This past Saturday marked one of the season's most special days: Family Day! Held at each KCTL site, this is a day when students can invite any relative to class--parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles or cousins--to participate in family-based games and activities. The objective of Family Day is to create a friendly, non-competitive environment for our students and their families to be active together. Marcy certainly had a blast during this especially awesome class.
Marcy-Family-Day
We were pleased to have about 30 children and their family members with us on the tennis courts at Marcy. Everyone remained upbeat and energized thanks to the music blasting from the boombox! Several kids were already out in full force by 12:30 because they were so excited for the class.
After stretching and warming up, we played two popular group games: Drop the Racquet and Centipede. Then we broke out into stations for some additional games.
The Obstacle Course station had an added twist this week; students had to navigate through the course holding a ball on their racquets. Brave kids were encouraged to try it on one leg!
At a Serving station, students and family members practiced serving the ball to each other. This was Marcy's first introduction to serves this season.
A lot of students really impressed us at the Targets Station, where they practiced forehands and backhands. Some of the younger, newer children are making tremendous strides in their groundstrokes.
We noticed similar progress at the Mini Tennis station, where the kids worked on rallying with one another and keeping the ball in the court.
On the big court, students and family members played a game called Balance and Flick the Ball, in which teams pair up, stand three feet apart, and try to flick the ball to each other without letting the racquet drop to the ground.
Gary led the off-court discussion on preparation for Davis Cup, scheduled for August 1! Davis Cup is a doubles tournament among all five KCTL sites. Since each site will represent a different country, the day combines competitive play with a lesson in geography. Marcy selected Italy during their off-court session with Gary.
We wrapped up with a giant game of Breakout, in which the kids were really pumped to show their family members what they've learned so far this season. Thank you to all parents and relatives who came out to support the kids at Family Day!