Preschool Activities: Exercising Through Art
Posted: Saturday, July 11, 2009
by Stephany Springer
Exercise is big topic around classrooms with headlines across the net screaming about childhood obesity on the rise. Why not bring some exercise activities into your art center for some healthy fun.
Here are a few activity suggestions.
Jumping Jack Painting
Collect empty Pringle containers. You can also use coffee cans. Make sure you have the lids. Gather some marbles and various colors of paint. Dip marbles in paint and place with a white sheet of paper inside the can. Place the lid on securely. Give the child a canister. Then have each child do ten jumping jacks. It is so worthwhile as a teacher to hear the kids giggle. Have the kids remove the paper to reveal their masterpiece.
There are all sorts of art projects that involve making instruments. You can take Styrofoam bowls or plates and place beans inside two. Staple or tape the two together and use as shakers. You can also take water bottles with tops, one for each child, jingle bells that are small enough to fit inside the bottle top and various dry beans, confetti and strands of curled ribbon. Put everything in the bottle then twist tightly. Now for the exercise part: turn on some music and shake, shake, shake while dancing around the classroom.
Go To Space
Have Kids place sponges on the bottoms of their feet. Attach with rubber bands around their feet. Go outside and spread out white butcher paper. Have the kids walk through the paint and stomp around on the paper as if they were walking on the moon. They can pretend to be astronauts walking in space.
Sidewalk Chalk
Art does not have to be something that is taken home each day. Have the kids go out and use sidewalk chalk. Be sure to make a Hopscotch grid and then enjoy art time jumping from square to square. You can also make a four square game lines and allow the kids to play that as well.
Trampoline Art
This takes close teacher supervision. Draw a giant tree on butcher paper leaving the leaves off. Staple it to the wall. Get out green or fall color stamp pads for the kids hands. Place a small trampoline by the wall where the butcher paper is stapled. Have the kids jump on the trampoline and place leaves on the tree. They will really enjoy this activity and want to keep jumping long after the tree is filled with leaves.
These are just a few suggestions to get you started. Get creative and let the kids expend some energy during art time. These activities are also great during an exercise theme week or summer time class activity. Please leave any other suggestions in the comment section below.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Some great ideas, thanks for sharing. We already do the chalk and the instruments with our son for fun at home, but I love the idea of the jumping jacks painting, will certainly give that a try! :)
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