GET THOSE WIGGLES OUT + MOVE TO LEARN!

I spent lots of time poppin' around to different blogs today (I am still bored out of my mind and on surgery leave, hence this extra time that you all are struggling to find right now).  I have seen lots of posts about how "active" kids are being right now.  With this said, I have hosted a couple of fun relay-type games that have really helped me in the past and I wanted to share.  It's all about getting their WIGGLES out right now!

I like to team up with another teacher at times.  The kids love seeing their friends (and I love seeing mine).  We sometimes play games together, but often we just stretch and then split off into our perspective games.  

Look . . . it's my "bestie" leading stretches!  I am too busy with the camera :)  

For some reason, I am all about working math and reading concepts into our outdoor games.  I figure that if I am going to drag our bums outside I might as well get as much out of it as possible. Most of the time I get the kids all jacked up over relay races - they are my favorite. Here are some details . . . 


Earlier this year we had a bunch of mini footballs donated from a local bank.  I slapped addition facts on them (masking tape and a Sharpie did the trick) and threw them out at the end of our "playing field."  I then divided the kids into teams and lined them up along the grass line (see photo).  On my whistle, each team would send one member out to run my obstacle course and collect a football.  On the way back to their lines, each student needed to solve the problem and shout the answer out (i.e. 9+5=14) before the next player could run out.  The first team to have all of their members successfully collect and solve an addition problem was the winner.  They begged to play over . . . and over . . . and OVER.  It was a definite win-win for all of us!

The teams are READY for action! 

The kiddos have to zig-zag in and out of the cone course!  The footballs are at the very end!

Can't say enough wonderful things about this cutie!
I love how she is "donking" the big number and counting up!  Go girl GO!

I have used oodles of different items (tennis balls, foam pieces, plastic balls) during these relay races and have worked in many core standards.  My kids have solved subtraction problems, read words with particular spelling patterns, and have sorted words according to parts of speech during relays.  The sky is the limit with these.  

For my kinder friends, you can run similar games sans the relay.  Last year when I taught K, I found bags of plastic balls at Target (swoon) for $2.98!  At the beginning of the year I labeled them with upper and lower case b's and a few other letters (yes, it was "B" week).  These were scattered in our playing field and the kids were lined up individually along the start line.  I would yell out "uppercase" or "lowercase" and it was their job to find the correct ball.  Here are some photos of them in action!

Here is my thought on this post . . . it's very mathematical.  May + Kids = Crazy Days, but Outdoor Games + (Kids - Wiggles) = Happy Teacher!  I don't even know if that makes sense, but it sure looks cool :).  

In honor of kids getting their wiggles out in classrooms everywhere, I joined up with a very special Linky Party.  Get Those Kids Up & Moving was started by Rachel over at Minds In Bloom.  There are so many wonderful ideas posted from so many talented teachers.  Click the button to check it out!

Be sure to take a moment to give my snowball fight post a little "look-see" as well - it's a rockin' way to get those wiggles out and hit 'em with loads of learning at the same time :).