Science
1. Primary – orbits around a sun or body. Review locomotors in orbit patterns.
2. Intermediate – name them as a planet or maybe a geological time and make them get in order and orbit around the sun, always keeping the correct order.
3. Interplanetary Tag. An object (or a player) acts as the sun. Other players orbit around the sun, some with moons, some as asteroids. Everyone must move constantly at a jog or fast walk. Into this system comes a rouge comet (“it”). The comet has to time her or his orbit to gently “crash” into a planet and take that player’s place. The crashed-into player now becomes the comet, and the former comet and any moons become asteroids in different orbits than before. Each comet in turn becomes a planet; each planet in turn becomes an asteroid. The object is to replace all the planets with other people before the whole solar system falls apart in giggles! Recommended: Play musical selections from Holst: The Planets, to accompany the orbiting bodies. (Intermediate Grades)
4. Shake and Quake. After discussing the geological processes involved, children will pantomime/act out in movement, various kinds of geologic earth movements, such as earthquakes, fault line movement, and erupting volcanoes. These activities are both for individuals and groups (e.g., fault line movement: 2 lines of students simultaneously jump in opposite directions laterally along a line). Other earth forces to act out might include tidal waves, tornados, light rain vs. a downpour, etc. (Grades 2 – 5)
5. Teach increased heart rate, breathing, exertion/pacing of physical activities, students run around and experience this phenomena.
6. Push-ups for firm muscles; watch body being transformed into a well defined physical being.
7. Bone Stations. (Body Awareness Theme) Use 10 – 15 blackline copies of a skeleton. Put sticky dots on the picture of a bone (example: kneecap). Spread the cards around a multipurpose room or gymnasium or even the classroom. Children (2 – 3) move, using any of the locomotor movements, from bone card to bone card as you give the rotation signal. They are to move the bone indicated on the card. (K – 1) The game could be modified for older students by also naming the correct bone as they study the skeletal system.
8. 5-senses Theme. Around the room, spread large cards symbolizing each of the senses (example: nose, ears, fingers, tongue and eyes). Have students work with partners. (2nd grad or older) Each group has a rind of cards with a phrase written on each (example: the doorbell rang; cookies baking; biting a lemon; etc.). The partners read card together and take turns deciding how they will move to the corresponding symbol card. The same locomotor could be used for each sense. Along with the five senses, teach the students the sign language for the locomotor movements – give directions using the signs. These signs can also be used to give directions when transitioning to another activity (example: hop back to your seat).
9. Demonstrate how an ameba eats (Phagocytosis). Have some students make a circle (joined hands) and have them engulf another student (acting as food).
10. Have the children pretend they are atoms and ask them to act as atoms do when they get hot, cold, etc. Again, ask the students to be atoms. How close together would they need to be if they were a solid (very close), a liquid (further apart), or a gas (spread out all over the room).
11. Cell Tag. This game reinforces and visually demonstrates the role of lymphocytes in fighting invading cells (viruses). Healthy cells have to avoid being tagged by the invader cells. There is one invader cell and lymphocyte to every five healthy cells to begin the game. Invader cells try to tag the healthy cells; if a healthy cell is tagged the healthy cell turns into an invade cell. The lymphocytes try to tag the invader cells: if the lymphocyte tags in invader cell the invader cell becomes a healthy cell. There should be three different colors of flags and a lot of flags. The students wear whatever color of flag that denotes their kind of cell and they change their color of flag when tagged. (Pinnies can also be used.)
Variations: It is important for students to see that the healthier their bodies are, the better chance they have of fighting off viruses. Two variations that can demonstrate this area are as follows:
A. Allow only the healthy cells to run and the invader cells must walk.
B. Allow only the invader cells to run and the healthy cells must walk. (This activity will demonstrate what happens to healthy cells when a body does not get enough exercise, sleep, and/or good nutrition.)
12. Do predator prey games using different locomotor skills.
13. Play hopscotch on animal drawn grids.
14. Nature walks (exploring the sights and sounds of trees, birds, flowers, bugs, weather, etc.).
15. Run, skip, jump to collect specimens.
Jump around like certain animals.
Make shapes of animals using different axial movements.
<< Return Back to the Home Page
1. Primary – orbits around a sun or body. Review locomotors in orbit patterns.
2. Intermediate – name them as a planet or maybe a geological time and make them get in order and orbit around the sun, always keeping the correct order.
3. Interplanetary Tag. An object (or a player) acts as the sun. Other players orbit around the sun, some with moons, some as asteroids. Everyone must move constantly at a jog or fast walk. Into this system comes a rouge comet (“it”). The comet has to time her or his orbit to gently “crash” into a planet and take that player’s place. The crashed-into player now becomes the comet, and the former comet and any moons become asteroids in different orbits than before. Each comet in turn becomes a planet; each planet in turn becomes an asteroid. The object is to replace all the planets with other people before the whole solar system falls apart in giggles! Recommended: Play musical selections from Holst: The Planets, to accompany the orbiting bodies. (Intermediate Grades)
4. Shake and Quake. After discussing the geological processes involved, children will pantomime/act out in movement, various kinds of geologic earth movements, such as earthquakes, fault line movement, and erupting volcanoes. These activities are both for individuals and groups (e.g., fault line movement: 2 lines of students simultaneously jump in opposite directions laterally along a line). Other earth forces to act out might include tidal waves, tornados, light rain vs. a downpour, etc. (Grades 2 – 5)
5. Teach increased heart rate, breathing, exertion/pacing of physical activities, students run around and experience this phenomena.
6. Push-ups for firm muscles; watch body being transformed into a well defined physical being.
7. Bone Stations. (Body Awareness Theme) Use 10 – 15 blackline copies of a skeleton. Put sticky dots on the picture of a bone (example: kneecap). Spread the cards around a multipurpose room or gymnasium or even the classroom. Children (2 – 3) move, using any of the locomotor movements, from bone card to bone card as you give the rotation signal. They are to move the bone indicated on the card. (K – 1) The game could be modified for older students by also naming the correct bone as they study the skeletal system.
8. 5-senses Theme. Around the room, spread large cards symbolizing each of the senses (example: nose, ears, fingers, tongue and eyes). Have students work with partners. (2nd grad or older) Each group has a rind of cards with a phrase written on each (example: the doorbell rang; cookies baking; biting a lemon; etc.). The partners read card together and take turns deciding how they will move to the corresponding symbol card. The same locomotor could be used for each sense. Along with the five senses, teach the students the sign language for the locomotor movements – give directions using the signs. These signs can also be used to give directions when transitioning to another activity (example: hop back to your seat).
9. Demonstrate how an ameba eats (Phagocytosis). Have some students make a circle (joined hands) and have them engulf another student (acting as food).
10. Have the children pretend they are atoms and ask them to act as atoms do when they get hot, cold, etc. Again, ask the students to be atoms. How close together would they need to be if they were a solid (very close), a liquid (further apart), or a gas (spread out all over the room).
11. Cell Tag. This game reinforces and visually demonstrates the role of lymphocytes in fighting invading cells (viruses). Healthy cells have to avoid being tagged by the invader cells. There is one invader cell and lymphocyte to every five healthy cells to begin the game. Invader cells try to tag the healthy cells; if a healthy cell is tagged the healthy cell turns into an invade cell. The lymphocytes try to tag the invader cells: if the lymphocyte tags in invader cell the invader cell becomes a healthy cell. There should be three different colors of flags and a lot of flags. The students wear whatever color of flag that denotes their kind of cell and they change their color of flag when tagged. (Pinnies can also be used.)
Variations: It is important for students to see that the healthier their bodies are, the better chance they have of fighting off viruses. Two variations that can demonstrate this area are as follows:
A. Allow only the healthy cells to run and the invader cells must walk.
B. Allow only the invader cells to run and the healthy cells must walk. (This activity will demonstrate what happens to healthy cells when a body does not get enough exercise, sleep, and/or good nutrition.)
12. Do predator prey games using different locomotor skills.
13. Play hopscotch on animal drawn grids.
14. Nature walks (exploring the sights and sounds of trees, birds, flowers, bugs, weather, etc.).
15. Run, skip, jump to collect specimens.
Jump around like certain animals.
Make shapes of animals using different axial movements.
<< Return Back to the Home Page
