Imagination and Movement: Let’s Play!

• Be a dinosaur! Sometimes we need to chomp, stomp, roar and get pre-historic. Pretending to be a dinosaur can help kids engage with their arms and legs, by having to take big steps, reaching limbs to act like long necks, or giant jaws. They can imagine themselves ten times bigger, as well as moving their shoulders, stretching some muscles, and increasing mobility in parts of the body that don’t always get stretched.
• Obstacle Course! Setting up hoops, toys, and furniture as an obstacle course is a good way to get kids moving. In order to encourage them to use their imagination, a good Stretch-n-Grow trick is to have rules for each section of the course. Hop like a bunny! Slither like a snake! Pretend to be an elephant here! Have them pretend to be different things. Or maybe they have to imagine things to make the obstacles harder? Floor is lava anyone? Climb a mountain instead of the couch?
• Act out a storybook! If your kiddos have a favorite story, have them act it out in a big way. Challenge them to incorporate certain athletic movements in the play or give them use of a big room with lots of props so they have to lift, run, hop, or crawl.