Move furniture out of the way and make an indoor circuit to keep everyone moving. Get your children involved in making the course and finding new ways to use your furniture or household objects. They can also think of the verbs (action or ‘doing’ words) used throughout the circuit.
Resources
- Upturned chair or table to climb over
- Stool to crawl under
- Broom to jump over
- A pan to throw balls in to
Method
Ioan and Finn loved setting up the circuit. Once they’d set up the furniture, they used magnetic letters to write the required actions next to activity. They sounded out the words together and worked out (based on ability) who would be better suited to spelling each word.
These were some of the words they came up with:
Their circuit:
- Travel over the table
- Throw the three balls in to the pan
- Touch your toes 5 times
- Crawl under the stool
- Pencil jumps between the scarves
- Climb over the upturned chair
- Step over the duster
- Do 10 star jumps
- Jump over the broom
- Hop between the scarves back to the table
Climbing, doing star jumps and hopping. Ioan set the challenge that every time they went around the circuit, they had to travel across the table in a different way. They walked across it, slid on their tummies, crawled, sat backwards and scooted along, then lay on their backs and wriggled along.
The ball throwing activity was accessible for both our 6 year old and 1 year old, with Ioan aiming for the pan and Cian just throwing the ball.
Cian really enjoyed joining in the circuit with his big brothers, he started off by just randomly jumping from one activity to another.
After a while, he realised Ioan and Finn were going round the entire circuit anti-clockwise. He was very proud to follow them both round then, sticking close behind them.
DfES Early Learning Goals (2017)
Physical development
ELG 04 – Moving and handling:
Children show good control and co-ordination in large and small movements. They move confidently in a range of ways, safely negotiating space. They handle equipment and tools effectively.
ELG 05 – Health and self-care:
Children know the importance for good health of physical exercise, and a healthy diet, and talk about ways to keep healthy and safe.
