Materials for modifiers -beach ball -soft ball -plastic bottles -soccer ball -rice or popcorn kernels
Modifiers
For an easier challenge -Use beach ball or soft ball - Replace cereal boxes with empty plastic bottles
For a trickier challenge -Use a soccer ball -Fill cereal boxes with rice or popcorn kernels
Follow-up Idea
- Play games like "Pizza, Pizza" and "Sleeping Animals" during circle time to encourage the development of gross motor skills
-Take a sock, fill it with rice, sew it shut, and use it as a bean bag. Then cut a whole in a paper box and have the students toss the bean bag into the paper box.
Originating Idea
This is a fun and easy craft that the older toddlers will really enjoy playing with! The activity forces the toddlers to use a variety of body parts to play- including arms, legs, and chest - while moving with various objects.
How to Make
The teacher should wrap the cereal boxes up with duct tape. Then she should set this activity up at the circle time carpet. At one end of the carpet the teacher should place the cereal boxes. At the other end she should place the plastic balls on the other side.
How to Implement
The teacher should set this up during morning snack time, when the children are eating at the table. Once they're done eating, the teacher will line up the children next to the plastic ball and say, "Today we're going to bowl! I'll give you this ball and you try to knock down as many pins as you can!"
The children will take turns throwing the ball down the carpet and try to knock down as many "pins" as possible. Once the student throws the ball and knocks the pins down, the teachers and students should congratulate the children with some genuine cheers. The teacher assistant will reset the pins for every student while the student who threw the ball goes to the end of the line.
The cycle should continue until each student that wanted to keep going has gone. Then the teacher should have the students help the teacher's assistant clean up the activity before sitting down for circle time. In order to keep the discussion going, the teacher could start circle time by reading the story "Mitchell Goes Bowling."