Turtles, Snakes and Islands
Take a trip to a tropical paradise with Turtles, Snakes and Islands. Groups of all sizes can explore different locomotor skills, such as skipping, hopping, jumping and balancing.
Set up
Scatter a variety of equipment across a large playing area. Designate a 'safe zone', such as a tree, or a boat marked out by a semi-circle of hurdles. Allocate each kind of obstacle a name, such as;
- Hula hoops = islands
- Flat markers = rocks
- Balancing beams/skipping ropes = snakes
- Agility poles = palm trees
- Ladder = 'walk the plank' / cross the bridge
- Stepping stones = turtles
- Cones = sharks/dolphins
How to play
Step 1
- Children start in the safe zone, and are told "it's time to explore!"
- The educator calls out different locomotor skills, such as run, skip, hop, jump or gallop, for children to do as they 'explore' the area
Step 2
- The educator calls an instruction, for example "jump on 3 islands", "skip to a yellow turtle", "walk along a snake", or "run between the palm trees, and then walk the plank!"
Step 3
- The educator can pause the 'exploration', and tell children to, for example, "balance like a flamingo", or tell the children that "the pirates are coming!" and they need to run back to the safe zone while being chased by the educator
Variations
Make it easier
- Play in a small area
- Start with simple instructions such as jump over a snake and don't introduce the 'pirates are coming' command
Make it harder
- Play in a larger area and have boat further away
- Combine different forms of locomotion e.g. run around an island and hop over a snake
- Add more difficult obstacles
Activity information
Age: 3-5 years
Participants: 1
+
Equipment: Cones, Ropes, Hoops, Hurdles (optional), Agility ladders (optional), Agility poles
Duration: 10 minutes
Skill focus
Explore these skills for teaching tips
Skill teaching
Part way through the activity, have everyone stand on an island and practice jumping off, onto and over the island. Remind student of the jumping teaching cues:
- Land like you are riding a motorbike – arms forward, ankles, knees and hips bent, feet apart
- Start with your arms stretched behind you like a superhero
- Swing & Spring
- Reach for a star and bring it down again (for vertical jumps)
Activity summary
Physical literacy tips
- Let children choose commands
- Let children choose what type of locomotion to do e.g. run like a cheetah, fly like a butterfly
- Build the story! Tie in treasure maps, or looking for treasure with the pirate storyline