KIDS • GAMES • 4-6 YEARS
Tracks to move the body How to turn your balcony or patio into a playground
By SPREADABLE MAGAZINE
We all need to discharge energy and move the body. Spreadable Magazine proposes you to put together clues for your girl or boy, on your balcony, terrace or patio. You just need colored chalk and a child between 4 and 6 years old who wants to jump and run. You are guaranteed hours of outdoor fun!
Before making the circuits
The space to intervene must be safe (no objects with which the children could hurt themselves if they fall or slip). If the space has railings, check that they are very safe.
How to design them
Super simple: draw with chalk on the floor, or use paper tape (painter).
• Undulating circuits: draw wide undulating shapes with chalk (a good measure is the radius of your arm) that allow you to traverse all available space. Try that the lines are not too close to the walls or railings. For young children (3 years) it is convenient that the curves are open, for older children (4-6 years), you can make more closed curves.
• Paths: make paths with geometric or wavy shapes. They must have a beginning (starting point) and an end (arrival point, which you can represent with a heart, fruit or face). Ideal for small spaces.
• Labyrinths : for the bigger ones, you can draw a labyrinth with an entrance and an exit, or with a goal in the center.
• Footsteps: if you have tiles, take advantage of the floor grid. Ask your girl or boy to stand with both feet together, and trace the silhouette of the shoes as a starting point. Then ask him to jump and land with his feet spread wide (without exaggeration). This way you will get the right size. I kept tracing every move.
• Rings: draw circles, so they can jump as if they were stepping on rocks in a river. Or draw flowers, and let them jump like a bee, from flower to flower.
Complexity levels
• Depending on the age or characteristics of the boy or girl, you can add challenges: arrows that indicate directions, or colors that allow different routes of the same circuit (for example, tread only the yellow color, and not the green color).
• When you have closed shapes (circles, rectangles, triangles), play with slogans like inside/outside.
• The little girls and boys (2-4 years old) can use the circuits as tracks for the little cars.
• The older ones (6-7 years old) can do more complex circuits, with areas where they can do a roll, walk backwards, roll, jump with one foot. Set up "stations" within the circuit where they can stop and change the slogan. Indicate them with words: "ROLL FORWARD", "WALK BACK".
#UntableTips
• Use always sneakers.
• Get the kids involved. You can go Going over the shapes you are making with a different colored chalk.
• Children like nothing more than to see (and film) their parents showing how to play . Let's move the body! Minimum 1 full demo tour.
• Decorate the circuits with themed drawings : the sea (fish, waves, corals, crabs, sharks, watch out!); the city (little houses, buildings, cars, traffic lights); the mountain (rivers, stones, trees, animals).
• If you use painter's tape, remember that the next day it is difficult to remove You should remove it the same day, after playing.
• These clues can keep children entertained with a certain autonomy. Take the opportunity to read other notes from Untable Magazine from your cell phone!
Photos: SPREADABLE MAGAZINE.