Creepy Crawly Parachute Games

With Halloween right around the corner, I had to play some spider'ish themed game.

After stretching, I asked kids what sort of decorations they'd seen in people's yards; the answers varied, but almost every class had at least one student who said spiders and spider webs. Out came the game...

First the spider web (aka - parachute)

Then the spiders or bugs that had gotten caught in the web (aka - balloons)

The class was tasked with shaking the web until all the spiders or bugs were freed.

We only played the game twice, but I think they could have played it the whole time! Nothing says fun like a parachute game!

Homerun Derby Preschool Style

Usually I wait to teach baseball until Spring Training starts, but being hopeful that the M's might make it to the playoffs this year, I decided to start baseball now (sorry M's but I have many friends who are A's fans in the Bay Area that are excited).

My first three years of teaching PE, I taught at the middle school level, (I am one of those random people that really like middle schoolers), and I was amazed at how little they knew about the fundamentals of baseball. When teaching our Incrediball unit (a "soft" version of a softball - unless you get hit, then it doesn't feel too soft), I noticed that the kids had no idea how or where to run after they hit. So I vowed then and there no student of mine would be clueless when running the bases!

To keep it simple for the preschoolers, they hit the ball off the tee...

and then ran to colored bases (I didn't take a picture of this because it was hard to get a good picture of the "diamond" but I used three different colored poly spots). Each base is a different color, so we would cheer them on telling them what color to run to. A few tried to field their own hit, but once they got the hang of it, they really loved it - even those that "bunted" got homeruns.

With a group of 16 kids ranging from 3 on up, safety is key, so I put out my "line-up behind this circle" poly spot...

I love using what is going on in the world of sports to teach the kids new skills and hopefully encourage an interest in following sports - at least the "big games".

Trash Day

This is one of my ALL TIME favorite games, and surprisingly enough, the kids love it too! My apple tree game was adapted from this activity. This game keeps them busy for a good 10 minutes, and they usually ask to play it again.

I love it when I can reinforce what they're learning in class during gym. This game is great for helping learn colors.

I put a bunch of different colored items in the middle of the gym (I used scarves, bean bags, and poly spots this time around). This is our "trash".

Trash has to go in the correct "trash can", which are hula hoops, placed around the gym.

The yellow and green are hard to see, but this gives you an idea of their spacing.

On my go, the kids can pick up two pieces of trash (one per hand) and put it in the correct color trash can. The further apart you spread the hula hoops, the more they have to run.

This is a great game for reinforcing colors, and for teaching them how to move quickly without colliding with friends :) (no trash collectors were hurt while playing this game).

A little later in the year we separate by item - which can be tricky for them, especially since they're used to separating by color. I adapt this game a lot, so stay tuned for other ways you can use hula hoops and random stuff to create a fun game for preschoolers :)

Apple Tree Game

When I'm able, I try and plan themed gym activities to go along with the classroom themes. This week two of the classes have an apple theme, and one has water, so I added to/adapted one of my favorite games to have an apple/water theme.

I put green, yellow and red items in the middle of the gym, these were our apples.

Then I placed green, yellow and red hula hoops at one end of the gym. These were our "trees".

Kids were divided up in to green, yellow and red "teams", and it was similar to a relay race. On my "go" the first person in line ran to the middle of the gym and picked up the correct color item for their "team" tree, then they ran to the tree and put their apple on the tree. When one team got all their apples on their tree the game was over. For the older classes, I added in a balance activity, and they had to "climb the trunk of the tree" (walk on the balance beam) and put their apple on the tree.

I love this activity, because it involves color recognition, sorting, balance and teamwork.

For the class studying water, all teams had a blue hula hoop, representing their pool, and they had to "fill their pool" by taking items from the center of the gym and sorting based on the item (scarves, bean bags & big building blocks). The balance beam was the "diving board" and they had to walk to the edge of the board and fill their pool. (I didn't get pictures of this one)

Stay tuned for more apple/water themed games!

Safety Rules and More

What a fun first week we had in gym! I am a person of routine, so it's important to me to always follow the same routine in gym. Even though the weather was beautiful, we still had to have our structured time in gym.

At the beginning of the year, we talk a lot about safety and how to stay safe in the gym. As individual classes they come up with their own rules. This year rules included; don't leave the gym, don't push/hit/kick anyone, don't pick your nose, and my favorite - you can throw a ball, but don't throw another kid.

We talk about using our eyes to stay safe by looking out for our friends. We played a fun game of "bumper cars" where the kids each got a hula-hoop, which was their "car" and we drove from one end of the gym to the other without "crashing". We'll keep working on this, as pretty soon we'll just run from one end to the other and I'm hoping they'll remember some of the "spacing" guidelines.

We also talked about our ears keeping us safe - how it's important to listen to the teacher and when they say "freeze" we need to keep our bodies and our mouths still. To practice this we played freeze dance, which is always a fun way to get the wiggles out. It's still a work in progress, as some classes are better "freezers" than others, but we work on this one A LOT.

I introduced our "preschool road" where we can run and ride bikes. Basically the road is achieved by setting cones up around the perimeter of the gym giving kids room to roam without having bikes coming through the center of the gym where a variety of PE manipulatives are set up. And we worked on walking feet, and running feet - one funny thing about preschoolers, if I ask them to walk all bets are off, but if I asked them to have walking feet...boom they walk.

But since we had such amazing weather, we didn't spend too much time indoors, and we were able to enjoy our fun playground.

"Airplane"

Remember when you were a kid and things/places seemed HUGE, and you visit as an adult and you have a more realistic view? I feel like the gym is that way for the preschoolers, especially the 2's & 3's that haven't been to gym class before.

Today being the first day of preschool we played my "airplane" game. This is a great game to play when teaching how to move around a large space. The kids pretend to be airplanes (standing up, arms out) and "fly" around the gym. They can "fly" as fast as they want, but when they are landing at an airport they have to slow down to land and come to a stop before they hit the "control tower". This year the control towers were big Lego bricks stacked on top of each other placed in the 4 corners of the gym. I asked the kids places they'd gone on vacation (I had 4 pictures pre-printed and steered answers that way), and they "flew" to Disneyland, Legoland, the pool and Great Wolf Lodge. They work on using their eyes to watch for friends, because we don't want ANY plane crashes!

 Some of the classes were so funny, they stopped and looked at each picture and really pretended to be there :) Blue was Disneyland

 Green was Great Wolf Lodge

 Red was Legoland

Yellow was the pool

The 5 day pre-K class had a Lego theme today so they flew to different parts of Lego City (also pictures printed out online and taped to the big bricks)

I'm happy to report, we didn't have any crashes, a few that ran so fast they tripped, but no crashes! And then, because it wasn't raining, we were able to go to the playground and get some first day nervous jitters out. 

Personal "Spaceships"

When I taught middle school PE, everyone had a number and for the first 5 minutes of class I would yell, "Get on your number" (my loud voice came in very handy). While we have the luxury of a gym, we have no numbers in our gym, nor do I expect the kids to remember their "number". Funny thing about preschoolers, they are very in to their age, so if I were to assign the number 7 to a 4 year old, I'd never hear the end of "I'm not 7, I'm 4".

When I taught elementary school PE, we lined up on lines on the basketball court.

Teaching preschool PE, one of the first things I had to do was figure out how to get the kids organized so they can all see me, and more importantly, so I can see them.

Thankfully, a few years back the church's youth group purchased these astroturf circles, and I knew just where they were stored. These were purchased at Ikea for about $2 each, and are awesome because #1 they are all the same color, and #2 they are the perfect size for kiddos to sit/stand in and "stretch".

Another "tricky" thing about preschoolers is teaching personal space. Like how to stand next to someone, without standing on top of them. But a cool thing about preschoolers is their imagination, so these green circles have been named "spaceships" and everyone gets their own, so we all stand on our "personal spaceships" and I can explain our activity and know hands are being kept to themselves and I can see that eyes are watching and ears are listening. And I put them out before the kiddos arrive so when they go to their spaceship they are spaced out appropriately.

So parents, if your child comes home talking about spaceships, this is what they're referring too :)

26.2 Team NCCP is Coming After You!

I wouldn't say I LOVE running; I definitely enjoy it, and I certainly enjoy encouraging kids to be active and experience success.

My kids and I have participated in the Seattle Children's Marathon for 3 years, and last year we started a Team NCCP for any preschool family that wants to join us. The organizers of the event make the kids feel like rock stars when they finish - it seriously is one of the coolest family events!

Registration is up and running and I've started a Team NCCP again. Follow the link and select Team NCCP, with key word "preschool" http://register.seattlemarathon.org/kids/groups/

The concept is easy - you complete the first 25 miles over time with your kiddos, and then on Nov 29th everyone runs the last 1.2 miles together.

I hope you'll consider joining our team! Email me with any questions.

Lesson plans oh lesson plans...

As the new school year is upon us, I sit looking at my blank lesson plan book just waiting for the pages to be filled. Last year, a friend suggested I start a blog, so I could keep track of all the fun things we do in gym. Guess I should have listened, because now as I'm trying to think back the beginning of the year was such a blur, I don't quite remember some of our activities.
So I'm hoping this blog will be a combination of online lesson plans, a way to communicate what we do in gym with parents, and a source of inspiration for other preschool gym teachers!
Thanks for visiting, and check back next week as we get started with some Spatial/Body Awareness activities.