Objective
In this game, the children practise various motor skills through imitating movements related to a skiing trip, which the adult takes us on through a story.
Instructions
The adult takes the children on a ‘pretend skiing trip’ where the children and the adult carry out the movements portrayed in the story. One example of a story is: “We can find lots of exciting things to do in the winter when snow and ice are on the ground…”
| Story: | Movement: |
| We can go skiing. We can ski across a long plain. We can use the poles to get there. | Everyone will be given a carpet tile to stand on, with the carpet side facing the floor. Whilst standing on the carpet tiles, we are going to walk across the floor in a diagonal direction. Use your arms. |
| We arrive at a long downhill slope. Here we can stand in a hockey position and whiz down very fast. | Stand in a deep hockey position. Lower your knees and swing your bottom from side to side. |
| At the bottom of the slope, we can double pole to keep the high speed. It goes really fast. | Use the arms to grip the poles firmly. Bend and stretch out your knees. |
| We can go slalom skiing. We turn from side to side down the slope. | We twist from side to side. Deep knee bends. |
| We arrive at a steep slope. Here we must jump from side to side to reduce the speed. | Do twist jumps from side to side. Deep knee bends. |
| We are going to ski jump. To do this, we have to go to the top of the slope. We get ready, make an effort. One-to-three, we get up to the right speed and jump. We land in style. | Climb up on a bench. Bend your knees, place your arms on your back pushing your upper body forward. Count together and jump with an arm swing onto the floor. You could land in Telemark. |
Variation
- Instead of going on a skiing trip, you could go ice skating. Ice skating movements are then to the story.
- You could also go toboggan sledging, which entails the children sitting on the carpet tiles and pushing themselves forwards with their legs; or they could lie on their stomachs and push themselves forwards with their hands.
Equipment
Carpet tiles (or two cleaning cloths for each child)
Bench
Or: with or without skis or ice skates outdoors