzle per body circle), two straight lines for a glide. X for a stop. "ants" for marching.

If I think of more, I will toss them in. But the animals were the huge draw we did that got the kids off the wall.

Oh and if any parents try and question "Why does it look like they are just playing games? I'm paying for them to learn." You can say "These are games that we are doing to reinforce what they are learning without them overthinking it. Little Susie for example was scared to get off the wall at the beginning of class and now look at her! We do this so they don't get bored and if you watch closely you will see that they are doing what we taught them."
Had a parent do that to me in the MIDDLE of teaching one day. Once I told her the above her whole attitude changed.

[CaraSkates]

Games. It should be fun. I am the Snowplow Queen at our rink - to the point where I was away last weekend (at a competition!) and 5 parents asked the front desk "where's the bear lady??".

I have a giant bag of stuffed animals (hence the bear lady nickname) that I will use in different ways - give each kid one, have them throw it as far as possible, then go pick it up, repeat. This is good if you don't have a helper and need to focus on the struggling kids, the others are still involved in something. Sometimes I dump out all the animals and we go "rescue" them. As they improve, I give them one for each hand, they have to hold them out while they balance and march. We do dips with the animals in our laps.

I also draw on the ice - stars, ponds (with fish to stand on), ladders, etc. We play "go to the zoo" and each kid picks an animal and we pretend to be that animal. Outerspace - get in your rocket ship (don't forget to put on your space helmet and spacesuit!), fly around. I like to do this at the end before we play Blast Off.

I always start off ice with my SS1 classes - for the first 3-4 weeks. We practice marching, dips, getting up (be a puppy dog! Wag your tail and woof before you stand up!), etc on the rubber mats.  I also like to play "playground". We do monkey bars (march while reaching for the next monkey bar), seesaws (two foot glide while you reach for the sky, then your toes), and slides (10 marches up the ladder, gliding dip, fall down!).
I talk almost non stop through out the class and am always tired after!! LOL. I also do "snow angel break" where everyone has to flop down and make a snow angel - me included!

Classes for itty bitties should be nothing but fun or they won't want to do it! And stickers at the end!

[twinskaters]

I love reading all these descriptions and hearing the enthusiasm some of you have for the littles!

[holdontilmae]

Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions. I have my challenging class tonight, so I am really looking forward to using these. Hopefully, things go better than they did last week. 

[davincisop]

Another thing that works when you want them to keep their heads up and arms out:

Girls: You have beautiful rings on your fingers, show them off! And you have the most wonderful crown on your head, don't let the crown fall off! (I one time bought a bunch of cheapie party crowns that we fit over their helmets just so they had a thing on their head that they had to keep balanced)
Boys: Keep those superhero arms up! Look ahead so you know what is coming and you don't get surprised by the villain!

One day we had them pretend to be Disney characters. One kid goes "Can I be the Lightning McQueeeeeen car??". It was adorable.

[Loops]

You have gotten some fabulous suggestions here.  I'm taking notes too.  I like the crown/rings/superhero idea to keep them in a good posture.

I use bubbles with the really little ones- they love to chase them around. I try to tell them they have to do only swizzles, or wiggles to move, but they're so young they forget really quickly.  It's really just about getting them comfortable moving around on the ice.

What we do at our rink is pretty much the same as others have suggested.  No ice drawing though.  The club does have about 15 small hula hoops that we use as "base" we toss the stuffed animals and old toys out and the kids have to go get them and bring them back.  As they advance we set up bars (think limbo bars, but self standing) and the kids skate under them.  I also use all this in my slightly more advanced class.  I set up courses where the kids have to maneuver around the hoops (and/or small cones) and do a submarine under the limbo bar.

The hoops are really handy, there's lots you can do with them.

If you keep your eyes and imagination open, you'll suddenly see lots of "toys" out there to make games and courses for the littlies.

And games are great.  We end each class with about five minutes of games, red/light green light is a good one.  When one of the kids is the light, I participate, but make sure I move at the wrong time or fall down a lot.  The kids LOVE beating the teacher, and I like them to see big people falling (and, more importantly getting back up!). There's another game called Fish/fisherman where a group stand in a circle and choose a number.  They spread out and start counting, the other kids have to skate through their circle, but at their chosen number they drop their arms.  Those trapped become part of the fisherman circle.  The kids love it.  I'll have to see if the French know about Simon Says....  But almost any playground game should work.

[holdontilmae]

Update: I had a group of kids (all energetic little boys) that were a little older than my previous class of tots. WE HAD SO MUCH FUN. We were army soldiers, jet planes, race cars; we went on a submarine adventure and found sunken treasure, flew to the North Pole and made snow angels, tried out for the hockey team, etc. After class, one of the boy's dad came up to me and told me his son had a blast and that I was his favorite teacher. Thank you for all your wonderful advice 

[Skittl1321]

When I was teaching we spent a lot of time throwing and chasing after beanie babies. 
We did do bubbles, but sometimes it caused more problems- because kids would jump to try to catch them, and well, they weren't ready for jumping.

We played lots of games- some I made up as I went along, others were known games like Red Light, Green Light.
Lots of make believe; we were cars and airplanes, we were frozen by monsters.  We sang songs- Monkeys Jumping on the bed was a good way to practice fall and get back up.

I did like to draw obstacle courses on the ice.

For non-mobile kids, we made snow angels. Would try to march in place. Would try to dip in place. Would balance a beanie baby on our heads.  We would try to stand still as statues for

One thing I'll note: I always started my class inside a hockey circle. We never held onto the boards, I "never" used chairs or cones to help the kids stand or move. (I say "never" as I can remember one kid who after 4 weeks I gave up and gave him a cone to hold.)  I would actually move the kids who couldn't get there themselves to the circle.  I found observing other classes that letting them hold the boards they would never let go.  My mentor encouraged no "aids" and I saw more progress by letting them have 1 or 2 classes where they didn't go much of anywhere, but at least did it on their own. 

For kids, I would make them try 3 times to stand back up, and then pick them up and move on with the class.  If it was getting to where they weren't trying, then I just let them stay down there.  If they forgot gloves, I would put my hands on the ice, and have them set their hands onto mine- the little kids were more sensitive to the cold than older kids seemed to be.

I miss teaching tots so much- but my hip no longer lets me demonstrate fall and get back up, and that was like 80% of snowplow sam classes it seems