October Activity of the Month

Keeping Kids Fit

Physical activity is important for kids of all ages but research (and advertising) show us that children are showing an alarming tendency to NOT be as active as they were a couple of years ago. But many parents and caregivers in Kern County often feel they have no choice but to keep kids indoors. Our hot weather and poor air quality make it hard for us to send kids out to play. Try to keep in mind that regardless of this, children need outdoor time. Physical play not only helps children strengthen their bodies, it also strengthens their mind as well. Young children develop wholly – that is, every time a child does an activity – they are developing in several different ways. Here’re some activities that you can do in your home or classroom, that encourage physical movement:

    1. Dust off the record player and let the concert begin! Try listening to Italian Opera, Mariachi Bands from Mexico or Bag Pipe Players from Scotland. Your local Kern County Library has records, cassettes and compact discs available for check out. Music naturally encourages children to move. It promotes locomotion and body awareness.

    2. Moving to Music: Play music and encourage the children to move their bodies in different ways. Describe the way they are making their bodies move (swaying from side to side, tapping toes, snapping fingers, rotating shoulders, etc.) This activity has the added benefit of exposing children to new language.

    3. Ribbon Dance: Give children a scarf or a long, trailing piece of crepe paper. Play music and dance with your ribbon.

    4. Marching Band. Here’re some ideas for homemade instruments that the children can use to make a parade and practice rhythms.

    Check your cabinets. Lots of “instruments” don’t require any work at all. Things like drums can be made out of empty oatmeal containers, upside-down buckets, etc. Aluminum pie tins make great cymbals and an empty paper toll roll makes a great horn.

    Make shakers from toilet paper rolls. Pinch one end of the roll shut. Staple. Fill the toilet paper rolls with small, noisy items like small pebbles, beads, dried macaroni, etc. Pinch the other end shut and staple. Cover ends with masking tape. Decorate with stickers or markers, if desired.

    Cover two empty boxes of soap with sandpaper. The sandpaper makes a wonderful noise when you rub the two boxes together.

    5. This activity uses the book, "To Market To Market" by Anne Miranda, as a way of encouraging physical development. Help the children to prepare soup from items bought at the store. Talk children through the process of cutting, chopping, mixing and cooking. This builds on small motor skills, language skills, math concepts, sequencing, etc. (Please be sure to supervise children’s use of kitchen utensils.)

    6. This game can be used with the book, "Corduroy." Play a game and have the kids stand up if they are wearing overalls, pants, shirts, dresses, etc. This activity will build skills in classifying, problem-solving and language skills, as well as promoting large and small motor development.

    7. A great physical activity is to bring some buttons that the kids can sort. This promotes small motor development and hand/eye coordination. Sorting can be done by size, color and style. The buttons can also be used to work on counting skills.

    8. Fun with Bubbles: Kids love to make and chase bubbles. There are so many things you can do with bubbles, such as using bubble blowers or bubble wands. Bubbles are inexpensive and always a fun outside summer activity. Put your bubble mixture in a dish bin or a small blow-up wading pool. Bubble wands can be created by cutting shapes out of paper plates or using a strawberry basket. Make giant bubbles by creating a wand out of two straws and some yarn. Thread the yarn through the two straws and tie the ends together. Using the straws as handles, dip the straws and string into the bubble mixture. Carefully lift it out the bubble mixture and the large bubble will form. Make your own bubbles by combining one quart of water with eight tablespoons of dishwashing liquid and 8 tablespoons of glycerin (from a drug store). Shake mixture together and enjoy!

    9. Making Butterfly Wings: make butterfly wings with toilet paper rolls and strips of tissue paper. Cut the toilet paper roll lengthwise and glue several strips of tissue (one end only so that the other end hangs down) Children wear these on their wrists like bracelets.

    10. Flying Feather - divide children into groups of three and four. Give each group a feather. Encourage children to puff and blow to keep the feather in the air.

    For older children, set a timer for 2-3 minutes. Keep track of how many times the feather touches a child or hits the floor. When the time sounds, the group with the lowest number of points wins. Divide the children into different groups, and continue playing.

    11. Hunt the Thimble. You’ll need a thimble, acorn, stone, or other small object

    Send children out of the room, and place the thimble in a spot where children can see it without moving furniture or other objects. You might place it on a bookshelf, inside a cup, or on the window sill, for example. Call children back into the room to hunt for it. Explain that when they see it, they must not say anything or point to it but rather sit down quietly. Continue until all children have spotted the missing thimble.

    12. Indoor Basketball. You’ll need a wastebasket, paper and masking tape (optional). Tape lines on the floor to mark distances from the waste basket. Your child can "scrunch" up the paper for balls while you do this. It's now time to start shooting "hoops." Begin at the easiest tape line and work up. In our house this activity has been used as a fun math skill game. Make a graph of successful baskets from each line -and how many all together?

    13. Color Rhymes. Practice color recognition by looking at each other’s clothes, eyes and hair color. Play this game:

    "If you’re wearing blue, touch your shoe."
    "If you’re wearing red, touch your head."
    "If you’re eyes are brown, turn around."
    "If you’re wearing pink, give a wink."

    14. Nature walk bracelet. Tape a piece of masking tape around the child’s wrist – sticky side out. Let the child collect leaves, flowers, rocks and stick them to the bracelet for safekeeping.

    15. We made an obstacle course using a 2x4 (balance beam), a cardboard box (tunnel), a painter’s drop cloth and hula hoops (for jumping). This was a free choice activity that we encouraged children to complete the obstacle course any way that they wanted to. Some children simply worked their way throughout, while others were very creative in completion. The area that allowed for the most creative movement was the painter’s drop cloth which was placed so the kids had to get across it before moving on to the next activity. Children rolled, jumped, leap frogged, walked, cartwheeled and crawled across.

    16. Hang hula hoops at different heights. Give the children footballs and balls to practice throwing.

    17. Make a set of catchers by cutting the bottoms off plastic milk cartons. Tape over with duct tape. Children can practice throwing and catching with their new “catchers."

    18. Make a bug catcher by cutting the bottom off a plastic milk carton. Tape over with duct tape. Attach a long piece of yarn to the handle and a large plastic bug to the end of the yarn. The children can practice swinging the bug up into the “catcher."

    19. Balloons, when carefully supervised, are a great way to encourage movement and a great indoor activity. Children love to swat them into the air.

    20. This fun game is called "King and Queen." It’s played by picking two children - a boy(King) and a girl(Queen), both children balance a chalkboard eraser on their heads. The teacher calls out at different intervals, "King chases Queen" or "Queen chases King" and the children must change directions at her command. The game is over when one child loses the eraser. That child can then pick a replacement.

Thank you to Lisa Albert from the EPTSS Division for this month's activity!

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