Keep Them Moving - Marina Vista

We try to keep the kids moving the entire JUST RUN session time and don't let them idle too long. With that in mind, here are some activities they enjoy more than others.

1. For a warm-up we set out soccer balls about 30 feet away from the kids. We have them get into lines of about 4-5 behind one of the soccer balls; there are about 10 soccer balls. If the teams are bigger then they are idle too long between running. We make teams as small as possible. Each kid, in turn, then runs to the soccer ball and runs around the soccer ball twice to the right and comes back. They repeat this twice and then go to the left twice.

2. We have the kids line up in a horizontal line in any random order and again have the soccer balls about 30 feet away. We yell out a grade level and the kids all run to the beginning of the soccer balls, they then run over the top of each soccer ball as you go down the line of balls. The key here is organization and team work. The kids have to be able to form the line at the beginning of the balls and make it over each ball without hitting any of them. What makes this exciting for the kids is the competition; we time the kids and reward the winning grade with praise. They then brag about how they won to the rest of the kids.

3. The kids don’t really seem to enjoy running a straight mile.  However, when we break up the mile and make it into long relays they seemed to enjoy it a lot better. Have a group of four kids and line them up at each corner of the track or designated parts of the field on which you run. One of the kids starts with a baton in their hands and runs straight ahead towards their partner and then hand off the baton and waits until it gets back around to them. When the kids race against each other they seem to work harder and have more fun. Also timing them makes them try harder; ompare their times from one session to the next. We also mix up the teams so they all get to know each other.

4. In terms of stretching and warm-ups we think that it is important to get a little jog in before starting to stretching. To do this we just take a warm-up lap around the field. While stretching we involve the kids with counting. When we do each exercise we stretch with them so that they can see how to do the stretch properly. It is important that they do it for a long enough time. We count aloud and get the kids to do the same thing. We have them yell the count as loud as they can because they seem to really enjoy that!"