We encourage you and your kids to be active and play everyday. Small amounts of physical activity, especially when it adds up to 60 minutes throughout the day, can really make a difference.
Below are listed a few Games & Activities to get young kids and adults moving together.
Set time limits for the Television and Computer screen The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting children�s screen time to 2 hours per day. They recommend NO screen time for children under 2 years of age.
Make Family Time Active Encourage all family members to get moving and have fun together!
HERE ARE SOME SEASONAL ACTIVITIES TO GET YOU AND YOUR FAMILY MOVING.
Click above to help you find an outdoor recreation center or local park. Hours are typically dusk to dawn. Wayne County has water front parks, wooded areas, pinicking locations, playgrounds, and hiking trails.
IDEAS FOR YOUNG CHILDREN
Heartbeat Beat Boogie
Every day we use muscles in our arms and legs and also our heart.
Make a muscle in your arm. Feel it.
Make a fist. Your heart is the same size as your fist. Your heart is the most important muscle in your body.
Put on some fast pace music and dance.
After the song is over, have child(ren) place their hand on their chest. Feel how hard it is beating. You need to get your heart beating fast everyday to grow up strong and healthy.
Let child calm down and feel their heart again.
It is beating slower now that you have stopped moving.
Activity Alphabet
We are going to move our bodies and pretend we are different moving objects and animals.
'A' is for astronaut, what do astronauts do? Show me how to be an astronaut. Take big steps through space, etc.
'L' is for lion, lets pretend we are lions.
Choose other letters and activities.
Imaginary Trips
Children love imaginary play. Use these themes to act out the activities that may be happening at these places.
A day at the beach
A visit to a farm
Playing at the park
Climbing a mountain
Adapted from "Color Me Healthy" -- North Carolina Cooperative Extension
Dancing Fun
Explain to participants that dancing is a great exercise, and today we are going to play music for everyone to dance to!
Reinforce that there is no wrong way to dance - everyone can dance the way they want to.
Play the music and dance with the children. Any music will get them moving.
Discuss with the children how they feel when they finish dancing - hot, sweaty, breathing hard, tired.
Explain that this is how exercise makes one feel.
Animal Boogie
Supplies: Animal Boogie by Debbie Harter (visit your local library)
Read Animal Boogie to the children.
Pause on each page that asks what creature is doing the movement described to allow the chidlren to answer this question before you turn the page and reveal the answer.
Pause on each page that identifies the creature and ask the children to practice the movement that the creature does.
Adapted from Eat Well Play Hard in Child Care Settings Curriculum
IDEAS FOR SCHOOL AGE CHILDREN
Abdominal Tag
Set cones out to serve as boundaries for the playing area.
Tell the group they're going to play "Abdominal Tag."
Have them scatter around the playing area.
Ask for one to two volunteers to start out as "chasers" who will be identified by wearing pinnies or by scarves tied around their arms.
When I give the signal, the chasers will try to tag other people.
If you're tagged, you must lie on your back and put your feet and hands in the air with your toes and fingers pointed toward the ceiling or sky.This position will help strengthen your abdominal or stomach muscles.
When you're tagged, you can't let your hands or feet touch the ground. This is so you won't trip the chasers and they won't step on you.
To become unfrozen, you must be tagged on the hand by a free runner.
Change chasers frequently and vary the movement (such as running, walking, hopping or skipping) the chasers and the escapers use when chasing and fleeing.
Circle Keep Away
Divide the children into four-person groups.
Have three members of each group form a triangle, with the fourth player standing in the middle of the triangle.
Give each team a playground ball. Explain that the kids who are the triangle are going to try to keep the ball away from the person in the middle using straight passes or bounce passes.
The kid in the middle should try to steal each pass.
If the kid in the middle gets the ball, he or she trades places with the person on the triangle who tried to pass the ball.
Likewise, if a child on the outside makes a bad pass or drops a good pass, that person switches places with the kid in the middle.
Encourage the kids to keep the game moving quickly.
After 10 minutes of play, have the groups stop. Discuss with them the strategies you've seen them use. For example:
Making the triangle bigger
Using bounce passes
Faking one way and moving another
Resume play and encourage the kids to use the new strategies they've discussed.
Adapted from "Jump into Foods and Fitness" -- Michigan State University Extension
Capture the Ball
Children will be divided into 2 equal teams. Each team will be assigned a color flag to wear.
Teams will become aware of their boundaries as well as their home field which is designated by 3 colored cones. The field is divided in half (similar to a soccer field).
Each team has 3 hoops, each hoop has 3 balls.
Children are safe on their home half but as soon as they cross the mid-line they are subject to being "Flagged". If they are flagged they must return to their home half before they can "Attack" again.
If they are caring a ball they must return the ball and then go to their home "Half".
An attacking player is one who is trying to steal a ball from the other team.
There is only one attacking player allowed in a hoop per ball in the hoop (3 balls, 3 attacking players can be safe).
Once the attacking player enters the hoop they are safe.
The guard is not allowed inside the hoop at all!
There is only one guard for each hoop.
Jump Rope Skills Swing It, See It, Jump It !
Students will practice their jump rope skills using different foot patterns.
For every turn of the rope jump one time.
For every turn of the rope jump/bounce one time.
Students will pretend to run in place while turning the rope.
One foot in front and the other in the back this is the rocker
Frisbee Horseshoes
How to Throw a Frisbee Disc: Step with throwing arm, index finger on the edge of the Frisbee, release with index finger pointing at the target.
To play the Game:
Place 2 objects aprroximately 30 feet apart.
Children will stand next to one object and throw the frisbee aiming at the target or object opposite of them,.
The closest Frisbee earns a point.
When all Frisbees are thrown, children will walk and retrieve their Frisbee starting at the opposite target.
