Make The Teacher Walk The Plank Game Pirate Girl Every birthday party should include some games, but a pirate- themed party should have some fun pirate party games for the little guests to enjoy. These ideas will help you plan activities for the ultimate pirate party.
Favorites System (Feature coming soon!) Coming soon to Studyladder is a new system for saving, sharing and sorting your favorite and most used materials for easier access. We envisage the favorite system as a way to collect and organize Studyladder content, whether a single activity, or entire sections. Your favorites will be accessible from anywhere on the website, via a handy toolbar on the header. And adding something can be as simple as 'starring' the object you want to save. For those power users with multiple classes and content needs, we plan to allow you to organize and sort the favorite system to best suit your needs.
Preschoolers are not known for being still. And, frankly, they shouldn’t be still!
Preschool teachers, you are amazing for pulling something new out of your hats 1,712 times a day to keep up with your active students. Well, we’ve come up with some new tricks for you! We’ve compiled a list of fantastic indoor gross and fine motor preschool games ––or none at all––to keep your class happily jumping, twirling, stretching, and strengthening. Budget-Friendly Gross Motor Games and Activities Use these ideas to help preschoolers develop body awareness, strength, and flexibility, while working on following directions and, of course, having fun. Exercise with Dice Roll a number die and a die with an exercise assigned to each side. Have children do the exercise the number of times shown.
![Make The Teacher Walk The Plank Game Ideas Make The Teacher Walk The Plank Game Ideas](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125424228/707067119.jpg)
For indoors, try toe touches, arm flaps, jumping jacks, side-to-side jumps, twists, and star jumps, or choose movements that fit the physical needs of your students. Body Bridges For a fun, core-strengthening, and cooperative task, ask some children to hold poses like hands-and-knees, plank, or downward dog while other children drive cars and trucks under the “bridges” those poses create.
Homemade Balance Beam Challenge students to construct homemade balance beams using spare boards. For an indoor option, use large wooden blocks. Can they walk all the way across? Can they go backwards? For students who might find it difficult to balance on a raised surface, use masking tape lines on the carpet or cut pieces of cardboard boxes they can use to make a path.
Cross the River Arrange in a line that snakes across your classroom. Invite children to be “ants,” who have to cross a “river of hot chocolate” by stepping on “marshmallows.” Have them hold hands in a line and work together to get across. Vary the activity by moving some marshmallows closer or farther apart, so children have to use different tactics. Source: by Nancy MacPhee Bower 5. Recorded Yoga Directions Do you want to expose your students to the benefits of yoga, but worry that you can’t even touch your toes? Say “om” to recorded pose instructions like those on by Kira Willey, which includes music with friendly voice-over directions for everything from posing as a caterpillar to a surfer.
Source: by Kira Willey 6. Yogi Benders Call out two body parts and tell students that only those two parts can touch the ground. Try “one foot and one hand,” “two knees and two elbows,” “one bottom and one finger,” or “two knees and one head.” For an adapted version, have two or three students share a large exercise ball and work together to try to hold the ball still using certain body parts.
Source: by Lisa Flynn (founder of ) 7. Hula Hoop Islands Place hula hoops around your classroom. Play music and ask children to move around the hoops. When the music stops, they must stand inside a hoop. Take away a hoop each time you stop the music.
Hula Hoop Movements Set up a line of four to six hula hoops across the floor of your classroom. Have students wait behind the first hoop and call out directions for how to move through the hoops. Try bunny-hopping, giant-stepping, tiptoeing, or scurrying like mice. Play music with different tempos to encourage students to move at different speeds.
Land, Sea, and Air Designate one area to be the “land” and one area to be the “sea,” using your rug and floor tiles or masking tape. Students must hurry to the correct area when you call out “land!” or “sea!” and jump as high as they can when you call “air!” Keep students laughing with surprise commands like “earthquake!” and “tornado!” Source: 10. Indoor Relay Races Stuck inside because of the weather?
Set up an impromptu relay race. Ask students to carry bean bags or other objects on different body parts across the room. Or, try this partner relay activity, from, in which two children must work together to hold a ball between themselves.
![Make the teacher walk the plank Make the teacher walk the plank](/uploads/1/2/5/4/125424228/526802765.jpg)
Indoor Tennis Get some wiggles out and spark some laughs by setting up this “tennis” game with balloons and fly swatters from. Students can try to pass balloons back and forth or work together to swat balloons into a bin, cardboard box, or across a masking tape line. For an adapted version, use large traffic cones as stands for the balloons. Source: Budget-Friendly Fine Motor Games and Activities Squeezing. Even when preschool bodies are stationary, hands usually aren’t. Use these fine motor activities to build finger and hand strength and prepare students for writing.
Pick Up “Crumbs” Finger plays are beneficial for so many reasons. Try about little mice who pick up crumbs. Instead of the gathering motion shown, try having students use their thumbs, forefingers and middle fingers to collect confetti, sequins, or mini puff balls into a basket of “crumbs” for extra fine motor practice. Foam Poking Have students poke toothpicks or golf tees into pieces of Styrofoam. For an added challenge, invite them to balance objects like marbles on top of golf tees. Hide-and-Find Items in Modeling Clay If regular activities are losing their appeal, add small items to your modeling clay station to encourage hide-and-find exploration. All that squeezing and pushing is great for fine motor development.
And hiding LEGO figures and other objects? That’s just plain fun.
Coin-Flipping Races Spread out a pile of pennies on the rug with all heads showing. Have students race to flip them all over to tails.
See more fine motor activities that use spare change at. Gem Trails What preschooler doesn’t love gems? Use inexpensive glass gems or large sequins and ask students to arrange them along curving “path” drawn on paper. If keeping the items in place on paper is frustrating or too difficult, roll out a flat area of modeling clay and push the items into it to make “trails.” Source: 6.
Finger Soccer Have pairs or small groups play “finger soccer” on the rug, using only their index and middle fingers as “feet” to move a small ball. You can even make felt “jerseys”!
“Bobbing” with Kitchen Tongs Activities using tongs are great for building fine motor strength and dexterity. Try this fun “bobbing” for apples activity, where students try to pick up floating fruit with kitchen tongs. You can also swap out apples for another item or two. Monster Feeding Create a “monster mouth” out of a flip-top container and ask students to use clothespins or large tweezers to pick up puffballs or other small items to “feed” the monster. They won’t want to get their fingers nibbled! Hang the Laundry String up a clothesline in your pretend play area and have students use clothespins to hang a doll’s laundry to “dry.” If you’re short on space, set up a tray clothesline like the one illustrated below. Clay Snowballs Gather a collection of plastic animals and tell students they are preparing for a BIG snowball fight.
Show students how to roll small balls of modeling clay in between their thumbs, middle, and index fingers and make a stockpile for each animal. Or, set out a bowl and spoon and ask students to roll “peas” to make a bowl of “pea soup.” Source: Preschool teachers and parents of little ones, we know you’re out there creatively keeping your kids busy every day. What are your favorite preschool games and activities?