After warm-up in my preschool gymnastics classes (and sometimes in dance, too), I do a conditioning portion of class. One of our all-time favorites is “Animal Conditioning. Each animal has a picture in my bag. One at a time, students pick a picture out of my bag and we do that animal’s movement across the floor. I usually say, “When I say go, crawl like a snake (waddle like a penguin, hop on one foot like a flamingo, etc.) all the way to me. Give me a high five, then go back to the red line (starting line)”. Then I make any student who left before I said “Go!” return to the starting line and wait for the cue. Here are the animals!
Get the free printable here.
Turtles move down low and slow. How slowly can you crawl all the way to me?
Snakes slither on their bellies. Can you crawl like a snake?
My favorite kinds of penguins are fairy penguins (crouch down low) and emperor penguins (stand as tall as you can). Fairy penguins are the smallest kind of penguin. How small can you get? Emperor penguins are the biggest kind of penguin. How big can you get? Test their memories by calling out: Fairy! Emperor! Fairy! Emperor! Emperor! Fairy! etc. When you say Fairy!, they should crouch down low into a tucked position. When you say Emperor!, they should get on tip toes with arms up in a v.
Then, waddle like a penguin all the way to me! Give me a high five, then go back to the start.
Horses love to gallop quickly. Show me gallops with your knees up high. Then, try straight legged gallops (or chasses).
Giraffes are tall with very long legs. Show me your tallest walk with straightest legs. You can also do this one on the balance beam.
Frogs jump up from the ground very high into the air. Can you frog jump all the way down the mat?
Flamingos love to stand on one leg. Can you stand on one leg and count to ten with me? Can you do it on the other leg? Can you hop on one leg all the way to me, give me a high five, then go back to the red line?
Dolphins jump up out of the water and dive back in. Let’s practice dive rolls over a mat. Or, instead of dive rolls, you can jump up tall, then dive down to touch the floor with your hands.
Crabs walk quickly across the hot, hot sand. Can you show me fast tip-toe feet down the mat? Remember, no running! Can you crab walk on hands and feet all the way down the mat?
Caterpillars crawl on sticks and twigs with all their little feet. Can you crawl with your hands and feet all the way down the balance beam? Don’t fall off!
Butterflies go flying from flower to flower. Can you do butterfly skips around the room until the music stops? (Butterfly skips for us are: one regular skip, one skip with leg straight in back, a.k.a. saute passe and saute arabesque, and we move our arms open and close like butterfly wings).
Bears love to climb mountains. Can you bear walk (crawl without knees touching the ground) all the way up and down these wedge mats?
And, for extra fun, here are printable coloring pages for all the animals!
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