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Flaming Hoops

Lesson Plan:

​Activity:

Flaming Hoops

Lesson plan developed by Ms. Erika Geelhoed, BA Ed

Age Group:

Toddlers

* Lesson plan objectives and assessments can be adapted to use this activity with mobile infants and preschoolers.

Objectives:  

Children will:

• develop large muscles by jumping and crawling.

CDA Competency Standard:   

II.4.1a

• Activities, materials and equipment encourage children of varying abilities to develop their large muscles
  • ​​​a) Gross motor skills are encouraged through developmentally appropriate materials, equipment and indoor/outdoor activities

Flaming Hoops

Materials: 

• hoola hoop
• different colored streamers
• scissors

Procedure: 

• Prepare for the activity by creating the “flaming” hoop.
  
• Cut the various colored streamers into foot-long strips.
  
• Tie them to one side of the hoola hoop, so that when you hold it up the “flames” hang down for the children to go through.
  
• Show the children how to crawl through the hoop and invite them to join you in play, holding the hoop upright for them. 

Assessment: 

• During the activity, observe and record the children’s gross motor skills using anecdotal notes. Did they jump through the hoop? Did they crawl? Be sure to take pictures to share with family members. 

Online Early Childhood Education

Click on the course icon for enrollment information.

Promoting Creativity 

Creativity is about seeing things in a new way and putting ideas together differently, so that a new idea emerges.  Creativity is about bringing those ideas out of your head and making them more tangible. They do not always take form sufficiently to become a creation, because many creative ideas are abandoned along the way. The child formulating those ideas becomes distracted, loses focus, is constrained or stopped from carrying the creative process through. 

Teachers should offer young children plenty of time and space to explore ideas within an enabling environment. You should stand back sufficiently to notice what intrigues, confuses and inspires the young children you are working with, so that any intervention occurs from a closer understanding of children’s creativity.