Musical Hoops is a Standards-based Fundamental Movement Skill game that is perfect for Pre-K, Kindergarten and Elementary level PE programs.
Play UNO as an indoor recess gross motor movement game for kids!
My name is Tyler Staup and I am currently teaching a Lincoln Elementary in Brownsburg, Indiana. The activity I am going to be writing about is called: “Hula Hoop Car Road Trip.” This activity is great for teaching kindergarten and … Read More
Rodeo Roundup is a great FMS-focused game that helps your students learn the important keys of galloping in a fun and exciting way!
My name is Kalie Schult and I am a PE teacher from Winterse, Iowa. I posted a video of my students playing Strikerball on Twitter for my striking unit in PE and it was a hit! Below I have shared … Read More
Teaching skills in physical education should be a fundamental component of our Phys Ed programs. This is true from elementary all the way up to high school. So many students nowadays aren't physically literate and
Although "practice makes perfect," it doesn't have to be boring. Find 6 ways to make lessons more engaging with movement in the classroom.
My name is Ryan Lucas, Pre-K – 5th grade physical education teacher at Bemus Point Elementary School in NY. Today I will be sharing an activity I created and titled “The Architect.” This activity provides a visual representation of what teamwork and collaboration … Read More
Students love this Four Square Hula Hoop activity! It works on teamwork, fitness, spatial awareness, and underhand throwing skills. It’s a competitive
Pinay Homeschooler is a blog that shares homeschool and afterschool activity of kids from babies to elementary level.
After warm-up in my preschool gymnastics classes (and sometimes in dance, too), I do a conditioning portion of class. One of our all-time favorites is “Animal Conditioning. Each animal has …
This movement dice is perfect for giving your students a Brain Break in the classroom. This can be used as a whole group or given to individual students that may need a break throughout the day.
Get your child moving and learning with this free alphabet exercises activity. Perfect for preschool students at home or in the classroom.
Do your students have the wiggles? Want to increase focus? Get kids up and moving with these engaging movement activities for kindergarten.
This simple outdoor movement game helps kids develop balance, coordination, and movement skills for preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten.
In 1978 my husband and I went to the Philadelphia Folk Festival. Our interest in folk rock turned into a deep love of folk music. We attended concerts around Philly and bought recordings and listened to WXPN on the radio, discovering favorite singers. One name we heard was Odetta, Odetta, and we knew she was a queen who had once ruled and was still worshipped. I was a child in the 1950s, cushioned in my working class white neighborhood, unaware of things beyond my front door when Odetta was breaking into songs that stirred souls and feed movements and engendered a whole generation of singers whose names filled the airwaves of my sixties teenage years. I knew so little about her. Ian Zack's Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest is a wonderful biography of Odetta that presents her life, her art, and her legacy. Odetta's amazing voice spurred teachers to encourage training and her mother scrimped to find the funds for voice lessons. After high school, Odetta worked menial jobs days and studied European classical music nights, singing in the Verdi Requiem and Bach's Mass in B Minor. Odetta loved opera and art songs but knew her career options were nil because of her color. Odetta was cast for a revival of Yip Harburg's Finian's Rainbow in 1950 which led to her work with Turnabout Theater Jr. Folk music was the new big thing, The Weavers success spurring an interest in folk songs. Friends took Odetta to hear a concert including Lead Belly songs and it "touched the core of me," she said. It changed the twenty-year-old's life. The shy girl whose voice was a powerful instrument sang with her eyes closed as she inhabited the songs of her people. She eschewed straightening her hair, cutting it short and leaving it natural, unwittingly engendering a movement. Pete Seeger became her biggest fan and promoter. Generations claimed Odetta as their spiritual mother including Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, Carly Simon, The Kinks, Grace Slick, and Janis Ian. There are so many interesting stories in these pages. Odetta was on the TV Western Have Gun--Will Travel because Richard Boone was a fan. The script was a "clear endorsement of black rights," Zack writes. With the arrival of the Beatles, popular music took a new turn and Odetta struggled to attract the new audience--basically, my generation. She had a series of flops. Her love life had its ups and downs, mostly downs, with a failed marriage and unsustainable relationships. And yet with age, she became more comfortable with herself, confident on stage, celebrating her African American heritage. President Clinton awarded her the National Medal of the Arts and Humanities, confessing that she had inspired him as a boy. I enjoyed this biography as a vehicle for learning more about this iconic singer and the role of folk music in American history. It was also a nostalgic trip 'down memory lane', recalling the first time I heard many of the artists who inform the story. I was given access to a free ebook by the publisher through Edelweiss. My review is fair and unbiased. Odetta: A Life in Music and Protest Ian Zack Beacon Press Publication Date: April 14, 2020 ISBN 9780807035320, 0807035327 Hardcover $28.95 USD, $38.95 CAD, £22.50 GBP from the publisher: The first in-depth biography of the legendary singer and “Voice of the Civil Rights Movement,” who combatted racism and prejudice through her music. Odetta channeled her anger and despair into some the most powerful folk music the world has ever heard. Through her lyrics and iconic persona, Odetta made lasting political, social, and cultural change. A leader of the 1960s folk revival, Odetta is one of the most important singers of the last hundred years. Her music has influenced a huge number of artists over many decades, including Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin, the Kinks, Jewel, and, more recently, Rhiannon Giddens and Miley Cyrus. But Odetta’s importance extends far beyond music. Journalist Ian Zack follows Odetta from her beginnings in deeply segregated Birmingham, Alabama, to stardom in San Francisco and New York. Odetta used her fame to bring attention to the civil rights movement, working alongside Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, and other artists. Her opera-trained voice echoed at the 1963 March on Washington and the Selma to Montgomery march, and she arranged a tour throughout the deeply segregated South. Her “Freedom Trilogy” songs became rallying cries for protesters everywhere. Through interviews with Joan Baez, Harry Belafonte, Judy Collins, Carly Simon, and many others, Zack brings Odetta back into the spotlight, reminding the world of the folk music that powered the civil rights movement and continues to influence generations of musicians today.
Need some refreshing and inspiring ideas for sport skills to teach? Try these simple to set up, self-running PE stations for your class to rotate around. Students work in groups of 2, and in some o…
Simple math activity that involves children counting beads on pipe cleaners. Great for developing fine motor skills and understanding numbers and colours.
Group games for kids are great for inspiring teamwork and creativity while promoting developmental skills like balance and coordination.
Parents! This list of active indoor activities is the best we've ever seen, with fun Gross Motor games & creative ideas for high-energy kids. Perfect for Winter (snow days!), Spring (rainy days!) or for when Cabin Fever strikes. Awesome Boredom Busters and Brain Breaks for Toddlers, Preschool and beyond.
Now that our kids are old enough, we bring in the New Year with them. No more babysitters and turning the clocks forward to trick them that it is midnight. The last few years we have made it a big multi-family party/activity. This year we played frisbee dodgeball, courtesy of the Cowley family. Rules: Line up opposing teams, facing each other across a large room, field, or gym. Place the frisbees in the center of play. When the green light is given, both teams run to the center to grab frisbees If you are hit, you are side-lined (hitting in the head does not count and you could be booed) If you catch a frisbee, you free a team mate from the sideline. Play it out until one team is all side-lined. *Important to note that we were using foam frisbees Waiting to get out of jail
Stuck with ideas to engage your kids in gym class? Why not run these super fun, easy to set up stations for your class to rotate around through, challenge themselves, set personal records and recor…
30 Fun indoor recess games for kids. Preschool games for those days when you can't get outside due to bad weather.
What's a teacher to do when it's rainy, snowy, or just too darn hot for outdoor recess? Here are a few idea that bring the fun indoors!
Not too many are aware though that even kids in their preschool age can already begin their practice of yoga. This would ultimately raise concern among parents who fear that their child's body is not yet fully developed to expose it to such rigorous exercises.
These fitness apps for kids can help your children get into shape.
Get moving and rhyming with this gross motor rhyming game for kids.
Traffic Light is a fun indoor game perfect for rainy or wintery days to keep active indoors and helps children to follow instructions and play together
Stuck with ideas to engage your kids in gym class? Why not run these super fun, easy to set up stations for your class to rotate around through, challenge themselves, set personal records and recor…
How active are your students during the school day? Walkabouts are simple-to-use, cost-effective online lessons that integrate movement into lessons.
I like to keep a few bags of balloons around the house — they are usually great boredom-busters! This weekend, I gave the girls new butterfly-shaped flyswatters and balloons. There was swatting, putting, bouncing, balancing, chasing and all kinds of busy, active play! Balancing the balloon on the flyswatter was super tricky! There was lots of friendly competition to see who could bounce the balloon
