Any Ideas??

I know something that my sons enjoy with us is Ring Around the Rosey, Simon Says and even doing simple exercises, ex: hopping on one foot, touching toes, etc. Hopefully that gives you some great ideas! Good luck.

There is musical chairs. Duck duck Goose. Simon says. Freeze Kind-of like Red light green light.

J.,

Do marching with music, use bouncing balls for the kids to sit on and have them bounce on them, basket ball toss, bean bag toss, balloon volley ball, exercise with the exercise balls ball toss back and forth, jump ropes, incorporate colorful scarves to music, duck duck goose, do musical chairs, you can also do this as the kids march around with flags waving with music played and when the music stops the last one standing has to move to the middle. Its a game of cordination and learning directions. The last one that is left is the winner and give that person a writing tablet or some useful learning prize. Good luck! KM

obstacle courses are easy and fun, and if you make them in a circle, the kids can just keep going around!

How about a simple stop and go dance game? Play music and encourage children to move at their own direction. When music stops, they freeze..... it is guaranteed to bring participation and laughter!

Don't forget about the limbo! Kids love that! Also that running game where they pass a baton from one child to the next. You might consider starting or better yet ending the class with yoga. There's a lot of really neat books at the library on yoga for kids and they call the poses animal names instead of their traditional names. It's GREAT for kids to learn at an early age how to quiet their minds and stretch their bodies. In my opinion, only good can come from yoga for kids. They can learn the tools to try to turn off their brains from the constant stimultion kids seem to experience these days.
Good luck!

J.'; i am a mom of 3 boys, and had to watch my 4 neices and nephews during the summer, always had to find things to do, one day i blew up a whole bunch of balloons and put them in bags to store till kids got there, for the next day , my sister helped blow them up, im not for balloons and small children since our neighbor died while choking on one, but with supervision and not allowing them to put them in mouth it can be a very fun game, divide the kids up in teams, and then race to sit on them and pop them with their butts, this is fun, and exciting for the kids, however you might need a small pin for the small children, let them bounce on it for a bit and ssee if they can pop it, if not go ahead with the pin and help out, but behind them so they think they have popped it, run get another balloon, sit and pop it, keep going till nothing left, then you have to race to pick up all the peices, hahahah better get a video camera ready its funny to watch, also had them see how many balloons they can stuff in their clothes, it was funny and enjoyable, well hope you have fun, if its one you choose to do , depends on their age, any way keep in mind if they are older, D. s

There are two simple games that I do with my pre school children. One you call out an animal name and the children move and sound like that animal. Then the kids can take turns calling out there favorite animal for everyone to do. Another game my kids like, is when you put different colored circles on the floor and yell out a color. The kids alternate running, hopping, and skipping to the colored circle. Good luck and have fun.

How about simon says, twister, or just creating a cd with several kinds of music and letting the kids just dance crazy? You could also do a follow the leader type game where they start out hopping like bunnies (making bunny faces), walkings like ducks (quacks and all), then dogs (barks and all), then frogs (ribbit to), then snakes (hissing and long tounges) and in reverse order to get them back up. How about freeze tag, if you say freeze frequently enough it should not get out of hand? Or you could do a obstacle course, 1st they have to jump over some jump ropes laying on the ground (makes some of them close together and some far apart, make them go through jumping with both feet then jumping on one foot and then the other, then they have to roll on the ground like logs, get back up and walk along a balance beam/bleacher for a few step, do a summersault, etc. . .

Hope this helps!

How about Ring Around the Rosie, Red Rover, Farmer in the Dell....Freeze Tag, Simon Says, London Bridge is Falling Down, Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Wheels on the Bus, Hot Potato, Musical Chairs, Duck Duck Goose...or just put on some music and have them dance!

Here are sites with some ideas:

http://www.genkienglish.net/kindergarten.htm

http://familyfun.go.com/games/

http://www.earlychildhoodlinks.com/teachers/lessonplansph...

kids love music and dance. How about that freeze game. At ECFE they actually had a song for it that says freeze, but otherwise you just stop the music to freeze them. Kids love it even more if they all have shakers when they are playing it. If you don't have any you could do a simple craft to make them before hand.

And you could try follow the leader or leap frog.

Duck, Duck, Goose
One child is "IT." The others sit in a circle with legs crossed. The child who is "IT" walks around the circle tapping the others on the head or shoulder, calling them "duck, duck, duck, duck" until he/she comes to one he/she would like to chase. That child is called "goose." The one who is "IT" takes off running around the rest of the circle, the "goose" follows. The object of "IT" is to get back to "goose's" spot before "goose" can tag him/her.

My school kids loved this game.

How about some old fashioned Tag? Or, I do a variation w/ my too. We use a soft bouncy ball and call it ball tag. Whoever's "it" throws the ball at the others and whoever gets hit it now "it." That's all. Or - Ring Around the Rosy - probably on a mat, we actually like to play that in our trampoline. T-Ball is fun too. We set up 3 bases and simplify the rules. You hit the ball and the pitcher tries to tag you before you get to home plate. Kickball can be played that way too. Our YMCA had a "bike day" when the kids could bring their bikes. The teachers would push strollers with the little ones and let the bigger ones go ahead a little bit. Try Googling for some fun indoor/outdoor games, there are lots of ideas out there :-) My 2 children are very physical. OH -- we also like to turn up some music and dance. That's one of their favorites. When I was a kid, it was always fun to mime animals - we'd just pick animals and pretend. The other kids could try to guess who the pretend animal is too. Hope that helps :-)

J. - There are tons of fun games for preschoolers. I do licensed inhome daycare. One of my kids' favorite games is to take cups and balance them on their heads and have races to see who can get to one end of the room and back with out dropping the cup. It helps develop balance and gross motor skills while having fun! HTH K.

I have always found that kids respond well to music. Find a CD with some of their favorite songs -- or some you want to become favorites then do "dance moves" that strengthen, refine muscles, teach skills (jumping, skipping, etc.) They burn off lots of steam, learn large motor skills, and the music helps build memory. Sing along if you want! (I also find then when they watch a video or TV they want to move along if there is any music!)

There is this really fun game made by Cranium called Hullabaloo (not sure on the spelling). It is very fun and you play it standing up. Otherwise, at my house, we move all the furniture out of the living room and have a dance party. My 17 month old loves it as does my 5 year old. We all get a good workout.

Duck, duck, goose. Button button who has the button. Simon says. leep frog

Try having then pretend they are different animals. They can slither on their bellys like snakes, flap their arms like an eagle, or lumber on all fours like an elephant. You could incorporate stories about or pictures of the animals.

How about have them dance with skarves or crepe paper streamers. A good activity to help them practice self control is to have the children dance to the music, but when the music stops, they must stop. Then start the music again and repeat.

How about games like Duck Duck Goose or Simon Says? My kids are 2 and 5 and love these games. Hope that helps ya:)

How about Mr. Fox? One child (Mr. Fox), stands in front of the group.
The rest of the group is a ways back. They all yell Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox, what time is it? Then Mr. Fox says a time between 1:00 and 11:00. The children take that many steps forward. If Mr. Fox says it is Midnight, all the children run back to the starting line but Mr. Fox chases them and if they get caught they have to stand behind Mr. Fox. The object is to get past Mr. Fox on your steps forward or when he says its Midnight. Any children who get past Mr. Fox at the front are winners.
How about Simon Says ,or Captain May I?

J.,

How about tag? Or capture the flag? or Duck duck goose? Anything with a ball is always a blast too!

I love to do partner activities with preschoolers.

One of their favorites is "Row, row, row your boat." Partners sit on the floor, facing each other and overlap their legs about at their knees. They hold hands and as one lays back on the floor, the other leans forward. This action alternates back and forth as we sing the song. It's like doing partner sit-ups.

Another favorite is what I call, "Knees to Knees." Leader calls out a body part and the partners try to touch those parts together...back to back, nose to nose, shoulder to shoulder, wrist to wrist, heel to heel..... Let each child suggest a body part.

We also like to play "Rock-a-bye Baby." We use a rectangular tablecloth and all the children stand around it. The child who has the turn lays down and everyone else picks up the edge of the cloth. We slowly and gently rock our precious friends as we sing. Great self esteem building as the child being rocked always is just beaming. Be sure to preface the game with a discussion about trust and care of our friends, ensuring that the children do not drop their friend.

As you see we avoid any winner/loser type games. We are all winners!

Put a twist on the running game - kids stand against one wall with the 'taggers' in the middle, and they have to run past the tagger to the other safe wall. I've done this a bunch of different ways, and it's a great learning tool. Whisper a fruit in each runners ear and the tagger calls out the fruit (color, number, etc). I'd limit it to 3 or 4 for pre-K. We call this fruit basket upset. Otherwise you could do numbers, the first letter in the kids' name, colors they have on, etc. Usually if caught you become a tagger but we've done one called 'swamp trees' where the tagged child sits and can tag anyone they can reach out and get. We've done sharks n minnows, cats n mice, etc. Have fun!

Simon says: "Simon" tells the group what to do in a rapid fashion and everyone has to copy Simon--the last one to do it has to go to a different line. The last one standing in the origional line gets to be the new Simon. Having the last one stand in a different line doesn't eliminate anyone like the style I learned in the olden days, and it allows all the children to continue practicing their listening skills.

Another idea is to have an obstecle course for children to go "over, under, around and through" to a drum beat. Helps develop coordination and listening as they have to change their beat to match the drum. After this is done go to a small muscle activity, do a seek and find paper. This progression from large to small helps kids with attention deficit due to neurological or trauma causes.

Have a great day. Danialle

duck duck goose?? I know my son plays it at preschool.

Can you get one of those big parachute-fabric circles that kids can all hold onto and wave up and down? You could always play music and have them try to keep a big beach ball up without falling onto the floor.

Also, I suggest playing music and having the kids try to sit on blown-up balloons until they pop.

Another thing is dancing. Kids love to dance. Put on some jungle music or whatever and get right in there with them and let everybody show off their moves. Better yet, get some instruments like two blocks of wood to bang together and appoint one of the kids to be the lead musician while the others dance.

If you are on a gym floor, there are sure to be lines for basketball painted on it. If not, you can always put down colored tape and you can let them play follow-the leader or let them do balance-beam walking.

Bean-bag toss (not necessarily bean-bags or fancy boards--you could do variations on it like small stuffed animals from the dollar store being tossed onto colored circles on the floor).

Whenever you are out of ideas, announce you are all going to have a parade!!! Ideally, you would have them arrive with a costume on of their choice...but you can always improvise with kids this age. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just the IDEA of having a parade is exciting. Good luck and have fun!

My preschooler really likes duck duck goose. She also likes any sort of race.

Go to the library and check out Terry Orlick's _The Cooperative Sports and Games Book_. I am a gym leader, too, for a multi-age homeschool group that includes three-year-olds to nine-year-olds on a regular basis. This book is awesome, focuses on games that bridge kids together to work toward common goals instead of the mainstream competitive sports that pit kids against each other. The pre-K section is priceless.

Doggy, Doggy where's your bone? and Simon Says.

Red Rover game & Duck Duck Grey duck(goose)

Hello! We have a Kid Fitness class for preschool aged children at the YMCA my family and I go to. I know the instructor well and sub. for her when she is gone. Parents attend with the child and help them with activities. Some activities that we do are as followed:
1. line up the mats to do somersaults across (or any other activity that needs padding)
2. use the BOSU's to bounce on like a trampoline (use both feet, 1 foot, go in circle, bounce on it with their bottoms) Put BOSU's in a line or circle and let them bounce from one to the next.
3. "If your happy and you know it"
4. "5 Little Monkeys"
5. I bring in a bucket with small toy animals. The kids take turns choosing an animal and we act like that animal across the room. (ex. waddle like a penguin, gallop like a horse, crawl and bark like a dog, hop like a bunny) Once an animal is chosen I leave it out.

I hope some of these help. Good Luck!

Freeze Tag.
Hot potato
Head, shoulder, Knees and toes.
Twister
Wheelbarrow races
kick ball
Follow the leader