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Moving Through the Alphabet from A to Z
by Jenny Wandersheid
ChildFun.com
This is a fun and educational way to have get your kids moving! They can learn the alphabet, get some exercise, and have a blast with Mom!
A: animal walks - to music have the children move like various animals.
B: bouncing balls - give children lots of opportunities with many sizes of balls.
also Bean bags-throw the beanbag and catch it. Walk around with it on your
head, lay it on your foot, elbow, shoulder, etc.
C: clap 2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Try chanting numbers while waiting in line, have the
children mimic your pattern.
D: dance to soft music. Try up and down movements as you move.
E: elephant walk: "Can you make your feet big and slow and heavy while you
swing your trunk?"
F: fly, flutter, and float. Give children feathers to hold and wave or toss and watch
how they flutter to the ground. Encourage them to imitate a feather!
G: glide and gallop. Glide side to side with one foot leading and the other moving
to meet it and switch to gallop.
H: hopscotch: use chalk to mark an area outdoors or masking tape indoors and
let children be challenged as they hop along on one foot and then on two.
I: ice fun in winter: try "ice skating" by placing paper plates under feet and sliding
across the carpet.
J: jumping over blocks, into hoops, from carpet mat to carpet mat, and so on
provides a great indoor obstacle course.
K: kookaburra: what is it? Try to find a picture of this bird and share this favorite
song. (Kumbaya too)
L: Leap frog is a great indoor or outdoor game that many have forgotten from the
past. Leaping across the room to music is also great fun.
M: March!! Make homemade maracas and march to Mozart music!
N: Nutcracker. Tchaikovsky's music is a natural for all kinds of
movements!
O: Over/under, out/in: it's time to explore opposites. Hap Palmer's "Circle
Game" contains many opposites.
P: Pathways can be explored as children move from one area to another. Move
in a straight, zigzag, or curved path.
Q: Quickly, quietly, with a quiver - how many ways can you move? practice and
the brainstorm a chart of all the ways children can think of to move.
R: Ribbon dancing!! (my favorite) Make ribbons from streamers stapled to
straws or build a collection from ribbon scraps you have around home. The ways
children move to various types of music are amazing.
S: Scarves are especially great with classical music. Suggest places for the
scarves - in front, to the side, above below, between.
T: Tambourines can set the tempo to move around the room. Tap quickly and
lightly for fast small steps; loud and slow for large slow steps.
U: Under the umbrella. Have children walk a masking tape tightrope as they use a
small umbrella for balance like in the circus!!
V: Vary your instructions. Speak very quietly or very slowly. Use adjectives and
add numbers (take five very small steps). (I also do some instructions in sign
language since my children are learning to sign.)
W: Wheels on the bus is a favorite. Try it using a vehicle besides a bus and see
what wacky variations you can come up with!
X: X marks the spot. Place a number of masking tape X's on the floor. Children
can have a treasure hunt, find the spot, "dig" lift out buried treasure and opening it.
What did you find?
Y: Yarn. Have the children make shapes on the floor with their yarn and ask them
to step inside their shape, walk on their shape, make their shape disappear, etc.
Z: Zoo animals. Let's all move like monkeys!, etc.
| Jenny Wanderscheid is the 30 year old marketing guru and corporate CEO of
ChildFun, but she prefers to call herself a stay at home wife
and mother. She and her husband Rick are raising their three children in Southern Minnesota with laughter and love. |
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