Mary Lynn Hafner - The Joy of Movement: Lesson Plans and Large-Motor Activities for Preschoolers

THE JOY OF
MOVEMENT

Lesson Plans and Large-Motor Activities for Preschoolers

by Mary Lynn Hafner, PT, DPT

To the devoted preschool teachers who bring joy to children

Published by Redleaf Press

10 Yorkton Court

St. Paul, MN 55117

www.redleafpress.org

2019 by Mary Lynn Hafner

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise noted on a specific page, no portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or capturing on any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television, or the internet.

First edition 2018

Cover design by Charles Rue Woods

Cover photographs by iStock.com/Fat Camera; gbh007; Global Stock; Simarik; Lisa Valder; kdshutterman

Interior design by Erin Kirk New

Typeset in Sentinel and Futura

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-60554-642-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Hafner, Mary Lynn, author.

Title: The joy of movement : lesson plans and large-motor activities for preschoolers / by Mary Lynn Hafner, PT, DPT.

Description: First edition, 2018. | St. Paul, Minnesota : Redleaf Press, [2018] | Includes webography. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018035400 (print) | LCCN 2018052545 (ebook) | ISBN 9781605546438 (ebook) | ISBN 9781605546421 (Paperback : acid-free paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Movement education--Study and teaching (Early childhood)--Activity programs.

Classification: LCC GV452 (ebook) | LCC GV452 .H34 2018 (print) | DDC 372.86--dc23

LC record available at https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__lccn.loc.gov_2018035400&d=DwIFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=rvV70tfAiXVbLdq1QdXNwJ7yH2gL-mOyODQS4d3gIYk&m=AzDPL9Al3PP9usmIMSvWW7HhC1zz4Adq-EfXPztR_O4&s=-B841FD0AW1jHgzr9UxN_eOJSECDyeXRSM0P0-Ucf-c&e=

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

A special shout-out to the teachers, children, and community at Fort Hunt Preschool in Alexandria, Virginia: without them this book would not have been possible.

Thank you to my family, especially Gaby, Gavin, Nadia, and Anya, who honored the Working sign when it was on my office door, and who inspire me every day. Thanks to my friend Media C. for your steadfast support, and thanks also to Audrey J., who reinforced my point of view with her journalistic savvy.

You never know what you are going to do next time!

INTRODUCTION

Is This Developmentally Appropriate?

Are you frustrated with your preschool lesson plans? Tired of spending hours looking for new ideas on preschool blogs?

You might be a parent looking for unique activities for a birthday party or playdate. Perhaps youre a grandparent who wants to connect with your grandchildren.

A child care provider wants to stand out from other child care centers. Do you need to evaluate the activities you provide? Are you providing motor control experiences that target developmental milestones?

If you said yes to any of these questions, read on.

In 2010 I became the movement teacher at a play-based, cooperative preschool program my twin daughters attended. The preschool relied on parent and family volunteer hours to assist paid staff in the education of children two to six years old. There was an opening for the position, and I needed to accumulate volunteer hours. It was a good match.

But lets back up a little. This is why I agreed to the position: on one of my scheduled classroom days, my twins class of three-year-olds went to a large room we affectionately called the rainbow room. It had a stained-glass window high up on the rear wall, which cast beautiful light of all colors onto the floor when the sun shone through the window. I loved this room!

The volunteer movement teacher, parent of a former student, instructed my daughters class to play a chase-the-octopus game. My girls not only didnt understand the complex rules but also didnt want to be eaten by the octopus or tagged by other children. It was too scary for them. They hovered next to my legs the whole time.

For the next game, they were asked to throw beanbags at a target. Guess what the target was? That big ol stained-glass window, about twenty feet up the wall. Thats a pretty impossible and discouraging task for three-feet-tall children.

OK, I thought, this could be better. I wasnt bashing this amazing volunteer who was donating her valuable time to our children. Yet I was taken aback by how developmentally inappropriate the activities were.

As a parent, I just wanted to build my childrens self-esteem and give them a sense of I can do this! I wanted them to feel safe trying without feeling they had to compete. When the movement teacher position opened, I volunteered to teach a few classes. I figured I could accumulate my required volunteer hours and stop complaining inwardly about the class. Those few classes eventually turned into a paid position, which continued after my twins graduated from preschool.

A Physical Therapists Perspective

My experience illustrates the fact that there are no requirements for teaching physical education in early education. Plus, it can be hard to find qualified teachers. That said, some programs are working toward incorporating developmentally appropriate exercise in preschool. Prominent organizations support this effort with position statements on movement education. In addition, research supports the positive effects of early movement education on child development.

As a licensed physical therapist (PT) with an undergraduate and doctoral degree in physical therapy (DPT), I have spent more than twenty-one years studying and working with muscles, motor development, physical assessment, and treatment planning with various age groups in many settings. I have four children. I have also observed and participated in countless movement classes with my children. All of this influenced the format of the movement lesson plans in this book.

A physical therapist is a specialist in neuromuscular development, movement, and exercise. Understanding motor development and body systems helps us think about ways to maximize potential movement patterns for the developing preschooler. A physical therapist is an expert on the movement system. The vision statement from the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA) says that the physical therapy profession is transforming society by optimizing movement to improve the human experience (APTA 2013). The APTA (accessed 2018) also says that physical therapists provide a unique perspective on purposeful, precise, and efficient movement across the lifespan based upon the synthesis of their distinctive knowledge of the movement system and expertise in mobility and locomotion.

Since I work as a PT primarily with adults, I rarely label or diagnose my preschool students. I like to think this allows me to be less intimidating to the families I serve, because my only goal is to provide a fun learning environment that promotes and enhances childrens motor development.

I created the lessons and games in this book based on my experiences not only as a parent but also as a physical therapist. I used published research to validate and enhance the lessons. Then, most importantly, all lessons were child tested.