Even when my students did get a chance to go outdoors, most do not spend it moving actively. I would often get them up and running by pretending to be a zombie and chase them.
"One of your kids last year is playing zombie! What did you teach them last year?" a teacher asked.
I taught them how to survive a zombie apocalypse and kept them active. That's an awesome kid, in my opinion! (More Carl Grimes, less Sophia Peletiers!)
Our kids were instantly intrigued by bean bag board (developing eye-hand coordination skills), sensory balls, and the 20' rainbow parachute. Since there is a small block of time when the multi-purpose room is open on Mondays, we were able to give our new equipment a test run. They loved it! The parachute got them up and moving, jumping up and down.
All of our Move to Improve! equipment has arrived. In addition to the activity balls, bean bag board, and parachute, we've received crawl tunnels. They are great for making obstacle courses for our four year old students to crawl through. The colors are very bright and appealing. They anxiously wait for their turn. As we find more equipment from the Language Through Movement closet, we add on to our obstacle course.
The tunnels have been used with the parachutes to create a wonderful obstacle course that the kids have endless amounts of fun with. When it comes to rest their little bodies, after a long day of lifting parachutes up and down, throwing bean bags into boards, and crawling through tunnels, many of them fall asleep instantly.
Today, we had the pleasure of inviting the other pre-k class for some Move to Improve fun! We quickly went over the rules, demonstrated what to do, and allowed them to join the excitement. Both classes had a blast!