LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Children will learn:

1. To maintain a personal bubble of space while moving
2. To respond correctly to tambourine and musical cues
3. To demonstrate each animal movement after hearing its name
4. To imitate movements suggested in an action story told by the teacher

MUSIC:

"Happy Day" | Download Audio

Get Moving (2 Minutes)

What You Will Need

• 4 cones
• Tambourine
• Music - Happy Day

Activity: Warm-up

Jog to Music: Tell the children to start jogging as soon as they hear the music. When the music stops, instruct them to listen for sounds on the tambourine telling them how to move.

Talking Tambourine: Use tambourine taps and shakes to cue three different movements. The signals will always be one tap, two taps, shake. Today’s three-movement sequence is hop (one tap), jump (two taps), twirl in place (shake). 

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

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

Twirl

Spin in place with arms outstretched.

Modifiers - slow, fast, clockwise, counter clockwise

Benefits - equilibrium

Expansions - use as one of a series of movements that children perform in succession (i.e., walk, jog, twirl)

Can You? (7 Minutes)

Activity: Move Like the Animals

Teacher: Who remembers some of the animals we've moved like this week? (take answers) Let's move like those animals now. Alternate moving like the bird, the crab, the frog, the kangaroo, the bunny, and the puppy. 

Now let's learn to move like an new animals. We're going to move like an inch worm. Talk about the tiny green worm that moves by bunching up in an upside down “U” shape and then stretches out to a straight line. 

Model for the children how to move like an inch worm (Start by bending over at the waist with hands touching the floor. Slowly walk the hands forward until the body is extended out in the “up” position for a pushup. Some children may not be able to support their weight all the way to that point, so they can stop when their bodies resemble more of an inverted “V”. While keeping weight on the hands, slowly walk the feet towards the hands until they are back in the starting position.

The eventual goal is for children to be able to walk their hands all the way out to the extended push up position and hold that position momentarily before walking the feet in again. Repeat several times.

Conclude by reviewing the bird, crab, frog, bunny, kangaroo, puppy, and the inch worm.

Birds

An 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

Expansions – animal combination movements (ostrich, pony)

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

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)

Kangaroo

Stand erect with hands pulled in against the chest and elbows close to the body. Keeping arms in this position, push off from both feet simultaneously and give several small consecutive jumps. Each jump should propel the body forward.  

Modifiers – forward, backward, sideways, high, low, big small, fast, slow

Benefits – legs

Expansions – animal combination movements (kangaroo/pony)

Bunny

From a squat, reach forward with both hands and put all your body weight on them. Once the weight is over the hands, jump both feet forward so they catch up with the hands. The verbal cues for the bunny are “hands - feet - hands - feet”. This is similar to the frog with a few important differences. Whereas the frog moves all at once from point to point, the bunny moves its hands first and then its feet . The frog jump doesn’t place weight on the hands, they just touch the floor, but the hands in the bunny are weight bearing.  

Modifiers - fast, slow

Benefits - arms, shoulders

Expansions - animal movement combinations (bunny/frog)

Puppy

Start from a weight-bearing position on all fours (hands and feet, not knees) and move forward by alternately lifting and moving hands and feet. Weight must be equally distributed on both hands and feet. Let children practice moving slowly and then more quickly. Talk about how a puppy would move if it had a “hurt paw.” Let the children problem solve and see if they can continue to move with only 3 body parts touching the floor. They may choose whether to lift a hand or a foot for the “hurt paw.” 

Modifiers - fast, slow, forwards, backwards, sideways, straight path, curved path

Benefits - arms, legs

Expansions - switch the “hurt paw” to each hand and foot, animal combination movements (puppy/bear)

Inch Worm

Bend over at the waist until the hands touch the floor. Slowly walk the hands forward until the body is extended out in a straight line (similar to the “up” position for a pushup). Some children may not be able to support their weight all the way to that point, so they may stop when their bodies resemble more of an inverted “V.”  

While keeping weight on the hands, slowly walk the feet toward the hands until the children return to their original starting position (standing bent over at the waist with hands touching the floor). The eventual goal is for the children to be able to walk the hands all the way out to the extended push up position, and then hold that position momentarily before walking the feet in again. This movement may be performed in reverse, where the inch worm moves backward. The starting position remains the same, only this time, the feet move backward and away from the hands until the body reaches a straight line position, whereupon the hands move backward until they reach the feet.

Modifiers – slow, fast, forward, backward 

Benefits – arms, shoulders, core, leg flexibility

Extensions – animal combination movements (inchworm/seal)

Zoom In (5 Minutes)

Activity:

Teacher: This week we've been learning about Adam and Eve when they lived in the Garden. Who remembers the name of the garden. (affirm the correct answer or provide) Can you imagine what was in the garden? (examples, trees, flowers, streams, fruit trees, etc) How about the animals. What animals do you think were in the garden? (take answers)

Ask the children if they've ever been in a garden. Ask what they liked about the garden and what made it special. Ask the children what they might name their special garden. Select 2-3 names and then vote on the name of their special garden. 

Instruct the children that they are going to play and move in their garden. What kind of ways might you move in a garden? Have the children practice the varying moves learned/reviewed this week. For example, have the children jog across the garden to discover a waterfall. Have the children jump up to pick an apple from a tree, jump like the bunny to catch and follow a butterfly, crawl like a crab through a log, etc.

Butterfly

Arms move up and down (similar to crow), but slower and more graceful motions while jogging around.

Modifiers – slow, fast, high, low

Benefits – arms, legs

Expansions – animal combination movements (butterfly/bee)

Wrap-Up (2 Minutes)

Talk about the new animal they learned today (inch worm) and how much fun it was to pretend to be in a garden like the garden of Eden. Conclude with the Celebration Huddle and Cheer.