Alphabet Stretch What to Do:

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Warm Up Activity: • Sing and march to the Alphabet Song

Activity:

• Get one child to pick a letter from the box of cards • Draw the letter on a chalkboard if necessary • Demonstrate how to make the letter with your body • Tell children to try it themselves by bending,

stretching, twisting and reaching to form the letter • Pair up children if the letter is easier to make with

two bodies • Ask children to think of words that begin with that

letter Variations

• Arrange children forming letters to spell words • Complete the activity to music

! Index cards or paper with a different letter on each one

! Use both uppercase and lowercase letters to add variety

! Lots of space to stretch!

What you Need:

Adapted from Sesame Workshop (2012) – ABC Stretch with Me!

Letter Recognition

Activity Cards

Musical Statues What to Do:

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Warm Up Activity: • Dance to music playing

Activity:

• Have children dance and move around to music playing

• Pause the music and yell out statue • Ask the children to freeze in the shape of a letter • Play the music again and have the children to dance

and sing the letter’s sound

! Music Player ! Lots of space to dance

What you Need:

Adapted from Sesame Workshop (2012) – Musical Statues

Letter Recognition

Activity Cards

Magic Wand What to Do:

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Warm Up Activity: • Give each child a scarf and have them use the scarves

as magic wands

Activity: • Have children draw letters in the air with their scarves

while saying each letter’s sound aloud

Variations • Have children draw pictures in the air with their

scarves o e.g. Wave to make a rainbow in the air

• Throw scarves in the air and catch them when they fall • Play music and move the scarves to the tempo

o i.e. move scarves faster as the tempo increases and slower as the tempo decreases

! Colourful scarves or long strips of fabric

! Music Player (if needed)

What you Need:

Adapted from Sesame Workshop (2012) – Magic Wand

Letter Recognition

Activity Cards

Rainbow Scatter What to Do:

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Activity:

• Scatter cards around the playing area • Call out a sequence of colours or letters to move to • Call out different ways to move to the cards (i.e. hop,

skip, jump, crawl, gallop or leap)

Variations • Give letter cues

o i.e. Move to a letter that’s in your name o i.e. Move to the letter that the word ____ starts

with • Add exceptions

o i.e. Don’t step on the P cards or J cards

! Coloured cards with letters written on them

! Lots of space to run around

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) – Rainbow Scatter

Letter Recognition

Activity Cards

Letter Scavenger Hunt What to Do:

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Warm Up Activity: • Sing a song or read a poem to the children

Activity:

• Pick a line from the poem or song the children enjoy • Write out each letter from that line on individual

pieces of paper or index cards • Hide the letters around the room • Send the children on a scavenger hunt for the letters • Encourage the children to rearrange the letters to form

the line from the poem or song • Recite the poem or sing the song together

Variations

• Cut out the letters in puzzle piece shapes so the children can put the puzzle together at the end

! Line from a poem the children know

! Index cards or paper

What you Need:

Adapted from Penn State (2015) – Where are the letters?

Letter Recognition

Activity Cards

Bean Bag Balance What to Do:

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Activity:

• Explore different ways to balance the bean bag on different parts of the body

• Emphasize the prepositions being used • Examples

o On the head, shoulders or nose o Between the legs, knees or elbows

Variations

• Try passing the bean bag back and forth with a partner

• Examples o Pass the bean bag from one child’s foot to

another child’s foot o Pass the bean bag from one child’s elbows to

another child’s elbows • See how long children can balance the bean bags

! 1 Bean Bag per Child

! Lots of space to move

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) – My Friend Beanie

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Obstacle Course What to Do:

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Activity:

• Set up an obstacle course in a large play area • Talk about the ways the children can move through the

course • Emphasize the action words • Examples

o Crawl under a chair o Jump over a rope o Walk backwards o Crab walk across a mat

• Have the children describe the movements they are making through the course

Variations • Have children pretend to be various animals and go

through the course as that animal would

! Chairs ! Cushions ! Hoops ! Mats ! Etc.

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) – Obstacle Course

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Twist and Turn What to Do:

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Warm Up Activity • Practice singing “Twist and Turn”

Activity:

• Have children sing and copy your actions • Move your body in other ways

oE.g. make your body small, take up a big space, make other shapes

Twist and Turn (to the tune of “I’m a Little Tea Pot”)

I’m a little toddler, short and neat, Here are my hands and here are my feet; (shake hands, then touch feet) When I get excited, watch me turn, (turn around in a circle) This is how I move and learn. I’m a little toddler, moving all around, (walk around) I can twist my body right to the ground; (make fists with hands, then twist arms & hips while bending low) When I get excited, help me out, I want to learn to move and shout! (run around and shout “wooo hooooo!”)

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) – Twist and Turn

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Park Adventure! What to Do:

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Activity: • Create an adventure outdoors at your

center or at a local park • Show children all the steps • Practice each step with them before

getting them to perform the activity independently

Variations: • Change the action words used in the story • Have children perform activity and

verbalize the story themselves or with their peers at the program

! Toy bugs/critters ! Real tree log (or make one) ! Bowl of fresh water and cups ! Story Steps:

1. Tell the children to bend down low and search fro the toy bugs that you have hidden in the grass.

2. Tell the children to crawl on their hands and knees through the grass to find the toy critters you have hidden.

3. Tell the children to jump over the log, just like a frog would.

4. Tell the children to run as fast as they can to the river (bowl of fresh water) and take a drink from it using the cup.

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011)

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Alphabet Walk Adventure! What to Do:

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Activity: • Take the children on walk in the neighbourhood

or park • Find objects during the walk that start with each

letter of the alphabet

Variations: • Have children count the steps in takes to get

from one object to another • Encourage children to move with different

styles of walks o Walk with heavy, loud steps o Walk on tiptoes o Hop, run or skip

! Outdoor space to take a walk in

! Items to collect on the walk

What you Need:

Adapted from Best Start (2013) – The Wonders of Walking

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Active Opposites What to Do:

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Activity: • Recite the poem to the children • Demonstrate how to move to the

actions in the poem • Have children act out the movements

while saying the poem

Variations: • Make your own variations of the

poem!

Active Opposites

• Rise up like the sun, fall down like the rain.

• Reach far in a box, and pull out some socks.

• Stretch high in the sky, scrunch low — who

knows why?

• Move like popcorn popping fast, then slow

like a snowman melting in the grass.

Poem to Read:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) – Active Opposites

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Things I Can Do What to Do:

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Activity: • Recite the poem to the children • Demonstrate how to move to the

actions in the poem • Have children act out the

movements while saying the poem

Variations: • Make your own variations of the

poem!

Things I Can Do

Like a bunny I can hop. (Hop like a bunny) I can spin just like a top. (Spin like a top) I can reach way up high (Reach arms way up high) And I almost touch the sky. In a boat I row and row, (Rowing motions) Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Now a bouncing jumping jack, (Bounce up and down) I go up and then go back. Then sway gently in the breeze (Sway gently) Like the little forest trees. Make silly faces like a clown (Make silly faces) And then I quietly settle down. (Slowly sit down)

Poem to Read:

Adapted from Penn State (2015) – Things I Can Do

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

Bike Ride What to Do:

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Activity: • Recite the poem to the children • Have children lie on their backs

with legs up in the air peddling feet like on a bike

• Demonstrate how to move to the actions in the poem

• Have children act out the movements while saying the poem

Variations: • Make your own variations of the

poem!

Bicycle, Bicycle

Bicycle, bicycle, pedal slow, (pedal slow)

Bicycle, bicycle, where will you go? (keep pedaling)

Bicycle, bicycle, pedal fast, (pedal a little faster)

Bicycle, bicycle step on the gas! (pedal as fast as you can!)

Poem to Read

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) –Bicycle, Bicycle

Word Comprehension

Activity Cards

We’ve got Rhythm What to Do:

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Activity: • Using a pencil or ruler tap out a rhythm on

a hard surface while singing a song • Have the children copy the same rhythm

and sing along • Gradually increase the difficulty of the

rhythm

Variations: • Have children play rhythm to the song on

small hand drums • Encourage children to make their own

rhythm

! Pencils or rulers

! Hard surface to tap on

! Songs to sing

What you Need:

Adapted from Penn State (2015) –They’ve got rhythm

Rhyme and Rhythm

Activity Cards

On Our Way What to Do:

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Activity: • Have the children march in place

as you read the poem aloud • Ask the children to jump as high

as they can in the air when they hear a rhyming word

Variations: • Tell children to listen for words

that rhyme with a specific word • Have children act out the animals

in the poem • Have the children do jumping

jacks or another action instead of jumping

On Our Way Poem

What kind of walk shall we take today? Leap like a frog? Creep like a snail? Scamper like a squirrel with a furry tail? Flutter like a butterfly? Chicken peck? Stretch like a turtle with a poking-out neck? Scuttle like a crab? Kangaroo jump? Plod like a camel with an up-and-down hump? We could try a brand-new way – Walking down the street On our own two feet. -Eve Merriam

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) –On Our Way

Rhyme and Rhythm

Activity Cards

Marching Time What to Do:

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Activity: • Have the children march in place

as you read the poem aloud • Demonstrate the actions in the

poem • Have children complete actions

while saying the poem

Variations: • Make your own variations of the

poem

On Our Way Poem

Marching, marching, stomp your feet, (march with high knees and heavy feet)

Swing your arms right to the beat; (swing arms)

Tippy-toe, tippy-toe, light as air, (light and fast on tippy-toes)

Don’t wake the baby sleeping upstairs. (put index finger over mouth to show being quiet)

What you Need:

Adapted from Leap BC (2011) –Walk On

Rhyme and Rhythm