The Floor is Lava! - Activity Instructions

Preparation

Set up the yard with a variety of equipment close to your room and with the treasure chest on the far side of the yard. Children will need to manipulate the equipment so they can reach the treasure chest.

Tune In

Play a game of ‘The Floor Is Lava’ using this clip

Floor Is Lava Song - THE KIBOOMERS Preschool Songs (youtube.com/watch?v=wbNAiN8FTfc)

This song encourages children to move their bodies in a variety of ways (dancing, wiggling, tiptoeing, crawling) and then to use problem-solving skills to ensure they are off the floor at certain times throughout the song.

Throughout the game, encourage the children based on the different skills they are demonstrating:

I love the way you are using your strong leg muscles to tiptoe around the room
All that crawling needs strong shoulders and strong core muscles.
What an interesting idea you had to sit up there to get out of the lava
I love your creative dance moves.

Find Out

Set the scene for the following activity. For our next activity is going to need lots of different skills. We are going to need:

great imaginations
strong arms for moving things
lots of teamwork
problem-solving skills
creative ideas
resilience and persistence to try again.

Put your hand up if you think you have some of those skills and can help out our team with a very big problem we have out in the yard.

Inform children of the ‘imaginary’ problem that has occurred out in the yard and the role they will play in solving the problem. “Our yard outside has all turned to lava! We can’t put our feet on the ground outside, or our feet will melt into the lava. There’s something very special on the other side of the yard, but I don’t know how we are going to get it without going into the lava. Can you all help me?”

Take Action

Take the children outside, where there is a variety of equipment available that can be manipulated to assist them in getting to the other side of the yard without touching the ground.

Give the children the time and space to see what equipment is available and use their interpersonal skills. They will need to work together to share ideas and to move the equipment to help them achieve their goal of getting to the other side of the yard.

The available equipment might include

wooden beams and mats (will require multiple children working together to move them)
tyres (moving tyres is heavy work that can engage children's proprioception input and can aid children in regulating sensory input)
Scooter boards (with only a few scooter boards but multiple children, they might recognise the need to return the scooter boards to where they started, resulting in problem-solving and using equipment in ways other than its intended use, such as using skipping ropes to pull the boards back for the next child).

Throughout the activity, thank children for their individual contributions to the team's effort (e.g., their ideas, physical contributions, encouragement, and team morale) and link their experience back to the way the Sprites had to work together to reach the Heart Flower.

The Floor is Lava!

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Summary

Activity Type

Target Age

Activity guides and printables

Activity Details

Skills

Curriculum Mapping

Resources Required

In this activity