How do I keep my students engaged during the cold weather months?

Question

I am a preschool teacher, working with 3-5 year olds. I have some very energetic boys who LOVE to play outside, but during these winter months, we can't spend as much time outdoors as we'd like. I'm running out of ideas! I need some fun, easy-to-organize activities that will burn off some energy without being too disruptive indoors. Thanks for the help!

Answer 1

take them to the gym to run around and play

Answer 2

I am also a preschool teacher. We continue to go outside every day, but for shorter amounts of time. I have added some physical activities into our centers. For example, I have a bean bag toss area, an indoor basketball hoop with soft balls, and we have a 15 minute dance party every day. I turn up the music and offer maracas, jingle bells, drums, and ribbon streamers, and we DANCE DANCE DANCE!!! I also purchased a yoga for kids video. It's very non-relaxing yoga, but the kids love it!

Here is the video that we have. It's not so great for the yoga aspect, but the excersise and burning off energy is outstanding!

http://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Kids-Vol-ABCs...

Answer 3

Hokey Pokey and dancing type activities are always good.  Also, try setting up one of those pop-up tunnel systems in a corner of your class.  They'll love crawling through.

Answer 4

you can take them to the gym, then you put them in a circle and give them a number  from 1- 10 then  call two at a time and you decide on what you want them to do like run around once or jumping-jacks stuff like that.

Answer 5

I signed my 2 1/2 year old up at our local rec center for a tumbling class.  He goes twice a week, an hour at a time.  We both love it.  He gets his energy out, plus gets to interact and socialize with other kids his age.

Answer 6

You should bring snacks and they should watch a movie.  Every time during recess you can continue where you left off the day before.

Answer 7

have them dance to music.also you can have them play fight little boys love that.

Answer 8

I used to babysit for kids around that age, and they definitely are a handful! One of the best things I found to calm them down was puppets. Kids love puppets, and if you put on a show for them and let them interact, they will instantly behave!

We also had theme days. On pirate day, we made hats out of newspaper (younger kids might need some help) and decorated them. Some other theme days we had were: Under the Sea (field trip to an aquarium), Stuffed Animal Day (everyone brought in a teddy and we had a birthday party for the stuffies), and Art day (had kids fingerpaint plain white tshirts).

Good Luck!

Answer 9

musical chairs, jumping jacks, ring-around-the-rosey, maybe they could hop around and you could have them pretend they are bunnies, get some cds with activities inside for children that age.

i'm running out of ideas. i hope i helped you in SOME way. !!!!!

Answer 10

silent ball!! I love that game. If you don't know wat it is, its a game where everyone sits on a table, throws like a very soft ball at each  other, if one drops the ball they're out, if one throws a bad ball, they're out. If anyone talks, they're out.

its a fun indoor game! But since they're pre-skwls, idk if it'll work.

Answer 11

u can watch a cartoon show... or play some quiet hand games like... heart attack , but i don noe if they noe how to play

Answer 12

Play six tappers

Answer 13

Teach them to play "doctor"...