Level 1 Lesson Plans: Group 2

Freeze and Melt

Speed Racer

Horse and Crab

Horse and Crab only takes a few minutes, but it is a great way for kids to build a bunch of strengths. Notice, with an elementary school child we upped the anty by having him weave around cones while being a horse. When we did crab with him, we took away all of the cones but one, because that is a looooong way to crab walk for kids. We wanted them to feel successful, while keeping them challenged!

Limbo

If possible, have a teacher hold the other end of the limbo stick. Sometimes that just won’t work because the teacher might need to manage crowd control, particularly with preschoolers. If you are alone and running this activity, two tips: first, turn a chair backwards and use it as the other teacher holding the other end of the stick up. It gives kids a target to walk around and keeps them from “cutting corners” and not really going under the stick. Second, set up a line of cones perpendicular to you and the stick and tell them they have to go behind you and past all the cones before they can get in line again. This will help manage the line and the chaos.

Lorax v. Onceler

Remember — with younger preschoolers, 2-young 3’s, this game should be played with all kids acting as the Lorax or the Onceler together. They will be utterly thrilled with the simple tasks of running and knocking things over. For some it will be hard not to use feet rather than hands to knock the cones over. If you have someone who just can’t manage to use their hands, more often than not, it is a disconnect. We remedy this by standing a cone up in front of them, holding their hand and swinging it for them to knock down the cone. Every time we have had to do that, they have immediately gotten it and been able to use their hands not feet. This is an example of their needing to feel it in order for those neural connections to be set up.

Adding to the intensity of this game, is “When I say ‘back to where you started’ you need be back where you are right now by the time I count to 3!” This means a Coach can stop the game by saying “Back to where you started!” and start counting. We like to keep the energy up by telling kids to GO! again immediately after they have gotten back to their starting place. We usually run this with each side being the Onceler or the Lorax twice and then have them switch jobs.

For elementary aged kids and older preschoolers, keep their heart rates up and work their core a little more by telling them they cannot put their knees on the floor to play this game.

If you want to do a little more for the elementary age crowd, you can always make it a requirement that they play the game as bears so they must bear crawl the whole time.