UW-Stout held their annual Early Childhood Education Conference April 23-24, 2009. During three sessions of "Move it to Learn it", participants shared their favorite activities using movement to teach young children. A compiliation of those activities follows.
Compiled by Sandra Sunquist Stanton NCC.LPC
Connections of the Heart LLC, www.ourbrainbuddies.com
Thanks so much for choosing to participate in our Move it to Learn It workshop at the UW-Stout Early Childhood Conference Friday, April 24, 2009. I hope you found it helpful, informative and enjoyed it as much as I did! Your willingness to share your activities was inspiring, and will certainly be helpful for your colleagues!
From Pattijo Sagerer: Washing Machine Alphabet Exercise
Children place feet hip width apart, and pretend to be a washing machine.
First raise arms (to open lid)
Fill with letters (put in pretend letters while saying A-B-C-D
Pretend to add soap
Close lid
Put hands on hips and twist while singing the alphabet song. (Agitating the washing machine)
Lift lid again, take out clothes and putting them in a basket.
Say each letter, stretching up and forward, d pretending to hang them on a high clothes line.
Take them back down, reaching up to get them and bending to put them back into the basket.
Sing the Alphabet song again as you put them into a drawer.
From Mary Gormley: (for 4-5 year olds)
When doing the theme of secondary colors (after completing primary colors) I have large pieces of colored netting in each color, primary and secondary. As you toss the netting up in the air, it floats slowly down to the ground so it is fun to throw and catch, and very colorful. (Stanton note: laying colors on top of each other creates other colors…)
From Karen Hilleren
Dancing with ribbons and music. I glued ribbons to a paint stick. I play music from different cultures or holidays and invite the children to dance and move with the ribbons.
From Mary Sullivan:
We do a countdown when children have been sitting for a while. First they stand up, then do 10 jumps, 9 cross your arms and tap opposite sides, 8 rub back and stomach, 7 hopping, 6 make an x with your arms and tap your knees, 5 hop on one foot, 4 wiggle your ears, 3 clap your hands, 2 tap your head, 1 turn around and sit down.
From Samantha L/Hevreux: The Tony Chestnut Song
· From Lisa Coonan, Family Childcare, Mendota Heights, for Daily Circle Time:
o Macarena Months
o Modified Macarena Days of the Week
o Calendar movements to “If You’re Happy and You Know It”
o Today is the ____ of the month
o We will sing our number song ad the month goes on and on-Touch your toes
· From Kay Ojala
o Scoot around on carpet pieces with the carpet side down.
· From DeAnne: “Hello, How Do You Do?” Sing Hello Song and Incorporate Movements:
o March
o Hop
o Fall
· From Molly Burke:
o Simon Says
o Animal Walks
o Music and Movement Songs
· From Candy and Barb:
o Freeze Song
· From Terri Skogstad:
o Dance
o Exercise
· Tumbling on Mats
· Move body up and down to follow Zigzag lines on the wall
· From Margie Menard:
o Music and Movement with Greg & Steve CD
o “Bop Until You Drop”
o “Freeze” with Ribbons
· From Teresa Lang
o We write letters or numbers in the air to practice how to make them.
· From Ginger Austin: (Could you share more detail, Ginger?)
o Blending Sounds up their arms:
o Finger-Wrist-Elbow-Shoulder
· From Marion Erickson
o Singing while signing songs.
· From Renee Ready
o Songs and Dances that cross the midline
o Balloons
o Sign Language
· Dance, Sign Language, Play Outside, Animal Dance (move like an animal) Hide and Seek, Simon Says, Letter Dances, Walks
· Songs and Movement: Going on a Bear Hunt, Body Rock
· From Angela Franke
o Clap, hop or stomp numbers as we count
· From Jennifer Ernst:
o We do yoga and a lot of stretches
· From Penny:
o Helicopter Spins: Spin for 30 seconds, rest for 30 seconds, Reverse, and repeat 2 minutes total)
o Animal moving: “You are a ______________!”
o Ball ABC
· Om From Denise Estes:
o Circle Time
· From Cheyenne Nickaboine
o We do yoga
o Scooters, roll around tracing numbers and letters
· From Shannon:
o Animal Movements to Music
· From Jeanne Braatz:
o Make letter shapes with body
o Sign Language ABC- while saying letter sounds.
· From Cassie G:
o Tap our knees as we count during calendar time.
· From Susan Colvin
o Sing songs and move
· From Amanda Robinette
o We play red light, green light
o We also play catch and kick ball.
· From Robin Thayer: Before we start learning, we stand and stretch – follow teacher
§ Cross Midline with hands,
§ Stretch tall,
§ Cross arm to touch shoulder,
§ All the way down the body,
§ Get as low as possible
§ Jump up as high as we can.
· Tracy Wellington
o Punch letter sounds ( boxing style)
From Jill Engstrom:
We like to “Make a Pizza” to help stretch their bodies. We sit in a circle and ask for imaginary toppings: “What do you want to put on your pizza” bending and putting their imaginary toppings on the pizza. Ten stretch up to put the pizza in the oven.
Then we sing a song while the pizza “cooks”. Then we reach to get it out of the oven. Then we use our arms to cut the pizza then eat it. This activity really helps children stretch for a more vigorous activity.
From Beth Heimer:
o Sing and Dance with Nursery Rhymes
From Renelle Boyd:
o Love to dance with kids, also
o Love to explore the outdoors with them.
From Kathy B:
Sing/Dance to action songs
Parachute Storytelling:
Make up a story using different motions and movements of the parachute:
Up down, around, etc
Ribbon Sticks – Free moving, dancing, follow the leader, etc.
From Kou V:
o Marble Painting:
o Materials: Tray, paint, white paper, marbles
o How to use it: Place paper in the tray, put some paint on the paper, and roll marbles backward and forward on top of the paper in the tray
From L.S.: Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes
From Joy Karcher:
Preschool – Moving like animals
Kindergarten – Handing someone the ball over their heads, then under and through their legs
Older: Juggling Scarves
“A Tooty-ta-ta-ta” recorded by Dr. Jean
From Becka: Shake y our blues away.
Favorite Movement Class Activity from Rhonda Schaller:
Play a recording of the Vivaldi Concerto – “Spring”.
Act out birds, people doing spring activities, use Bird Puppets, Chinese Jump rope.
Exercise Cards: (Who submitted this one?)
We have 4 cards on the wall, and the children will take turns picking a card and the class will do that exercise: Jumping Jacks 10 times, Hop 5 times. Then we feel our heart to see if it says thank you.
Freeze Dance: Dance and switch, asking them to pick a movement for each section.
From Holly Widen: Ball Play- using various sizes, colors and textures.
From Paula Clay- Act out hatching butterflies:
o Wrap kids in towels (cocoon)
o After they “hatch”, they dry their wings,
o They fly to a flower
o Use their proboscis (juice straw) to drink nectar (juice box)
From Mai:
o Alphabet Feelings Box:
o Add pictures to represent alphabet letters to make it very interesting. Children can take it, shake it, or dance with it, jumping, running in place. Learning to Spell-Recognize Name: Place large paper on the floor with (painted and dried) letters painted in sequence with first letter closest to the bottom of the paper. Child jumps from letter to letter, saying the letters in their name in order.
Dr. Jean’s Parts of a Flower song
Pre-writing skills: Make an infinity symbol moving scarves through the air
Syllable Tap: Sing “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”. Begin with a word/name and tap out the syllables using your body parts. Start with head, and tap down. [That name E/liz/a/beth]
Sign Language Letters: Walk, March, tiptoe around the room, cross the midline with sign language hand, saying the letter sound.
Say numbers to 100: Changing the movement for every 10 numbers.
Name Hopscotch: Draw the traditional hopscotch shape on the sidewalk/floor, placing the letters of the child’s name in each square, beginning at the starting point and moving forward.
Sidewalk chalk math + - x ./. (2+6=8 hop on 2, hop on 6, hop on the answer 8)
Bean Bag Boogie: Toss beanbag to students, they tell a letter name and sound. They balance the beanbag on their heads while dancing around the room. If they drop it, they need to get another beanbag and repeat that name—letter and sound.
Can a Cherry Wave Goodbye? Play “Home by 8:00” song by Hap Palmer, have children move around the room. When the lyrics “count” the children have to come “home”—their place on the rug.
Use Movement and actions to teach scripture.
Dance to music, following step-by-step directions.
Dance along with songs: hop, skip, slide, jump, etc.
Use the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” to teach 3 year olds the parts of the body.
Miss Mary Mack Mack Mack: Clap hands to the last three words of each line- repeating the word three times. Mack, black, back, etc.
Using a drum to create a beat, the children walk around the classroom. When the drumbeat stops, the children look at a picture held up and put their body in that position. Make ahead pictures/photos of children in a variety of positions.
Teaching and singing with sign language – so they sign while singing. They feel better and like to get up and move.
Children learn memory, feeling and like being active while singing.
In Columbia, the mountains are “Atrapa Suenos” Keep the Dreams. They use this on their houses (Ah-tra-pah Sue-a nose).
Play with the ABC’s and names: use Bingo colors in Spanish.
Thanks, everyone for sharing these activities!
Sandi
© Sandra Sunquist Stanton MS, NCC, LPC, Connections of the Heart LLC
For additional articles and information, visit www.ourbrainbuddies.com or send an email sandi@ourbrainbuddies.com