What are some water games or activities for young kids in a swimming lesson?

Question

I am supposed to be teaching american red cross level 1, but the kids are really little and have really short attention spans. what are some activities i can have them do to keep their attention?

Answer 1

See who can stay under the longest, my grandfather holds the world record, he went underwater in 1901 and hasn't come up yet.  We used to lower his meals to him but he stopped eating them in 1905

Answer 2

you can play some games like:

red light/green light - when you say green light.. they swim as fast as they can.. when you say red light, they have to stop. whoever gets to a certain point first wins

what time is it mr. wolf- children yell "what time is it mr. wolf?" you say "<intert number from 1 - 12 here> o clock!" and they do that many strokes. you do this a few times, then you call "lunch time" and you chase after them and the first one yuo catch is the wolf for the next round

bobbing - go into a little deeper water.. just above their heads, and they hold on to the side of the pool and they just basically push themselves up and down still holding onto the side. it sounds simple but younger children find it really fun

colours - every child must choose a colour in their minds. you stand on the side of the pool facing away from them and start calling out colours. when they hear their colour called, they start to swim to a certain point without you noticing, once you think some of them are swimming, jump in and chase after them. the frist one you catch will be the one calling the colours for the next round.

children find these games very fun, but use them like rewards. something like "well after we do this for a certain amount of minutes, we can play this game" they're really work hard for those few minutes.

Answer 3

try ring a round the rosie and when you say we all fall down at the end have them all go under or at least blow bubbles.

red light green light with them sitting on the side kicking is good to.  green- big fast kicks, yellow-slow small kicks, red-stop

mr. shark what time is it?  the say mr. shark mr. shark what time is it?  who ever is it (standing a ways away from them) says its 1-12 o'clock.  they take that many arm strokes to you and when the it person says lunch time they swim to the wall and try to not get eaten.  

you can make up that there are fish in the pool and that one is friendly and comes out.  so first you have to wake him up with really loud bubbles.  then have them put their ear in and listen for him.  then they go under water and look for him (one will always see him)  and you take arm strokes to where they saw him and repeat the process.  if you want you can put a plastic fish in the pool before the lesson for them to find but its not necessary.