Action Games for Kindergarten

Caterpillar Movement

• Let the children imitate a wiggly caterpillar as they crawl together in a line. Provide music to set the tempo for the kindergarten "caterpillars" to crawl around the room. The children can practice crawling on their hands and knees independently. Demonstrate how to form one caterpillar by letting the children gently put their hands on the legs or ankles of the child in front of them. Encourage the children to crawl around the room like a fuzzy caterpillar and applaud their efforts.

  Modify the game to include other animal movements. Let the children stand and place their hands on another child's shoulders to waddle like a penguin, hop like a kangaroo or walk like a flamingo.

Bugs in the Grass

• Before taking the children outdoors, talk about insects that live in the grass. Ask the children to imitate some of the movements the insects make and to name a favorite insect. Take the children to a grassy outdoor area and encourage them to pretend to be a favorite insect. Demonstrate insect movements for the children. Allow them to hop like crickets or grasshoppers, march like ants, fly like bumblebees and run like beetles. Ask each child to share his favorite activity to do in the grass.

Finding My Mother

• Five or more children play this game. Let the children practice making barnyard animal sounds. Select a child to be the "mother" animal, such as the mother sheep. Send the mother sheep out of the room. Tell the other children to make a variety of animal sounds. Call the mother sheep to come back to the room and say, "baa, baa." The mother sheep walks around the room, trying to find her "baby" by the animal sound he is making. When the mother sheep locates her baby, a new animal mother is selected and the game continues.

Flying Bats

• Let the children join hands in a circle. Select a child to be the "bat" and stand in the middle of the circle. The bat pretends to fly through the windows, or through the children's joined hands, while the other children sing "The Window Song." Sing the song to the tune of "In and Out of the Window." The song goes:

  Fly in and out of the windows,

  Fly in and out of the windows,

  Fly in and out of the windows,

  Little flying bat.

  The children sit down at the end of the song in the chair they stood by at the beginning of the game. Name a new "bat" to go to the middle of the circle.