I love to eat gingerbread cookies! Not just during the holidays, either. 🙂 My family has a cherished recipe for pepparkakar (Swedish gingerbread) that is to die for! However…that’s not what this post is about. Sorry.
I also love the story The Gingerbread Man
For this class, we will first warm-up, do some across the floor exercises or a movement rhyme, then settle in for a quick read of The Gingerbread Man
After reading…
The gingerbread man was really fast! How fast can you move? How fast can you spin? Can you kick quickly? Skip quickly? How fast can you jump?
Who in the story was slow? Was the horse slow? The cow? How slow can you move? Can you roll slowly? Can you reach slowly?
Set up a line of cones down the middle of the room. On one side, there is fast land. On this side of the cones everyone must move as quickly as possible. They may cross over the cones at any time, but they must do a specified step (one foot hop, pas de chat, tuck jump, etc.) to go over. Once they cross the cones into the other side of the room, they are in slow land. Everything in slow land happens in slow motion! Turn on music and explore both sides of the room several times!
Then, review an across the floor sequence or movement rhyme. Try it quickly. Then, do the sequence on super speed! Next, try it in slow motion. Try it with several tempos of songs.
Next, we do animal races! Animal races are “races” that require the steps of all kinds of animals. For detailed directions and printables, check out my post here.
Finally, we do an obstacle course! Set up cones to jump over, tunnels to crawl through (or chairs to crawl under), mats to climb over, mini trampolines to practice star jumps, spots to stop and balance on, tape lines to walk across, etc. See who can get through the obstacle course without falling and getting eaten by the “big bad fox”!
I hope you have fun with this one. It’s a class favorite!
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