I would love to know how all of you go about teaching cartwheels to young students (that already have body awareness of course)!!! Exercises you may use to help them grasp the concept, imagery, etc... any input would be greatly appreciated! THANK YOU!!!!

Kids that age are all about visuals.

I sugest getting a cartwheel mat, it has hand and foot prints on it and then all they have to do is match up.
I made mine becuase they are kind of expensive, a yoga mat and some paint and a kid to use for hand and foot prints.

also haveing them jump around the side instead of trying to go over the top at first helps

I put down pictures of hands and feet on the mat (or use a piece of rug). For that age I have the two hands down at the same time and land with both feet at the same time, on the marks. See the photo above.

You can make the mat with paint or just tape. The marks for the hands should be shoulder-width apart.

Do not even worry about the legs getting high in the air yet, they first have to learn to get their feet off of the floor.

See this video, it will help. www.youtube.com . . .

We teach it over the top of a soft box first. The box is around 10 cm's high and 40 cm's wide. The kids start by doing a bunny hop over the box. They place their hands on the box and try to jump their feet over to the other side. Once they can do this with straight arms and landing on their feet with their bottom going over their head. We move it into a cartwheel over the box, by straightening their legs and making 1 leg go over at a time and land on 1 leg. Once they can do this well. we draw a square on the mat (with chalk) and have them cartwheel over that pretending its a box. It works very well.

I use the same idea as RileyA. I have tried the "cartwheel mat" with the hand prints, but don't like it as much as the jumping/kicking over a mat or box method. I have found that the kids get it quicker jumping/kicking over something. As they get the feel for the movement, you can use a flatter mat or shorter box that is closer to the ground. Eventually you can take away the object all together.

These are EXCELLENT methods!!! Thank you so much for your input!!! I will definitely be putting these to good use!!!

These are EXCELLENT methods!!! Thank you so much for your input!!! I will definitely be putting these to good use!!!