As you might expect, most conversations about children's health tend to focus on the word "healthy". You’re probably thinking, "Well…. duh!" But follow me for a minute, and I'll show you how – especially when it comes to children’s health – 'healthy' is kind of a lame word.
Why so? At best, people have a vague understanding of what it means to be healthy. Healthy is often taken to be self-evident. It’s obvious, like being awake or not awake. No further thought or explanation needed.
Well, such non-explanations have never been satisfying to me. The things we take for granted are often the best things to question. (Or so my anthropology spidey-sense tells me.)
When pressed, most people reveal a shallow, dichotomous understanding of health. You're unhealthy if something is wrong with you—if your breathing is labored, or your joints ache, or if you have colitis. In the absence of such things, congratulations! You (or your kids) are healthy.
Four things really trouble me about this way of thinking:
1. First of all, it turns 'healthy' into the default state. If nothing is afflicting you, then you're healthy. So if you can just avoid the correct things, you'll stay in the normal healthy state. No 'doing' required — just not doing.
2. It makes the process of being healthy unnecessarily vague and abstract. If the process of being healthy is to simply stay away from all this bad stuff, how am I supposed to keep that miles-long-laundry-list of bad stuff in my head at all times?
3. It sets the bar pretty low. "As long as I'm not downright miserable, I must be healthy."
4. The "healthy is merely not unhealthy" line of thinking somewhat robs healthfulness of its point. You're not seeking health for any positive reasons.
Being healthy is not pointless, and it’s not about avoiding things and hoping to end up "normal" or even just not miserable. Also, being healthy takes a lot of doing, and we would see this more clearly if we actually paid less attention to the word ‘healthy’ and more attention to the word ‘fit’. I don't necessarily mean fit as in strong, or the British slang fit which means 'attractive'. I mean fit as in "fit for [fill in the blank]".
As an example, earlier in my life I suffered a minor back injury, from which I'm now glad to say I’ve recovered. But for a time, I had gotten sort of complacent about it. My back had gone from worse to a little better, and I sort of accepted this would be how things were for the rest of my life. Then one day, something struck me.
By teaching karate, I've proudly helped to raise many children. But, if things with my back remained as they were, when I finally did have children of my own, I wouldn’t be able to run and play with them. I was not "Fit enough to play with my own children." You can bet that I woke right up out of my complacency.
Awhile back, Catherine McCord wrote a piece over at The Huffington Post discussing the public’s attitude toward organic food. Specifically, she mentions a teacher who was "talking to parents about the importance of serving organic food at school". The parents’ response? No way! Their reasoning? They didn’t want their kids to become snobs.
If you haven't read McCord’s piece, it’s interesting and worth a quick read. Basically, McCord reiterates the benefits of organic food and takes issue with the idea that ‘organic is snobby’. While I found myself generally agreeing with McCord, something about her approach left me unsatisfied. Weeks later I finally realized what it was.
McCord begins her 'organic is not snobby' argument by citing income statistics. For instance, one poll found that people highly prefer organic, "regardless of income brackets". Another study showed people who earn $30,000 a year and have kids buy more organic food than richer folk and those without kids.
I understand McCord’s point – that organics aren’t just for wealthy, excessive types. I wonder, though... Is that really the kind of "snobby" most often associated with organics? Maybe my perspective has become skewed from living in Santa Cruz for so long, but it seems to me that the kind of snobbery usually (not necessarily fairly) associated with organics is of another variety. The ‘look at that hipster who has an extra buck for organic avocados because he thinks he knows so much better than the rest of us’ variety.
The hit show Portlandia bases some of its humor on satirizing people with this extreme avant-garde demeanor. I'm not saying that I think this portrayal gives a more accurate impression of the people buying organic—just that McCord seems to be lending too much attention to the wrong stereotype. After all, snobbery isn't really restricted by social status or income, is it? Snobbery is an attitude, an attitude that anybody could possess. There are caviar snobs, and then there are fast food snobs.
In her article, McCord also takes the farm corporations to task. She accuses agribusiness of fighting food transparency, and trying to portray organics as "part of an elitist, liberal agenda". She even infers that, in their greed, these companies may be causing early puberty! (Which, based on the evidence, may well be accurate.)
With all these criticisms of Big Agribusiness, I'm surprised McCord does not mention their spurious co-opting of the term ‘organic’. By now it's well-covered that labeling food as organic is a lucrative business for the the farming industry. While watering down (polluting?) the quality of their so-called organics, Big Food companies have slapped a higher price tag on organics and made them available at most every store I’ve ever seen in California (and on my recent trip to Oregon). If indeed there is a perception that ‘organics are for rich folk’, isn’t it because these companies made organics pervasively available, but always at a premium price? It’s kind of like a first-class versus coach grocery shopping experience. McCord paints a picture of ‘organic against the food industry’, when in fact by now the term “organic” has also been largely borrowed and stolen by the food industry.
Lastly, McCord’s entire article focuses on the health of you and your family — a matter of great importance. So why then was it necessary, at the very end of her article, to sneak in a reference to "the health of our planet"? In my view, this is the greatest of all McCord’s misstep. I mean, for the purpose of making a good argument, was our health (and the health of our children) not strong enough to stand on its own? Making a last-second appeal for the survival of the entire earth positions McCord as something of a savior figure. What’s more, because earthly survival went previously unmentioned and unsubstantiated, she comes off as the type of savior whose advice we’re supposed to follow because, you know, it’s so obviously correct. It doesn’t bear the need for evidence or explanation.
I’m not sure whether McCord did this knowingly or unknowingly – she seems nice, so I like to give her the benefit of the doubt – but I do know that it could easily perpetuate the idea that ‘those organic eaters just think they know so much better than the rest of us.’
Well, it certainly was a wonderful year. We're all very sad to see 2012 go... But hey, at least the posts won't go anywhere! So before we continue down the road of time, let's take a look at some of our favorite posts from the year past.
First, we have Karen's favorite posts.
Organizing for Art So That Your Classroom Won't Explode
Bull and the Teacup is a wonderful relay race game. It calls on students to exercise awareness and balance, and creates a strong sense of dramatic tension even amongst older students. Teams of about three are good, so you'll need at least six kids in class to play (two teams of three).
Break the kids up into teams, and have all the teams stand in lines on one side of the classroom (as you’ll see in a moment, it’s important that they stand for now and not sit yet). During Bull and the Teacup, each line will get one bean bag — ‘the teacup’. The students from each line will take turns crossing the classroom and then returning to their lines, keeping their team’s bean bag balanced on their head for the entire trip.
If the bean bag falls off at any point when they're walking, the teacup is broken. They have to pick up the bean bag right away, walk back to their line, hand it to the next person on their team, and stand in line again. If they successfully cross the classroom and return to their line without 'breaking the teacup', they let the next person in their line take the bean bag off their head, and then sit in the very back of the line. That way anybody who’s still waiting to make the trip successfully is standing, and anybody who has already made the trip with success is sitting. The first team to have everybody sitting wins.
But this isn't just a game of ‘balance’ the teacup - it’s Bull and the Teacup. That's where the instructor comes in. As the students try to cross the classroom, bean bag balanced on their head, the instructor throws dodgeballs at them. If a student gets hit with a dodgeball, in that case the teacup is also broken, and the student has to return back to their line to try again.
This is a big part of what makes Bull and the Teacup so much fun. Only half the time will the instructor actually hit the kids with a dodgeball to ‘break the teacup’. The other half of the time, the bean bag simply falls off the student's head while they are trying to evade an incoming dodgeball.
Here are a few tips for the instructor to keep in mind:
If you run right up to the kids, it’s too easy to hit them with the dodgeballs. Keep some distance to make it clear you don’t have a wildly unfair advantage.
Kids are allowed to slow down, speed up, or change course slightly to avoid getting hit, as long as they stay relatively within their lanes (no zig zagging all over the classroom or crossing paths with other players).
Bounce dodgeballs off the floor; like skipping a rock over water, it slows the dodgeball down a bit, allowing the kids to try and respond to the pending disaster, or just anticipate their doom.
Remember that, in order to be successful, a student has to get all the way across the classroom and all the way back without breaking the teacup. Make sure to hit some kids with your dodgeball at the last second (just before they return to their line). The sudden taste of defeat — just when victory was so near! — keeps the game unpredictable and often induces spontaneous laughter, even from more mature kids.
For older kids, it’s okay to gently lob the ball towards their face. This will cause them to move their head, making it more likely that their bean bag will fall off. If it does hit them, it shouldn’t hurt if it was gently lobbed. (Otherwise you should probably look into getting some more benign, versatile dodgeballs.)
Things I like about this activity: As kids grow older, certain games like Zombie Tag and Squid Monster lose their luster. They’re too simple for older kids, and rely too much on imagination for their thrill. Not so with Bull and the Teacup. For starters, it's far more physically challenging, requiring greater awareness, dexterity, and balance. It's also got the added drive of competition. It's a relay race, and you want to beat the other team! But victory is far from certain. It may look as if someone has made it all the way to safety, when suddenly a barrage of dodgeballs comes their way. Becuase of this, the kids never know who will really win. Heck, you never even know when the game is almost over! Instructor’s can keep this game short by taking it easy and letting kids slip by, or prolong it by “smashing” teacups left and right.
Today's activity is a nifty warm-up which requires no materials and is fast to teach. The game begins with the kids jogging in place. It's important that they jog in place and not run, because they'll be doing so continuously the whole time you play the Color Game. If they run in place or sprint in place from the start, they'll get exhausted too quickly.
As the kids jog in place, they also need to listen closely to the instructor. If at any time the instructor says a color, the kids stop jogging, fall to the ground, and then pop back up jogging in place once again. This is a great way to teach your front falls. In the martial arts, when you front fall you kiai. If you’re not in a karate program, to maintain the high energy of the drill, teach the kids to shout something every time they drop. (For instance, they could shout the color they heard.)
For very young kids, it's okay to say, "Touch your bellybutton to the floor." That way they understand the need to go all the way to the ground. Otherwise, little kids will sometimes do a quick bend forward without actually going to the ground.
As the kids jog in place and listen for a color to be called, the instructor should call out different colors and use tricks to keep the kids listening attentively. Here are a few ideas to make the Color Game challenging and unpredictable:
Mix in words that rhyme with colors. Shout 'hello!' instead of 'yellow'. Other examples include the word 'who' instead of 'blue', and 'back' instead of 'black'.
Call out patterns, which often make you think of colors, but are not actually colors themselves. Good examples include ‘plaid’ and ‘polka dot’. Be aware—this one could trick a lot of adults!
Disguise the color by putting it in the middle of a sentence. For example, in karate I will use the phrase, "Wow! You guys were fast on that last one. You're going to make awesome black belts one day!" If the students are listening closely, they should hear the word ‘black’ in there and do a quick drop to the floor. In a non-karate setting, you could use something like, "Whoopsy, Jimmy! It looks like your blue shoelace is coming untied!" If none of the kids catch the color, repeat the sentence more slowly and emphasize the color word with your voice intonation and facial expression so that they catch on.
So that the kids aren't just listening for colors, you can add the rule that the word "sprint" makes them run in place as fast as they can, burning up the floor! Then the kids continue sprinting until the next time you say a color, at which time they do their normal drop to the floor and return to jogging. The addition of “sprint” also makes the workout much more intense.
Tell a story peppered with mentions of colors. I will sometimes tell a story that you could call "A Walk in the Woods", which involves crossing a blue river, and seeing some green trees and a black bear.
Things I like about this activity: The Color Game is a high-energy warm-up. The kids get a nice, thorough workout at the start of class, and it also challenges them to exercise their good listening skills. For the youngest of kids, the Color Game is also a good game to help practice color word recognition. Lastly, when you use storytelling during the drill, it also engages the kids' imaginations.
So what is going on with playgrounds these days? That’s basically all I want to know. Even a lot of the spiffy modern ones don’t seem to offer the kind of possibilities for fun and development that I remember as a child.
When I look back at the community playgrounds that I knew in the '50s and '60s, they weren’t necessarily all that remarkable looking. The swings and climbing bars were made of ugly steel pipe. Seesaws were made using straight wooden boards with indentations cut out near the ends for legs. And the merry-go-rounds were just flat metal disks, mounted to a center post, with a few arched bars on top. Most kids would sit in the middle while a few ran around the outside, pushing to get it spinning fast, before hopping up onto the edges for the best ride of all. For me, the greatest swings were the really tall ones, with their long metal chains and a half-circle strip of rubber that snugged up against my bottom and made me feel securely tucked-in. I could swing so high that I had a clear view of the tops of the trees. It made me feel like I was flying. The tall slides were great, too, although their metal sometimes got too hot in the burning mid-day sun. Even that was okay, though. I learned to test the metal before I got on, or use a piece of cloth to sit on before zooming down.
Why were these simple playground structures so enjoyable? It's not just because they were the only thing available. There was something more to them than that.
At least in part, it was for the same reason that I loved cardboard boxes. The materials were simple, but open with possibility. What the playground didn’t offer visually, my friends and I filled in with imagination. The tall swings became an airplane where my friends and I were the crew. (We pulled those planes out of countless near crashes!) We became actual monkeys on those monkey bars. We hung from them like the branches of high trees, contentedly swinging, perching, and twirling from bar to bar. Sometimes the merry-go-round transformed into a boat out on the ocean, caught in a whirling current. Or maybe it was a spaceship hurtling through the stars, the launchpad for whatever new adventure we could imagine around the playground.
Every piece of playground equipment, just like every cardboard box, offered endless opportunities for imaginative play. Nothing about them needed to be fancy. Yet in today’s world, the kinds of equipment I played on have been labeled far too dangerous for kids. This is a shame, and generally, I think playground safety concerns have been blown out of proportion. Now, I’d be the first to admit that as a kid I got my fair share of bumps, bruises, skinned knees, and splinters along the way. Yet I don’t remember a single broken arm or leg. (I do remember someone falling on the blacktop during a chase game and ending up with a severe sprain. Ironically, no play equipment was necessary for that injury!)
As an adult who became a teacher, I remember pieces of equipment vanishing one by one from the school playgrounds where I worked. The merry-go-round was the first to go. Then the slides disappeared. By then the seesaw was already long gone. The monkey bars lasted the longest, but the modern playground became devastatingly bare. For much of my career, all the kids had to play with during recess were a few balls, a handful of jump ropes, and each other. Without props to bolster their imaginations, kids fell into degraded games filled with competition over limited equipment. Their frustration was compounded by too many chasing games, often leading to pushing and name calling.
There’s always a certain amount of aggression that arises when you have a group of kids immersed in unstructured play—regardless of the environment—but I think it was less pronounced back when I was a kid. We were more interested in preserving the pretend games we had created, leveraging the equipment that was available, than in bickering with one another. The magic of our imaginations gave all of us something to work towards together.
And when I think about the loss of the old play equipment, it’s more than just the loss of imaginative stimulation that I lament. By taking away play equipment (and often not even replacing it with anything at all), kids are being denied some great developmental and problem solving opportunities.
For instance, why does a seesaw work beautifully sometimes and not at all other times? If two similarly sized kids wanted to ride the seesaw together, you were in business. But what if two kids were not the same size? Then you really had to think. Sometimes the littler kid could scoot more toward the end of their side of the seesaw, or the bigger kid might be able to slide in more to the center. Other times we would invite an extra small child to join the first small child. Then two little ones equalled the weight of one big one. We figured out the balancing problems in order to have more fun. (And again, this was not a source of constant, serious injury.)
Then there’s the merry-go-round, which taught a whole different set of skills. When little kids would negotiate with the older and bigger ones about who should push and who should sit in the middle, play on the merry-go-round became a socially interactive exercise. True, the older kids who pushed got the satisfaction of being in control but they also became responsible for making everyone’s ride more fun. It was an early leadership role, and they learned to feel pretty good about taking care of the smaller children. For the smaller kids, there was modeling involved. They got to see what it meant to be a bigger kid, experiencing both the joy of independence and important roles of responsibility.
On our playground, my friends and I were just having a ton of fun, not really conscious of the fact that we were also experimenting—learning math, science and social skills in the process. It’s hard to name any piece of modern playground equipment that fosters these same skills. As a teacher, I felt tasked with a whole lot more than just physical safety. We’re failing our kids when we don’t recognize that there’s more to playground time than mere physical movement. I can’t help thinking that we've sacrificed too much in the name of safety, without really recognizing everything we lost.
Related links:
Can you have seesaw math without riding a real seesaw?
Materials: bean bags, snords (shortened pool noodle, roughly between 24 and 32 inches long)
Suggested variation: Elimination
Squid Monster is an insanely fun game of balance and concentration. It's best played with younger kids, who have more of a challenge staying focused and keeping the bean bag balanced on their head. To play the game, you'll need one bean bag for each student, and two snords for the instructor.
The game is pretty simple. Each student gets one bean bag, which they put on top of their head. The students are then free to run or walk during the game as they please. However, if the bean bag falls for any reason, the student has to pick up their bean bag, walk to the out of bounds line, and do one sit up. Afterwards, they can get back in the game. Pretty soon, the kids will discover they have to walk carefully to keep the bean bag on top of their head.
Of course, the students won't just be strolling around. They'll also be avoiding the horrible "Squid Monster!" The squid monster is essentially the instructor with two snords in hand, chasing the students around.
The students can try to run from or duck the instructor’s snord appendages, but if the kids move too quickly, their bean bag is likely to fall off anyway. This makes them kind of fish in a barrel. If you really want to knock a bean bag off a kid's head, you certianly will be able to.
A more interesting strategy for the Squid Monster to take—and the real fun of the game—is to try and psych the students out. Try whooping and hollering. Thrash about and make angry squid noises. Pound the snords noisily on the ground or clap them together. Loudly declare, "I'm coming to get ya!" If the child can keep their bean bag in place despite this playful barrage of intimidation, most of the time reward them by not actually knocking off their bean bag. (You may want to keep knocking off some bean bags just to keep the threat of the squid monster alive.)
Remember, the fun of this game is really in the theater. As far as karate games go, this is a rare opportunity to play make-believe with your students. So as the Squid Monster, the instructor should rabid, animated, and silly.
Safety: Despite the instructor's crazy energy level, Squid Monster should be a very safe game. The kids move very slowly, so you can play Squid Monster with a relatively large number even in a relatively small space. Tell the kids to be aware and not bump into one another. You can emphasize this by saying they are one big team against you, and they wouldn't want to make their teammate's bean bag fall off. Finally, as instructor, be careful with your snord hits around the face.
Suggested variation: Elimination! Instead of getting back in the game after a single sit-up, if their bean bag falls off the kids take a seat out of bounds for the rest of that round. Last one standing is the winner!
Things I like about this activity: A combination of the kids' slow pace and the instructor's outrageous energy creates a unique suspenseful tension not present in other games. As the Squid Monster approaches, the kids wide-eyed expressions are absolutely priceless.
Challenge level: Varies depending on play-style of the student
Group size: Best played with a small group so everyone gets adequate playing time. (Having more instructors or assistants will allow for the game to be played with bigger groups)
Materials: None
Suggested variation: 2-on-1 (two students against an instructor)
Head Tap is a simple game that can be silly fun for younger kids and a skillful challenge for older kids. It takes no materials (though the game is better played on soft mats or grass than on a hardwood floor), and the rules are pretty simple to teach. Besides being crazy fun, it can also be a good introduction to Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
During Head Tap, the instructor calls up one student at a time to play. Then the instructor lies down on the ground, and the student's objective is to lightly tap the instructor on the top of the head. But the instructor won’t make it easy on them. Using his legs and arms, the instructor will try to keep the student away from his head.
For the student, there are basically two possible strategies. The first is to fight their way directly through the instructor's arms and legs. This strategy is especially challenging for younger, smaller, less skillful kids. Still, because they’re so rambunctious and direct-thinking, young kids seem to prefer this approach. To keep kids enthusiastic and undiscouraged, you might have to let some of them win.
The second strategy for students to use is circling around the instructor, bypassing the legs and attempting to get a better shot at tapping the instructor's head. This is obviously the more conservative approach. As a response, the instructor should turn their body to keep their legs between the student and their own upper body.
In concept, the instructor should always use the legs first to defend, and the arms should be more of a secondary resort. Doing this actually gives the instructor more of a fighting chance (because the student is kept further away), and it demonstrates good jiu-jitsu fundamentals for the students.
Safety: First of all, remind the children that the game is called Head Tap, not 'Head Hit'. Emphasize that the students need only to tap you lightly on your head in order for them to win, and that they definitely shouldn't swing their arms wildly. Also explain that they should be careful not to tap you on your face. Lastly, explain that the students are not allowed to jump over the instructor. Younger students especially, who tend to be more brazen, sometimes think of this as a way to get past the legs and tap the instructor’s head in one fell swoop. Obviously, if they land funny they could hurt themselves, or they might end up landing on and hurting the instructor.
Suggested variation: With very young students who are smaller, it is possible to play Head Tap as a 2-vs-1 against the instructor. Be aware that playing the game this way with older students would probably make winning too easy.
Things I really like about this activity: Head Tap is a safe form of roughhousing, which comes instinctually to mammals both young and old. It can be casually tiring or physically exhausting depending on how aggressively the student chooses to pursue their goal – some are direct and exert lots of effort, while others bide their time and wait for opportunities. Finally, as students grow older and more knowledgeable about techniques of jiu-jitsu, Head Tap becomes less physical and more technicaly challenging.
Challenge level: Highly variable. Takes a lot of concentration, but shouldn’t physically tire kids very quickly if they’re playing correctly
Group size: Any
Materials: Snords (made from a standard pool noodle cut down to about 27 inches long)
Suggested variations: Versus the Instructor
Today's activity uses a pretend stick (the snord) in a game of tag. The game is played against an opponent, so you will need at least two snords, one for each person. The goal of the game is to hit your opponent on their hand, side, or leg, without them hitting you. Sounds pretty violent, especially to any non-martial arts instructors reading this, but it’s actually pretty mild. The snord (again, basically a shortened styrofoam pool noodle) is incredibly soft and does not transfer much impact. As a fully grown man, even if I hit myself with the snord as hard as I can, I barely feel anything.
To begin, for each set of partners, indicate an area or "ring" the partners should stay within. This leads to less running away from one another, and is good classroom control if you have more than a couple students.
For each time a kid gets tagged, they will do a calesthenic exercise, such as a pushup, situp or squat. You can decide the exercise before hand, or let the other partner decide which calisthenic they will do.
Make sure you emphasize to the kids that the goal of the game is to tag your opponent without getting tagged yourself. I often use the following phrase, borrowed from Sensei Wilson, to communicate this:
"It would be better to hit your opponents just one time and not get hit at all yourself, than to hit your opponent five times and get hit even once yourself."
Without the above direction, kids will sometime stand right next to one another, swinging wildly. This is some seriously bad martial arts training! First of all, holding still and getting hit over and over again with a real stick would be an astoundingly bad idea. Secondly, it will make the kids tire out really quickly, and make the game much less strategic and dynamic.
Beginner Snord Tag: In the beginner version, each student's goal is to hit the other person’s hand. This is a good starting target because it's relatively safe (far from the head and groin) while kids are getting used to the snord. Tags will also be infrequent because it's hard to hit a small, moving target like the hand. Each hit on the hand is worth one pushup, set up, or squat.
Intermediate Snord Tag: At the intermediate level, hands still count. However, the sides of the body also count. Each hit on the hand is now worth two pushups, situps, or squats. Each tag on the ribs or hips is a worth one push-up, situp, or squat.
Advanced Snord Tag: In advanced Snord Tag, the hands, sides, and legs are all targets. The values of tagging the hands and sides are the same as at the intermediate level. The legs are worth three pushups, situps, or squats. This encourages the kids to think about their footwork and stay mobile.
Safety: While getting hit with the snord on most parts of the body is fine, you can imagine it’s not so much fun on the face or ears. It might be an okay target to add if you run a martial arts program which includes protective headgear. Otherwise, you may want to emphasize that the head is a no-go zone. Also, make sure that kids stay within their own “ring”. With their eyes cautiously glued to their own partner, kids can sometimes unknowingly back into someone else.
Things I like about this activity: Snord Tag scales to different group sizes very well. It can be played with as few as two kids, or with many more. It can even be played with only one kid, as long as you're willing to pick up a snord yourself. It can be a fun introduction to weapons training and sparring. If you have a karate program where kids have headgear, it can even provide realistic stick weapons training. Even for kids not in martial arts, Snord Tag teaches fast reflexes, hand-eye coordination, and encourages some healthy and benign competition.
Animal World is one of my favorite warm-ups that I use in my karate class. During Animal World, kids do their best impressions of how different animals move. For younger kids who really get into make-believe, Animal World can also be a fun game for the end of class.
Start by splitting your class up into separate lines. Lines of about 3 to 5 kids are best. Next, have all the lines take a seat on one side of the classroom (or blacktop, or other activity area). As the kids play Animal World, they should all move in the same direction towards the opposite side of the classroom while staying relatively in front of their own lines.
Pick an animal with which to start. After you pick your animal and describe how the kids should do their impression, the first child in each line will start moving like that animal, making their way across the classroom. The next child in line waits until the child ahead of them gets halfway across the room. At that point the waiting child can also start.
When children reach the far end of the classroom, they stand up and run around the edges of the class back to their original line, having a seat at the back of their line.
So that's how the activity works, but which animals to do? Of course, you can take suggestions from the kids in your class and improvise your own animal impressions, but feel free to borrow some of my favorites. Below I’ve included a few, with handy videos of myself demonstrating.
Crab Walk
I like to start with the crab walk because it's pretty intuitive and many of the kids in my class are also familiar with Crap Tag. In the crab walking position, kids are down on all fours, with their belly facing up. As they move their backs or bottoms should not touch the ground. Also, make sure you emphasize that kids should walk forward, in the direction that they can see!
Chimpanzee
Take your hand and poke the side of your own body. Feel the squishy part in between your ribs and your hips? That space allows you to twist at the waist when you walk, and many primates actually don't have it. Chimpanzees, for instance, have a rib cage that reaches almost all the way to their hips, so they can't really twist at the waist.
For our exaggerated chimpanzee impression, students should bend forward, turning their whole body from one side to another as they swing one leg forward at a time. With each half-turn, they should also touch their knuckles lightly to the ground.
The Rabbit
Ever see a rabbit in a full sprint? They are crazy fast, probably because they push off with two legs at the time.
For a rabbit impression, students put both of their hands in front of them on the ground. Then they bring both feet up, placing their feet just outside their hands. And then repeat continuing forward.
Alligator Walk
Alright, you’ve done a couple impressions now and you're ready for a hard one. The alligator walk takes more strength and coordination.
Imagine doing a push-up with one side of your body stretched out long, and the other side of your body scrunched together. On the side with the leg and the arm close together, make sure the knee is outside the elbow, or your alligator will look especially awkward.
Safety: Animal World is an extremely safe activity, even for a large number of kids. Just make sure the children move across the class in straight lines without bumping, rolling or monkeying into one another.
Great things about this activity: Because of the way kids wait in line, you can use this activity with a lot of kids even in a rather small area. By changing the number and type of animal impressions you do, this activity can be short and sweet or pretty tiring. Also, as I said before, Animal World can be a fun end of class game for kids who still find make-believe thoroughly engaging. Best of all, because of the different animals you can pick, each time you play Animal World is a little bit different from the last.
Relay race variation: In the relay variation, lines compete to see who can finish first. Instead of having the next kid in line start when the kid ahead of them is hafway done, kids wait in line until the kid ahead of them runs back and gives them a high-five. Keep in mind that kids in a hurry tend to get a little sloppy, so emphasize that the techniques on their impressions should still be good. Adding a competitive aspect can also make Animal World more compelling for older kids who might not be so engaged with make-believe anymore.
Free imagination: Pick a random animal or take suggestions from the kids. Then, instead of demonstrating how to do that animal, let the kids use their own imaginations. Try to use animals everyone will know by name (sorry axolotl fans). You might be surprised at the children's creativity! Try to remember any awesome impressions and reuse them in later games of Animal World.
Still need more animals to do impressions of? Of course you do! You can never have too many animals for Animal World. Here is a video of a few more of my favorites:
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