ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Ninanki is an educational program aimed at preschoolers and students in grades 1-3 of primary schools, encompassing physical and mental development based on learning basic movement patterns with the help of musical elements.

The seven movement patterns, namely walking, squatting, trunk flexion, trunk extension, trunk rotation, pushing, and pulling, form the alphabet of movement. Mastering these patterns early in life and nurturing them in later stages of development will help ensure the overall health of the body, prevent injuries, prepare for regular training, and ultimately serve as prevention against lifestyle diseases.

Movement is a natural, biological need. Associating animals with specific movements will allow children to learn the fundamental principles of movement in an attractive way, and a well-designed sports program will have a positive impact on the physical and emotional development of the participants.

ABOUT THE NINANKI

Following the age-old principle of “Live well with movement” we aim to introduce the seven basic movement patterns. The alphabet of movement will be presented by the group of friends called Ninanki – seven animals assigned to each movement sequence. Ninanki primarily directs their movement education towards children, through whom healthy habits can be introduced to the entire family.

The group of Ninanki consists of: Llama, Kangaroo, Cat, Lion, Bear, Tiger, Panther.

WHY IS NINANKI NECESSARY?

Children particularly feel a need for movement, which is a manifestation of their subconscious desire to satisfy this essential need. It simultaneously stimulates physical, mental, emotional, and social development. Especially for preschoolers, movement is a crucial means of acquiring information about the surrounding world. The preschool and early school period are key for building a child’s motor skills. It involves acquiring certain abilities that can be further perfected in subsequent stages.

A movement pattern refers to any movement that exhibits recognizable repetitions and regularity as well as timing. The most commonly encountered movement patterns in everyday life include walking, squatting, bending, carrying objects, pushing, and pulling. Translating this into specific examples, we can mention sitting down and standing up from a chair, tying shoelaces, walking, carrying shopping bags, and opening or closing doors.

We learn movement patterns from early stages of our lives, modifying and adapting them to our needs. Unfortunately, as we age, noticeable deterioration in our body posture becomes evident, leading to compensatory movements. These movements perpetuate poor movement patterns, resulting in strain and discomfort. To prevent musculoskeletal dysfunctions, it is essential to maintain correct movement patterns in our daily activities, correcting and reinforcing them through a variety of exercises.

For a long time, sports have been perceived as a way to maintain health and fitness, but their significance goes much further. In reality, engaging in sports teaches life lessons such as discipline, responsibility, self-confidence, and teamwork. Research has shown that physical exercise increases blood flow to the brain and helps the body build more nerve connections, leading to improved concentration, better memory, enhanced creativity, and well-developed problem-solving skills. In short, participating in sports helps the brain develop and enhances its functioning. Movement stimulates physical development, improving motor skills and physical fitness, promoting bone mineralization, activating the respiratory and circulatory systems.

In Ninanki movement sessions, in addition to a method strictly focused on replicating specific movements, the creative method of Carl Orff is also incorporated. It assumes that a child’s physical culture should be developed in close connection with rhythmic-musical culture and the culture of words. This method, involving movement, music, and words, has faded in popularity, however it imparts advantages at the core of the method, which aims to unleash children’s tendencies for self-expression and develop creative invention. Therefore, in the Ninanki program, which includes sound blocks, miniatures (music), animations (movement), and relaxation (words), all three elements intertwine with each other.

Ninanki, in its form, presents a flexible and comfortable approach in terms of learning movement patterns, play, short movement activation for children (during lessons), or longer exercise sessions (during physical education classes) by composing several or all Ninanki figures into movement sequences/exercises. Ninanki is also an excellent way to spend active time with parents, who can derive equal benefits from such shared activities with their little ones, simultaneously forming both bonds and muscles.

ENRICHMENT OF THE PROGRAM WITH MUSICAL ELEMENTS

Ninanki’s program can be described as a “Movement Suite” based on motor patterns. A suite is a musical form that consists of individual miniatures, i.e. components of the entire cycle. Each miniature is composed for a specific solo instrument on which a given melody is performed. In Ninanki, the soloists are animals representing a movement pattern.

Music provides a lot of stimuli, auditory and aesthetic impressions. It has a huge number of functions that stimulate life processes necessary to maintain a healthy mental and physical body. Broadly understood, music affects muscle tension, metabolic rate and pulse rate. Various breathing exercises support the proper functioning of this system.

Sounds from various sources accompany us from an early age throughout life. Even in the mother’s womb, the baby feels and hears the mother’s heartbeat, the sound of the amniotic fluid (similar to the sounds made by the sea or ocean) and the sounds of the outside world. It is worth providing auditory sensations, turning on the right music and talking and singing gently at this time. When the baby learns to hold objects, it begins to produce various sounds on its own, creating melodies based on rhythm, i.e. clapping hands, stamping feet, tapping objects. Gradually, they begin to react to music with free movement – a kind of dance, swaying to a given song, moving individual parts of the body.

THE ASPECT OF COGNITIVE TRAINING IN THE PROGRAM

The formula of the Ninanki program is designed in such a way as to support the child’s cognitive development. It is based on the implementation of motor tasks in combination with elements of cognitive training based on puzzles and solving mathematical tasks adequate to the children’s abilities with the use of simple commands in English or another foreign language.

Cognitive functions are skills that are necessary to receive and process stimuli and information coming from the environment. These include attention, perception, memory, and executive functions.

Various puzzles and mathematical exercises stimulate thinking, encoding information, as well as controlling and regulating behavior. The main principle that we follow in the Ninanki program is following the child, which applies to every aspect of Ninanki. We are open to the possible refusal of children, we support and strengthen with positive words. When solving puzzles or tasks, the perception and thinking process is different for each child, so it is important to build the right space and give time so that the child feels safe. Thanks to this, curiosity increases, internal motivation is awakened. Learning, and thus supporting cognitive development, is most effective through practical action. Therefore, in every class with Ninanek, children participate and experience these elements of cognitive training.

THE ARTISTIC ASPECT IN THE NINANKI

“Colors are music for the eyes because they can be put together like notes”

Eugene Delacroix

The Ninanki program is a land of seven animals with movement patterns. Ninanki is full of colors and colors that are filled with animations, drawings and affect children’s imagination. There are shades of pink, green, blue, a mixture of orange and red, yellow and light brown.

The human body reacts to color on many levels, e.g. physiologically – changes in blood pressure, breathing rate, balance disorders, drowsiness or agitation. The choice of colors can affect the upbringing process and the behavior of children. In our program, we try to avoid expressive, bright and highly saturated colors. Too much “color in color” causes irritability of children, problems with concentration. Pastel shades of pink, blue, green, etc. are colors that stimulate certain emotions, such as love, joy, self-confidence, increased energy, but still maintain a calm character.

The above-mentioned too high color saturation or, in general, satiation, excess of colors can cause children to react differently than our expectations. For example, yellow is a contradictory color, because on the one hand it is warm, joyful, energizing and improving concentration, while on the other hand it can be associated with a warning message like a road sign. In Ninanki, the panther takes on a yellow color – it is easy to see that it is a bright shade of yellow broken with black expressive elements that introduce stabilization and engage concentration processes.