Indoor Outdoor Activities

by Mary
(USA)

It is so close to spring and everyone is anxious to get outside. When the weather won't cooperate and you need to channel your preschoolers' energy, here are some preschool ideas to try.

Tell your class that you will all plan and take an adventure trip anywhere in the world. Take their suggestions and write them down on the board. I have had them suggest canoe trips on a river, hiking trips, cruises on ocean liners, sailing on a day sail boat, etc.

The main idea is to engage their imaginations to do the planning, counting, thinking, etc--all the things that go into taking a trip.

One of our favorites is to take a pretend flight on an airplane. Kids love to pretend and they can pick the destination too!

Airplane Adventure
Line up your students' chairs 2-3 in a row with an aisle in between. They should resemble the cabin of an airplane. Pretend to be the flight attendant and tell your students how to be safe on
an airplane. Explain to them that they cannot move around when the seatbelt sign is turned on because the ride may be bumpy and they could hurt someone. Also, talk about how airplanes are specially made so that we can breathe like normal even when we are high up in the air.

Airplane Parts
Bring in a model airplane to pass around to the students. Let them hold it and see it so that they feel more involved in the activity. Name the parts of the airplane with the students. Many
of your students will have never been in an airplane before, so it is important that you give them a chance to learn the parts of the plane and get to experience it like the other students.

Canoe Trip
All the children sit in a circle and pretend they are going on a canoeing adventure. Start out with safety--"okay everyone find your life jackets. Let's put it on". Try to get the children involved and ask them what color of life jacket they would like to put on. We then pretend to put on our jackets and zip them up.

"We then will need to find our paddles. Does everyone have their paddles".
We go through the entire process of getting ready to canoe, canoeing (finding birds and trees, listening to the crickets etc.).

Have fun with your kids and their imaginations!


This is Mary from Preschool Planner:

http://www.mypreschoolplan.com/p/ar.html