Photo by Gabby Orcutt on Unsplash
Dark Mornings. Long dark evenings . Cold and wet outside. It can be a real challenge to include Active Play into your pre-schoolers daily routine this time of the year. Yet the recommended amount of Active play per day is 3 hours. Dinoduo want to help. Over the next few weeks Dinoduo will bring you fun games and movement activities that can put some action into your pre-schooler day, no matter what the weather is like.
It’s all about music this week. Hankle and Roary love moving to music. Here are some fun ways to get some active play, everyday. Choose some of your favourite catchy tunes that have a rhythm and get Moving .
- Dance off- Put on the music, push back the furniture and let the rhythm take over. Encourage your pre-school child to move to the music, make up dances, swing the arms, shake the body, jump up and down. It doesn’t matter how it looks, just have fun.
- Musical Statues- have your child move around to the music. Stop the music at intervals. When the music stops, your child must be perfectly still. You can catch them in lots of strange and wonderful poses.
- Musical cushions- like musical chairs except using cushions (less chance of falls and bumps) dance around to the music. Stop the music at intervals. When the music stops, sit on the cushion as fast as possible. Dinoduo prefer to play this game with enough cushions for all players. If you prefer or with an older age group you can have one less cushion than the number of players.
- Marching – March to the music, all around the house, upstairs, downstairs, everywhere. Lifting the legs and swinging the arms. Marching is a great co-ordination exercise. Bang pretend drums, play the flute or saxophone and twirl your imaginary baton in a marching band.
- Animal dances- Dance to the music using animal poses, big steps for the elephant, legs turned out for the penguin, wriggle like a snake, jump like a frog, hop like a kangaroo, on tip toes scuttling very fast for a mouse. You have the idea.
- Dance Routine-Learn a simple dance routine , put together some simple dance steps and have your pre-schooler copy them. Great for learning motor planning and gross motor imitation skills
- Dance with scarves – pull out the chiffon scarves and have your child dance while moving the scarves in lots of shapes and sequences. Over the head, behind the back, under the legs, throwing and catching in the air.