Hula Hoop Car Trip
A KIDDO favourite! Children explore locomotor skills by driving around in cars (hoops/paper plates) on 'different roads'. Develops the locomotor skills of jump, run, skip and hop - good for any number of children.
Start in a designated area. Each child starts standing in a hoop/holding a paper plate infront of them (like a steering wheel) in the area. This is the child's car.
Step 1:
- Ask the children to start their engines (running on the spot), and then start driving around, following you
Step 2:
- Call out instructions and demonstrate the actions. Ideas include;
- School zone: walk
- On the freeway: running around fast
- Red light: freeze
- Bumpy road: jump around
- Flat tyre: hop
- Reversing: walk backwards
- Stuck in the mud: run on the spot
- Twisty road: lean to one side as running around
- Out of petrol: children drop their hoop or plate and jump in and out of it/over it to refuel
Step 3:
- After children are familiar with the above instructions you can add in some new ones. Try;
- Road trip: follow to a new destination, you can go through a playground and down a slide or use any obstacles in your environment
- Windscreen wipers: drop hoop and move hands in windscreen wiper action
- Turn the radio on: drop hoop and dance
- Spinning a doughnut: try and spin the hula hoop around your waist
- Round-a-bout: run around a tree or obstacle
- Start with just a few simple instructions e.g. green light, red light, reversing
- Change the instructions to match the skill you are focusing on (e.g skipping - school zone while skipping becomes a slow mo skip!)
- Use a larger area
- Add in more complex instructions
Hula Hoop Car Trip uses a range of different locomotor skills, such as jumping. While practicing jumping, remind children to start with their arms behind them like a superhero and to swing and spring.
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)
- Let children create new instructions
- Let your child lead the road trip
- If a child is hesitant or having trouble staying engaged, become a tow truck and wheel them to the mechanic to get 'fixed'
- If playing with paper plates - spend some time beforehand decorating your steering wheel!