Game Time

Activity 1 Move & Seek

Equipment Required

• 12 to 15 small cones, cups or containers
• Objects that relate to the chosen theme, such as plastic replicas of food for a fruit theme or stuffed animals for an animal theme
• A picture of each object to show children

Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for children to be active. Preschool children should accumulate at least 60 minutes of structured physical activity and 60 minutes of unstructured physical activity every day.

Overview

In this activity children will match pictures of objects.

How to play

Select a theme for the activity, such as fruit.

Gather objects that are within the theme, such as an apple, orange, banana, pineapple.

Make a card with a picture to match each object, such as a picture of an apple to match the actual apple. Use 2–3 of the same objects for each matching card.

Distribute throughout the room one cone for every object you will hide.

Explain the activity to the children, showing them each object you will place under the cones and its matching picture.

Place objects under cones. Have the children watch or not watch, depending on their ability level.

Next, hold up a picture and ask the children what it is. Ask 2–3 children at a time to walk, hop, jump, or gallop across the room to find the object under the cones and return the objects to a fruit basket or imaginary fruit salad!

Now play the game in reverse order. Once all the objects have been gathered, ask 2-3 children to find the fruit that matches the picture from the basket and place it under a cone.

Once all the fruit has been placed under its own cone, the game can start from the beginning again!

TIP: Use the novel foods from the CHILE Nutrition lessons.

Activity 2 Exer-Dice

Equipment Required

• 2 large styrofoam blocks or cardboard boxes
• Paper
• Markers
• Glue or tape

Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is for children to be active. Preschool children should accumulate at least 60 minutes of structured physical activity and 60 minutes of unstructured physical activity every day.

Overview

In this activity children will learn their numbers by using dice.

How to play

Use the styrofoam blocks to create two large die. Cut paper to fit the sides of the styrofoam blocks. Print various ways to move on six of the pieces of paper. For example, walk, crawl, hop, spider-walk (on hands and feet), tiptoe, and hop. Glue or tape these to six sides of one die.

Cover the second die with blank paper. On each side, print the number one, two, or three so that you have two of each number on the die. Draw circles to represent each number under the number.

Ask a child to roll the dice.

Instruct children to move around a designated area (or back and forth from a line) as directed by the way the dice land. For example, if the movement die lands with “hop” on top and the number die lands with “three” on top, the children should move around the designated area three times while hopping.

The goal of the game is not winning the race, but rather to follow the directions indicated on the dice.

Let each child take a turn rolling the dice.

Cool-Down/Wrap-Up Rest & Relax (Float)

How to play

Instruct children to find a space on the floor and lie on their backs with eyes shut.

Ask children to think about what it feels like to float on a cloud.

Tell children to stay completely still.

Tell children to imagine floating through the sky, over their Head Start, past their house, over the playground, all through their neighborhood.

Tell them to take 5 deep breaths and to relax all the muscles they used today.

Give children between 3-5 minutes to relax before you instruct them to stand up slowly and move back to the classroom.

Enrichment

Read Who Hops, by Katie Davis, and encourage children to act out the action words throughout the book.

Attention Teachers!

Following this activity, please fill out the teacher’s weekly log form for this lesson.

Teacher’s Weekly Log Form

Attention Teachers!

Following this activity, please fill out the teacher’s weekly log form for this lesson.

Teacher’s Weekly Log Form