Recess

I did the following game on the last day of class, once with 4-5 year olds, once with an Alpha-Beta class and once with a Beta-Gamma-Delta. The tots went along with it and had fun, and the BGDs seemed to like it but the A-Bs absolutely rocked it. I've been doing this for a while, but this group of kids came up with some new stuff to do. I love it when the kids do my work for me.

The idea is to come up with ways to mime playground equipment on the ice.

Swing
Rocking Horses- one swizzle forward, one back. If you do the forward swizzle larger than the backward one, this will travel across the ice. Add swinging arms for effect.

Slide (F&B)
High-stepping marches (up the ladder), slowly sink into a dip (down the slide).

Merry go round
"Teacup" spins-- two person spread eagle around a common center.

Hop scotch
Jumping swizzles-- give a couple of pushes to get going, two foot glide, then jump to feet apart, jump to feet together, all the way down the ice. More advanced skaters could jump to one foot glides as well.

Sand box
Different stops (scrape up "sand" or in our case, snow)

Tire swing
Forward skating to small spread-eagle turns

See saw (F&B)
Couple of pushes for speed, then dip low, stand up, repeat until you get all the way across. Advanced skaters do it with a partner, one forward, one backward, one up, one down.

Tow line
Lunges with arms stretched overhead

Monkey bars
Couple of pushes for speed, then wide-leg dip and pull yourself across the ice with your hands. For little kids, just mime monkey bars with your hands while doing high-stepping marches.

Balance beam
One foot glides, with different leg positions