Reply To: Pre-K

[nafmeadmin]

This is such a FUN age! You need to be really structured with your lessons, so they know what’s NOW, what’s NEXT. Lots of active children that age need to have really active lessons. Songs with actions are great! Listening lessons with movement is great. See ORFF movement ideas. This age needs to build a ‘movement vocabulary’ so explore all kinds of movement–stationary, locomotor.

Explore starting movement from a ‘scatter position’ with the children scattered about in the class–give them a color circle as their very own spot. they can put their spot anywhere within the boundries you define. Then have them stretch out arms and circle around to make sure they are not in anyone’s space–put them in their very own bubble. With the movement at this age, I like to do simultaneous imitation where you just do it and they follow you.

Explore stationary levels–high, medium, and low movements.
Stationary, explore touching themselves–like ants crawling all over, like rubbing mud all over their bodies, patting, poking, etc.

Locomotor movements, explore stomping, tip toe, walking on marshmellows, sliding, skating, gliding, etc. Create a ‘word wall’ with all the various types of movement perhaps with words as well as pictures or diagrams so they can someday choose from the word wall vocabulary.

Move to music until you ring a triangle (then let a leader do the triangle). The triangle signals FREEZE! But no one gets ‘out’–just keep going. This way they are tuning into auditory signals, which will apply to listening lessons in the higher grades.

Preschoolers LOVE stories! Act out a story with movement. Put a song to the story, one that has repeated phrases.