Simon Says Control of the students smaller and larger muscles. Physical Development and Health: 16/17. Gross/Fine-Motor Skills.
Materials: Balls, Hoola-Hoops, and smaller orange cones
Age Group: 4-5 years old
Earlier: Simon Says slowly in the classroom, in a circle around the carpet.
Middle: Ask who has played or hasn't played. Go over instructions and/or reiterate how to. Either outside or in the gym, speed up what "Simon Says", and incorporate more movements. Ex. Simon says run, hop, jump or skip to a cone or destination.
Later: Use props, "Simon Says dibble the ball", "Simon Says play catch", or "Simon Says Hoola-Hoop"
End: Simon Says will end once each students is out.
Follow-up Ideas: Students may repeat as many times as they'd like. Another smaller/larger muscle control activity that can be played is freeze-dance.
Musical Movement Making the children aware of their bodies and how they move. Physical Development and Health: 18. Body Awareness
Materials: A wide variety of music
Age group: 4-5 years old
Beginning: Play a few of the tracks and have the children only listen.
Earlier: Freeze-dance.
Middle: Ask who enjoys dancing to music and also just listening to music without dancing. Discuss how certain songs make them feel. Explain they aren't dancing with each but on their own, remaining in their spots, moving their body to the music.
Later: Play faster paced music from around the world and different cultures.
End: Ask the children how certain tracks made them feel and what was their favorite. The activity ends when the children are no longer interested.
Follow-up Ideas: Incorporate heart rate, what it is and what means. Also how it can be sped up or slowed down. Another activity would be learning traditional dances of other cultures.
Cutting with Scissors A need to practice with scissors in the classroom. Physical Development and Health: 17. Fine Motor
Materials: Variety of scissors, Construction paper, Magazines, Buckets, and Markers
Beginning: Sing "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in a Tree"
Earlier: Children use different stages of scissors for different abilities.
Middle:Children will use scissors to cut different varieties of paper.
Later: Children will cut out pictures or letters from magazines and/or flyers.
End: Five-minute warning and then the children will clean up.
Follow-up Ideas: To continue this activity the children could use the scrap pieces for a later collage project. Another activity could be to use playdough scissors with the playdough during art centers.