Background information

Learning goals:

This activity is all about knowing our bodies, exploring the limits of our movement, and moving our bodies carefully, specifically, and in a controlled way.

Notes on child development:

Play is crucial to the development of children’s gross and fine motor skills. Through play, children practice and perfect control and coordination of large body movements, as well as small movements of hands and fingers. Gross motor skills involve control of the arms, legs, head, and trunk. Fine motor skills involve the careful control of small muscles in the hands, feet, fingers, and toes. Controlling the muscles of the tongue and lips in order to speak or sing is also a fine motor skill. Find out more here.

Everyday moments can be fun learning opportunities for children. Pretending, creating and helping allows children to discover new things. Play helps children learn about themselves and where they fit in the world. Evidence shows that play can support learning across physical, social, emotional and intellectual areas of development. Find out more here.

Educator notes:

For some reason, children always want Simon Says to be an elimination game - until they’re eliminated, where they quickly lose interest. There’s no need to use the phrase ‘Simon Says’. Just say, “Who can…”

Activity Outline

Step 1.

Have the children spread out in the space so that they have some room to move.

We recommend being outside, in the sun and amongst nature.

Step 2.

Ask children (we highly recommend following this list in order):

Who can…

touch their nose?
touch their knees?
touch their toes?
touch their elbows?
touch something red/blue/yellow?
touch someone’s shoes?
give someone a high-five?

roll their tongue? Not everyone can do this! And that’s okay. It’s not a matter of effort, it’s a matter of genetics.
lick their elbow? No one should be able to do this! But that doesn’t mean it’s not fun to try.
lick their nose?

stand on one leg?
stand on the other leg?
stand on no legs! There might be some inventive solutions to this one!

make themselves as small as possible? This is different from just being short. You have to curl up in a ball! Praise kids who are giving it a real go - “Wow! That’s so small!
make themselves as tall as possible? Stretch to the ceiling on your tippy-toes!
make themselves as big as possible! This is a real challenge. Do you go tall, or wide?

pat their tummy?
pat their head?
rub their tummy and pat their head? You’ll probably have to demonstrate.
pat their tummy and rub their head? A change-up! Don’t get bamboozled now your brain is stuck in a certain pattern!

move as slow as possible? Even slower than that. So slow you’re barely moving!
freeze as still as possible? Wait for as long as you dare!
run on the spot as fast as possible! Fast fast fast go!

give someone a smile?
give someone a high five?

Step 3.

You might nominate some children to suggest their own movement challenges for the class.

Is there something that they can do that other children can’t, such as a cartwheel?

Evaluation

Complete analysis of learning, listing evidence about:

Belonging	Finding something of interest
Communication	Expressing an idea or feeling
Exploration	Engaging with challenge and persisting when difficulty arises
Wellbeing	Being involved

Simon Says Move! - Game - Physical Movement

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Summary

Activity guides and printables

In this activity