Goal: To teach children kinesthetic awareness, help children practice balance and coordination, and improve kinesthetic memory. To provide an opportunity for the children to have fun while improving their physical fitness.

Supplies: Big STOP sign, instrumental music

Time it will take to teach lesson: 10-20 minutes depending on difficulty of movements.

Instructions:

Break children into two groups- you can divide them into "cars" and "SUV's" for example. Instruct the cars to stand on one side of the room and the SUV's to stand on the other side of the room.

Pick various physical movements from the following (or select your own) for children to complete across the floor: walking, hopping on one foot, lunging, skipping, jumping, sliding, tiptoeing, crab walking or monster stepping. As the traffic cop, instruct the cars and SUV's on which movement they should use to proceed in merging traffic- for example, hopping on one foot. The traffic (students) should be dispersed evenly to allow them to weave around each other as they cross the room.

When the traffic cop holds the stop sign up and yells "STOP", both the cars and SUV's must freeze in their positions without bumping into anyone else. Play continues in this manner until the movement is changed. At the conclusion of the game, those who did not bump into anyone during the exercise can receive Safety Awards, for great navigating through traffic. If bumping into the other children becomes purposeful, those children can be instructed to go in for a "tune up," by pulling to the side of the road. There they have to stretch their bodies (and miss out on a round of the game), until they can be sure to be safe while operating in traffic.

Modifications according to grade and skill level:

Level of difficulty of the physical movements can be increased according to grade and skill level. In addition, combinations of movements can be used in the exercise to promote complexity in coordination and balance as well as memory skills. Difficult physical movements may include the following: running, turning, and rolling. Examples of combinations of movements may include the following:

2 hops on your left foot, spin, clap and jump, and 4 skips

3 lunges, 4 crab walks, 2 jumps, and 2 slides