LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Children will learn:

1. To have a personal bubble of space while moving
2. To imitate teacher-led locomotor and animal movements
3. To imitate animal sounds while moving like that animal

MUSIC: "Happy Day" | Download

Teacher Note: For all movement activities you will need 4 cones in order to delineate the boundaries in which the children can move. 

Get Moving

Activity: Warm-up

Jog to Music:  

Teach children how to jog (a slow run, alternating feet, toes pointed straight ahead, small, light, springy steps, arms relaxed and bent at a 90 degree angle moving rhythmically with the feet). Tell the children to start to jog as soon as they hear the music. 

Move Like the Animals

Fly away birds

Animal Movements - Birds

Eagle: glide – arms outstretched to side and motionless while jogging.

Hummingbird: hover – elbows in against sides, hands out to the sides making rapid fluttering motions while jogging in place

Crow: flap wings: arms outstretched to side and moving up and down while jogging (caw, caw, caw). 

Ostrich/emu: can’t fly at all. Forearms pressed in against the sides of the body, arms motionless while running fast.  

Nest: children squat with hands touching floor

Modifiers – slow, fast, high, low, straight path, crooked path

Benefits – arms, legs

Teacher: Children, for our Get Active time today, we are going to move like three different animals. First we are going to fly away like the birds. Let’s get ready: We’ll begin to jog on the count of three. 

Before we begin, who knows what jogging is? (take answers) Well jogging is running slowly. Remember to stay away from your neighbor – we call that a bubble of personal space – so you don’t bump into each other. Don’t forget your personal bubble. Ready, one, two, three. Let’s jog. Now, when I get to three, we will stop. One, two, three. Everybody stop.

Now let’s pretend to fly like birds. This time we are going to jog and flap our arms. Let’s fly. One, two, three. Now when I get to three again, let’s fly to our nests like this (model squatting with hands touching the floor). Ready, one, two, three. Squat in your nests.

Move like a crab 

Crab – Start from a sitting position with knees bent, feet flat on the floor, hands touching the floor behind the shoulders, and fingers pointing away from the body. Lift the hips as high as possible so the torso is almost flat like a table top. Once in this position, move in one of three directions – hands first, feet first, or sideways.

Modifiers: fast, slow,

Benefits: arms, shoulders, core

Expansions: leg lifts, leg extensions, carry bean bags on stomach and shake off

Teacher: Let's try moving like a crab this time. Watch me. 

Can you jump like a frog?

Frog - Start from a squat with hands touching the floor in front of the toes. Push off of both feet and jump forward landing in a squat again.

Modifiers - big jumps, little jumps, high jumps low jumps, many, few,

Benefits - legs

Expansions - frog jump contests, animal movement combinations (alternate frog/bunny)

Teacher: What fun. We flew like a ______. And we crawled like a _______. Now let's practice one more. Let's jump like a (ask the children which animal they think we'll be jumping like). That's right. We're going to jump like a frog. Let's squat like this (demonstrate squatting) and push off like this and then we'll squat again (demonstrate). We did it. We jumped. Now let's practice big jumps and small jumps. Can you make sounds like a frog too?      

Zoom In

ACTIVITY: Now let's practice all the moves we used to fly, to jump, and to crawl. First, let's jog. Who remembers how? Great job. Now let's:

Jog forward 

Jog forwards - a slow run, alternating feet, toes pointed straight ahead, small, light, springy steps, arms relaxed and bent at a 90 degree angle moving rhythmically with the feet.

Modifiers - fast, slow, big steps, little steps, straight path, crooked path, loud, soft, high knees

Benefits - legs  

Expansions: tag games, object searches, combination movements cued by tambourine taps

Jog backward 

Jog backwards - alternating feet, small steps, lift knees slightly, land on ball of foot first and then lightly touch heel to the ground. Glance frequently from side to side and back over the shoulder to make sure there are no collisions.

Modifiers - fast, slow, big steps, little steps, straight path, crooked path, loud, soft, high knees

Benefits - legs

Expansions - combination movements cued by tambourine taps

Teacher note: You can experiment with several variations: practice varying the speed (slow, fast) and the size of the jogging steps (small, big).

Jump 

Jump – Repetitive bounces on two feet. The word jump always means pushing off with two feet.

Modifiers – high, low, big, small, forward, backward, sideways, geometric patterns like in a circle, square, triangle, etc.

Benefits – legs

Expansions – kangaroo games, combination movements cued by tambourine taps

Hop 

Hop - Repetitive bounces on one foot. The word hop always means pushing off from one foot. Practice on each foot.

Modifiers - fast, slow, high, low, big, small, straight path, crooked path

Benefits - legs, balance

Expansions - combination movements cued by tambourine taps

Wrap-Up

CREATION Health: God made everything – the frogs, the crabs, you, and me. He created each one to be ACTIVE. Being active is fun and important for our health. God knows that, so He made our bodies to move in fun ways. Let's get close, in a huddle, with one hand in, and say this cheer: "1,2,3, God made me! 3,2,1, moving is fun!"