The middle of August is usually the beginning of the school year for me, here in Arizona. It is still very hot out, sometimes still in the 100s. So for the first few weeks we do low key activities, as we have no gym. What is listed here are just some of the activities I do with my students during this time.

Moreen Ferdie
Interdisciplinary Section Editor

First days of school we are going over general rules of my class. My four main rules that I share with them all are: everyone participates, show good sportsmanship, follow directions, and come to class on time. We also talk about the importance of wearing proper shoes for class, bringing in a note from one of their parents if they are unable to participate, bringing a hat to class, drinking plenty of water, wearing sunscreen, and what to do and where to go if the invacuation or evacuation bells go off.

We also talk about where their place is on our shapes and colors on the back court. (This puts them in squad numbers, but I have the ability to put groups together by colors or shapes also. For example, there is a red circle, red square, red star, red rectangle, red oval and red heart. They are all in different rows. So one row might look like a red circle, purple star, yellow oval, blue rectangle, green heart, and orange square. Another row might have an orange star, blue circle, yellow rectangle, green oval, purple heart, and red square. We also go over what the curriculum will look like this year, and some of the activities we will be doing.

I spend quite a bit of time talking about the importance of staying hydrated, and sun exposure. I tell them up front we will get plenty of breaks for water and shade breaks. We also throw in some first aid, mainly dealing with heat exhaustion and heat stroke. What it looks like, how to prevent it, and how to treat it. We go over other first aid information as the year goes on.

There are lots of websites and information online on sun safety, staying hydrated, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke. A few websites are:

Sun Safety
	School Systems: The Importance of Promoting and Providing Sun Protection!
	Encouraging Sun Safety for Children and Adolescents
Staying Hydrated
	Nutrition and the Summer Heat
Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke
	Heat Cramps, Heat Exhaustion, and Heat Stroke
	Heat Exhaustion and Heatstroke

We also play a low key game or do some 1 minute tests. Some of the activities we do are:

FIND YOUR PARTNER

	Shake hands with a partner. This is your shake hands partner.
	Find a new partner by the count of 6. Give them a high-five. This is your high-five partner.
	Find a new partner by the count of 6. Go back to back. Bend over quickly and "bumps-a-daisy." This is your bumps-a-daisy partner.
	Find your shake hands partner, and find your high-five partner.
	By count of 6 find a brand new partner. Stand face to face, join right hands, & thumb wrestle. This is your thumb wrestling partner.
	By count of 6 stand side by side with a new partner. Join right hand to right hand, and left hand to left hand. This is your skating partner. Move through general space with them.
	Find high-five partner, and find hand shaking partner.
	Find a new partner, stand front to front, and play shadow with your partner.
	Find bumps a daisy partner.
	Find thumb wrestling partner.
	Find high-five partner.
	Find skating partner.
	Find hand shaking partner
	Find shadow partner.

A game similar to this is for them to find a partner, and face them. Tell them your favorite sport. Find a new partner and tell them your favorite food. Find another partner and tell them your favorite color. Find a new partner and tell them your favorite animal.

You can add as many of these as you want with different questions and new partners at the end. Then when you are done with them, tell them to get with their favorite sport partner, and have them repeat what the person told them was there favorite sport. See if they can remember what the person told them. Then have them shake hands, and say "thank you for being my favorite sport partner." Same thing with each question you had them answer with a new partner. They should by the end have seen all there partners one more time.

MINGLE MINGLE

Call out a locomotor movement, and have your students do it while moving in general space. I always ask them that if they are about ready to move into someone else's space, what should they do? They always tell me, "change direction or stop."

Once they are doing a movement, you can either call a number or blow a whistle (ex: 3 whistle blows equals number 3). They are then to get into a group, grouped by the number you just called or blew. Emphasize kindness, working together, and including everyone. Organize quickly and display cooperative behavior. Seek different members each time. Do this a few times, but each time have them do a different locomotor movement and call a different number.

Then, take the game to the new level. When you call or whistle a number add a shape. They then must make the shape with the number of people indicated. Examples: 3 = triangle, 5 = circle, 4 = square, and 2 = line. Then you can take the game a step further. This time when you call a number, name a body part. The group must have that many people and be touching body parts together. Examples: 3 = knees, 4 = elbows, 5 = feet, and 2 = hands Another step would be touching body parts to the ground. Examples would be 3 = knees, so one knee would be touching groups knees, and one knee to the ground.

Movement Aims to Get Serious About Games

Traditional console games have been hogging the spotlight for years, especially with events like the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) allowing vendors to hawk their wares in Hollywood. But there's a movement afoot that's quietly trying to do something more substantial. It's trying to merge the video game and the educational software markets.

Known as the Serious Games Movement, this genre is "about taking resources of the (video) games industry and applying them outside of entertainment," says Ben Sawyer, co-founder of Digitalmill Inc., and one of the organizers of the Serious Games Summit. This means creating games that play roles in areas such as education, health, public policy, science, government and corporate training, he says. Read the rest...

Linking Literacy & Movement

As a movement specialist for nearly a quarter of a century, I’ve seen response to my topic wax and wane over the years. At first, no one wanted to hear the words children and movement together, imagining as they did the chaos that could result. Gradually, however, early childhood professionals realized children were going to move anyway; and they could either fight it or use it (It was the educational version of “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”). Read the rest...

101 Movement Games for Children - This is an inexpensive book that contains games intended to teach children how to use their bodies as a means of expression, and to cultivate their social and creative abilities. The games stress excitement, humor, challenge, surprise, and cooperation, rather than competition.

These first 5, and lots more activities are to be found at Moving and Learning.

Art: Color & Shape Awareness. Show the children pictures or examples of objects in various colors - one at a time - and ask them to demonstrate the shape of each object. Possibilities include a yellow banana, a green plant, a red apple, an orange, a bunch of purple grapes, or a white snowflake.

Language Arts: Auditory Sequential Memory & Listening Skills. Tell the children you’re going to give them a list of movements to do, but that they’re not to start doing them until you’ve finished speaking. Start with a short sequence, for example: clap twice, blink eyes. When the children are ready, lengthen the sequence; for example: clap twice, blink eyes, turn around (jump in place, sit down, etc.).

Math: Simple Computation. Have the children sit in a circle on the floor or the ground. Call out a child’s name. The child gets up and stands in the center of the circle. Ask the children how many are in the center. When they’ve responded correctly, call out another child’s name. That child joins the child already in the center. Ask the children how many are in the circle now. Continue adding - and subtracting - children, each time asking the group to tell you how many are standing in the center.

Science: Flotation. Demonstrate for the children how bubbles, feathers, and/or chiffon scarves float through the air. Is the movement light or heavy? What are words they would use to describe the movement? If you have scarves available for the children, hand them out and let each child explore for himself or herself how the scarves gently float back down to the ground - no matter how hard they may toss them up. Challenge the children to pretend to be floating in the air. Is the movement strong or light? Are their muscles tight or loose?

Social Studies: Occupations. Talk to the children about various occupations frequently associated with one gender or another, without mentioning gender (e.g., chefs, homemakers, hairstylists, police officers, firefighters, carpenters, and dancers). Ask them to tell you some of the tasks performed by people in these occupations. Challenge the children to act out some of these tasks, one at a time.

Music and Movement
excerpt from Chapter 13, The Creative Curriculum for Preschool

Music naturally delights and interests children. An early childhood program that includes time for music and movement provides an outlet for children's high spirits and creative energy. Music and movement experiences help develop both sides of the brain - an important finding in recent brain research - and contribute to children's social/emotional, physical, cognitive, and language development. Both music and movement have natural connections to the content areas: literacy, mathematics, science social studies, the arts, and technology. Check out this page to get some great ideas!

Teaching kids safety strategies -- without scaring them
My daughter is 4 years old, and I knew it was time to worry. She's beautiful and trusting, and weighs 30 pounds. Would she have any idea what to do if someone tried to overpower her? Would she muster the courage to scream and kick? Those are the kinds of questions that haunt parents these days, and I knew it was high time to do something about my concerns. But where to start? Read the rest...

Top 10 Tips for Teaching Kids About Fire Safety
Child care providers, teachers and parents alike should partner together to teach children of all ages, and especially youngsters, about fire safety. Here are 10 tips for teaching fire safety for kids.

NetSmartzKids.org - Parents or caregivers, educators, government officials, law enforcement, and youth organizations that want to learn more about the Internet and the possible dangers to children online should visit www.NetSmartz.org.

To ensure a safe and positive experience for children, NetSmartzKids.org does not link to any outside sources. You can trust that this site is safe for your children. Please visit www.NetSmartz.org by typing the address into your browser.

Healthy Habits for Safe Kids - This is a 24 page PDF file that is really worth printing out! It covers everything! There are also contact cards for including contact information, a babysitter checklist, and information on emergency planning.This is a great download!

Personal Safety for Children - This is a web page from the Lowell Police Department in Lowell, MA. It contains great information and tips on working with your child to teach him/her personal safety.