Materials
Old shower curtain or plastic tablecloth
Permanent marker
Instructions
1. Ask the children if they know ways they can move their bodies. You may need to come up with a few examples to get the discussion started. A few
good examples are shaking their arms, stomping their feet, running in place, shrugging their shoulders, and bending their elbows and knees. Once you
have covered ways to move their bodies, you are ready for the following activities.
2. These activities do not need to be done in any particular order and are easily adapted. Depending upon the size of your group, you may wish to enlist the
help of another enthusiastic adult.
Activity 1: Stars
1. Cut out two stars or other shapes from construction paper. Place one star at each end of the room.
2. Ask the children to form a line near one of the stars.
3. Each child takes a turn showing the other children ways they can move their bodies by going from one star to the other.
4. Some examples they may use are: skipping, jumping, twirling, hopping, slithering, walking very fast or very slow, and any other invented ways to
walk. One invented walk is the "crab walk." To do this, sit on the floor and place your hands behind you with the fingers pointed towards your feet. Push
up on your hands, so your weight is supported by your hands and feet (your belly should be pointed up). This is a particularly silly way to move the body.
It can be done backwards or forward.
Activity 2: The Glass Box
1. Ask the children to stand in place, about an arm's length apart, and draw an imaginary square around their feet. This is the base of their glass box. Let
them know that they are inside a glass box and they must move inside it, without stepping out.
2. Pretend to be a little mouse. Ask the children to move like a very little mouse inside their glass box.
3. Then pretend to be a very large elephant. Ask the children how they think a very large elephant would move inside a tiny glass box.
4. Pretend to be a bird inside the glass box. Encourage the children to flap their arms like wings.
5. Pretend to be a fish inside the glass box, or the wind, or trees blowing in the wind. The possibilities are endless.
Activity 3: Sticky Bubble Gum
1. Ask the children to imagine they are sticky pieces of bubble gum.
2. Now tell them to imagine that they are a great big wad of icky, sticky bubble gum and that they are all stuck together. They can stick together by holding
onto one another.
3. Encourage the "big wad of bubble gum" to try to move together, a few steps at a time, first in one direction, and then another.
4. Ask the children if they can tell you how it was different to move all together rather than moving by themselves.
Activity 4: Hinges
1. Show the children a hinge. Tell them that their bodies have hinges that move just like the hinge you are holding.
2. Ask them if they know where their hinges are, and how they move. Ankles, wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, waists, and necks are all good examples of
hinges.
3. Show the children ways to move their "hinges." Start with neck rolls. Ask the children to roll their necks one way a few times, and then change to the
other direction.
4. Demonstrate how you can roll your wrists in the same way. Point out that when you roll your wrists, your elbows move too.
5. Ask them to rotate their shoulders with you, one at first, and then the other. Do the same exercises with your waist, knees, and ankles.
6. Teach the children how to do jumping jacks. This is a great exercise that incorporates a whole bunch of hinges.
7. Point out to the children that it is a good thing we have hinges so that when we bend, we won't crack in two!
