It’s all sporting activities this week at The Children’s House! This time of year we always have sports day & we’re so sad to be missing it with your children, so we thought we’d send on some ideas for sports at home this week. Exercising is so good for your child’s mental health, & there are lots of fun ways to get them up & going.
Obstacle course: we often make these in school during the year, both indoors & outdoors – these are great for practising & refining gross motor movements like crawling, running, jumping, skipping, hopping, rolling, balancing, moving sideways/ backwards… if indoors (which can often be the most surprisingly fun as you can use everyday objects & furniture in a more exciting & unexpected way) rearrange furniture with your child’s help so you have to climb OVER & crawl UNDER tables & chairs rather than go AROUND them (using prepositions to describe actions to add to your child’s vocabulary & understanding), take turns throwing rolled up socks into a basin, do a sack race in a pillow, egg & spoon race, long jump – all can be done indoors or outdoors to much hilarity!! Draw chalk on the ground outside/ place a rope indoors to walk on a line, or set up a row of cushions/ pillows on the ground & get your child to walk from 1 end to the other, good for practising balance. Try walking while balancing books or cushions on your head…Set up a course with 6 stations & let us know how quickly you can complete the course – & please send us in the photos of your wonderful creations!!!
Healthy Kidz – Week 1 – Virtual Sports Day Long Jump
Colour run: use chalks, objects or even make pictures to mark out areas of different colour, call a colour & have your child run to that area. This can be made more difficult by using shapes or numbers instead of colours, & if it is still too easy try following a sequence & build on the number of instructions to suit your child. Set a timer and see how many you can get? Sounds like a good activity to tire little people out with! If you have outdoors space & chalk why not try hopscotch – such a fun game, & it reinforces the numbers for your child too.
Animal Walk: Inside or out, encourage your child to slither like a snake, hope like a frog, gallop like a horse, or walk like a bear on all fours. Who will find the most imaginative way to move?
Keep the Balloon Up: see how long you can keep the balloon in the air! Use your hands, feet, head, elbows, knees or even a bat or racket to keep it from touching the ground. Have a competition with family and friends or time yourself and see can you beat your own record!
Puddle Jumping: Why not make the most of the rain! Get your wellies on and enjoy jumping in, out and over puddles.
Blanket Toss: Take a blanket or a towel and have 2 or more children hold the corners. Throw a ball on top, enjoy as the children work together to send the ball into the air and catch it again. Throw ping pong balls, a beach ball or a balloon onto it & try to keep throwing them back up in the air for as long as possible, such a fun activity!!
Kick Bowling: With some recycled materials like cardboard tubes or empty bottles set up some skittles and try to knock them down by kicking a ball. If this is too easy increase the challenge by using balls that decrease in size. We often do bowling at Halloween in school using little pumpkins to bowl toilet rolls stacked in a pyramid!
Treasure hunt: give instructions to your child to find something rough, smooth, soft, hard, different shapes, different colours, living/ non-living…
Play hide & seek indoors or outdoors – sometimes hiding really obviously on a child behind a curtain or door, or under a blanket is the funniest thing ever!!
Exercises on the spot: running, jumping, hopping, star jumps, anything at all – get your child to make up new exercises for you…then do some yoga & stretching to cool down.
Rob the Nest: Use whatever you have to hand at home, balls, socks or even tin cans. Place all of the items in a central space and ask the children to take 5 steps away. Set a timer and see who can run into the centre and collect the most items within the time set.
Rob the Nest (Running) – PhysEd Game/Activity
Tumble drop: Have your child lie down on their back with a pile of bean bags or rolled up socks or gloves beside their feet and a bucket on the floor just above their head. The aim of the game is to get as many items into the bucket within a set time using only their feet.
Drama: Act out your child’s favourite story or song with them, use puppets made from socks or teddies to play different parts too. Cut out a bit of a cereal box to make a little puppet theatre/ television to use. Colour faces on wooden spoons to make puppets. Sing songs using different pitched voices, do dramatic games like ‘What time is it Mr Wolf?’ – this is a great one again for reinforcing numbers, while being the best fun! (In case you’re not familiar with this game, stand a good distance from your child with your back to them; they have to ask ‘what time is it Mr Wolf?’ & you say e.g. ‘1 o’clock’/ ‘4 o’clock’), then your child has to take that many steps towards you; when you judge they are close enough & they ask the question, you shout ‘dinner time’ & turn around to chase them, obviously lots of tickles when they’re caught!!
Why not design & make medals or trophies for the end of your sports week with your children?
https://theimaginationtree.com/salt-dough-olympic-medals/
https://www.thecreationstation.co.uk/inspiration/how-to-make-a-childrens-crafty-trophy
Poem: I’m a Big Bad Wolf (to be read in as OTT manner as possible!)
I’m a big bad wolf and I look for things to eat –
I don’t like leaves and berries; I only like meat!
I see those little piggies – am I dreaming, or awake?
Those chubby little creatures…
What a dinner they will make!!