Preschool Motor Group Structure

Click picture to open YouTube playlist

The preschool teachers at my school are amazing, the work they do with these young minds to get them prepared for school is sensational. However, when it comes to motor group, it is hard to know what to do when you don’t have a PE background. Motor group often just looks like free time, and as an Adapted PE teacher when I come and screen the kids to see if they will need adapted PE services when entering Kindergarten, it often becomes overwhelming to decipher what they can and can’t do. Not many 4 or 5 years-olds gallop by choice, and can they follow a PE routine? It’s hard to tell.

Ms. Sanela, came to me and asked if her preschool  class could join in on one of our small group classes one day, they came and they were absolutely awesome, they participated in the routine with enthusiasm and were even models for skills. What I realized is children thrive on structure, and how to behave in a PE class is something we could be teaching these kids for in preschool, so when they get to Kindergarten they are ready raring to go and become leaders and to teach the new kids how to behave and to perform skills in PE.

I have already curated a playlist for my small group A.P.E. class , which is a rigorous 12 minutes of exercise that has me sweating when I participate. So I decided to make another for preschool motor groups, this playlist is a collection of 6 locomotor movements to be performed around cones around the gym, and 7 static exercises all by the PE Chef, with transitions and schedule provided by myself. The playlist comes equipped with instructions for setup, preschool teachers would just need to organize with the PE teacher to have use of a projector during their motor group time. The playlist takes between 8-9 minutes to complete once started, the playlist will work on locomotor movements, cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, flexibility, as well as some basic language arts and mathematics. Finally, the group play time could be free choice or an organized activity based on teacher preferences.

Teachers can also make their own playlists on YouTube by clicking the Save button (near  the thumbs up and down) creating a new playlist and adding whatever videos they like to it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Would love to hear peoples thoughts on this, if you can leave a comment below or tweet me at @DIGITtheAPE