Background information

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

Children might need quite involved, explicit demonstrations in order to understand how to move the hula hoops - at least in the beginning.

Activity outline

Step 1.

Split children into pairs. Give each pair two hula hoops.

Step 2.

Explain that the floor is lava! The hula hoops are safe stones. You can move the hula hoops by picking them up, but not when you’re standing on one, or else you’ll fall into the lava!

Step 3.

Children have to cross the river of lava to the other side using stepping stones.

If you’re not using a basketball court, it might help to place some sort of treasure or token at one end of the open space so that children have an objective that they need to collect before coming back to where they started.

Step 4.

Demonstrate for children how they will both have to stand in one hula hoop while they move the second hula hoop from behind to in front of them, then hop into that one, before repeating the movement.

Step 5.

You can also do this activity as one big group.

Start with as many hula hoops as you have kids, plus one.

This time only one child is allowed in each hula hoop. You create one big snaking line of hula hoops. The last person in line will have to pick up the last hula hoop that doesn’t have anyone in it and pass it up the line before everyone moves forward one step.

Step 6.

Finally, have all your children stand in a circle and hold hands.

Break the chain in one place, put a hula hoop around one child’s arm, and have them hold hands with their buddy to complete the circle once again.

Step 7.

The objective of this game is to get the hula hoop all the way around the circle back to where it started, without anyone letting go of their friend’s hands. This will be tricky! Children will have to step through the hula hoop, then get it over their heads. These are challenging movements when you don’t have the ability to use your hands!

This will work best if you’re in the middle of the circle helping quite a bit to guide the hula hoop over and around little bodies.

Step 8.

Finish up by giving everyone a hula hoop and trying to spin it on your hips. Who can get the most rotations?

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

Floor is Lava - Physical Movement Game

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Activity Details

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