1. Lessons
2. Grades 3-5
3. Locomotor & Manipulative Games
4. Lesson 3
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Grades 3-5

Locomotor & Manipulative Games

Lesson 3

WARM UP: Run to Different Objects

• Leader picks different destinations for the students to run and tag.

• For example: run and touch a piece of playground equipment, the bench, something blue, something yellow, something wooden, etc…

• Repeat until the students are warmed up.

• Remind students to work on Put-Ups today!

Personal Differences

• Circle talk time!

• Discuss how everyone is different and unique. Explain that our differences make the world a fun and interesting place. Wouldn't it be boring if we were all alike?

  • Demonstrate a balancing stunt (Example: Stand on one foot and lean forward with your arms out). Ask, "Can everyone do this stunt EXACTLY like me? I bet everyone is a little bit different. I might hold my arms differently. I might bend less. I might wobble. Does it mean that my stunt is better or worse than yours? (No!) Of course not! Just like there are differences between the way we look, there are differences between the way we do things. If everyone is trying their best, we accept everyone's effort and everyone's differences.

  • While some people might be really good at balancing, others might be really strong - or really fast and agile. Do we all run the same speed? What if we had to compete in a challenge that included running, carrying a heavy object, and solving a puzzle? Would you want a team of THREE really good puzzle solvers? Or a team of THREE really fast runners? (NO!) You would want a team with individuals who ALL had different abilities.

  • In this class, no matter what the activity - we will always encourage everyone to do their best - and recognize that if we are not really good at one thing, there is something else that we ARE good at. It is our differences that make us AMAZING and WONDERFUL.

• Now play "Shape Your Body" and encourage everyone to not only accept the differences between one another, but notice how great it is that everyone is doing their own thing! We are all amazingly unique!

• Students make their bodies into specific shapes:

  • Narrow

  • Round

  • Twisted

  • Crooked

  • Small

  • Flat

  • Pointed

  • Wide

  • Curled

• Have students move quickly from one shape to another.

• Remind the students to encourage one another by cheering them on or helping them make a shape that they are having trouble with.

• Then slow down, asking students to move as slowly as possible.

• Repeat if desired. Have student's come up with some new and interesting shapes. Allow them to share their shape creations with the rest of the class if time permits.

Lily-Pad Leaders

• Place the hoops randomly throughout the designated play area.

• Form teams of 4-6 players.

• On "go" signal, the lead frog (King/Queen Frog) from each group takes his/her pollywogs on a journey through the Lily-pads.

• Encourage your King Frogs to leap about, or frog-hop, or skip and jump into the hoops.

• On whistle blow, change lead frogs, with the second in group taking over, while former leader goes to the back.

• Each leader should try to do a different move, and follow different pathways through the Lily-pads.

• Play until everyone has had a chance to be the Lily-pad Leader.

• LEAPING Lily's! To evaluate the leaping standard, practice leaping, leading with first one foot, then the other. Play Lily-Pad Leapers - and have students travel hoop to hoop with LEAPS only!

Barn Animal Feeding Frenzy

• Groups of 5. Designate one group member a crab, one a horse, one a bunny, one a duck, and one a rat or mouse (whichever h/she prefers).

• The one player from each team that has decided to be the mouse or rat is "it" and will try to tag as many animals FROM OTHER TEAMS as possible.

• Students will all start at one side of the barn (designated playing area) and will try to travel across the barn to get the feed (Fluffilos) from the opposite side of the barn, then return it to their own feeding trough (hoop).

• Place as many Fluffilos as possible at the far end of the playing area (barn). Place a hoop at the barn door (starting line) for each team to put their food into after they've retrieved it.

• Within each team, players will have to move like, and make the sounds of their animal, while trying to get the feed across the barn without being tagged by another team's rat/mouse.

• If players get tagged, they drop their feed, go through the barn door (starting line), and come back into the game. They have to be quick, because the rats/mice (they'll eat anything) have the chance to steal their feed and take it back to the far side of the barn.

• If a student makes it across the barn successfully with the feed, he/she goes again.

• Suggestions:

• Allow animals within a team to switch with each other at any time. Rats can change with ducks and so on at any time during the game, as long as each animal is always represented on each team.

Wild Animal Rescue! (a kool kid creation)

• Designate a large playing area (size depends on size of class; basketball-court size should be about right). Players (wild animals) start on one end of the field (danger zone) and travel across to the other side of the field (ultimate freedom).

• Set out hoops throughout the playing area to act as CAVES, SWAMPS, or HOLES that the wild animals can use as hide-outs, or safe bases.

• Establish an area for the wild animals to be kept when captured. Hoops approximately half-way down the field, just on the outside of the playing area will work nicely. When tranquilized, the animals must go to one of those hoops.

• The wild animal experts (suggest Jeff Corwin...) are attempting to capture and "tag" (mark for study) the animals as they move from the danger zone (area being taken over by human development) into the freedom zone (wild animal park).

• Select a couple of players to start out as the Wild Animal Experts (WAE). Each expert gets 3 Fluffilos to use as tranquilizer darts. Once thrown, the WAE may simply pick them back up and use them again. Players cannot be tagged when they are in a hide-out (hoop).

• The goal of the game is for the wild animals to cross the line to ultimate freedom without getting tagged, and for the Wild Animal Experts to "tag" as many wild animals as possible.

• If tagged, the player goes to one of the "holding hoops" and must remain there until rescued by another wild animal who tags them. When freed, the "tagged" animal must return to the danger zone and resume play.

• If a wild animal gets across the far boundary line, they collect one point, then go back to the starting line around the OUTSIDE perimeter of the playing area and start again, trying and free any captured animals as they make their way, once again to ultimate freedom.

• Captured animals may form a chain (if necessary) as long as one player keeps one foot in the cage. Only one animal may be rescued at a time.

• To begin the game, all the wild animals start on the danger zone line. Play for a designated amount of time. See how many times the wild animals can get across.

COOL DOWN: Put-ups

• Seated Stretches

• Who remembers what we were going to work on today? (put-ups)

• Did anyone remember to use put-ups today?

• Can anyone give me a specific example of something they said to someone else, or something that someone said to them, that made them feel good?

• Think back on our playing time. Did anyone say something that they regret? If so, please take the opportunity to make it right on the way back to class.

• Think back on our playing time. Did YOU say something nice, encouraging, or motivational to anyone else? Everyone should think of at least one positive thing to say to someone else before leaving today.