Animal Hearts: Fast and Slow

Kids move like fast and slow animals and, when they stop, put a hand on their chest to feel their heartbeat and on their tummy to feel their breathing. Kids notice what happens inside their body, tell excited from calm, and learn to settle themselves.

How to play

1. Sitting in a circle, everyone puts a hand on their chest: "Your heart lives here. Can you feel it? Thump, thump, slowly." And on the tummy: "It goes up and down when you breathe" (2 min).
2. Fast tambourine: "We're bunnies!" Everyone hops around the space for one minute.
3. Tambourine stops: everyone sits, hand on chest. "How is the bunny's heart?" Kids pat fast on their thighs to show it (1 min).
4. Slow tambourine: "We're turtles!" Kids crawl slowly on hands and knees, then stop and feel a calmer heart (2 min).
5. Alternate fast animals (horse, puppy) and slow ones (elephant, snail), always stopping to listen to heart and tummy (6 min).
6. Finish: lying down like a sleeping bear, hand on tummy, kids feel it rise and fall until they are calm (2 min).

Rules

• Fast animals run without bumping and look ahead.
• When the tambourine stops, sit and listen to your body.
• Each child listens to their own heart.
• If you get really tired, you can be a slow animal.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: fast animals use arms and trunk from the wheelchair, matching the tambourine beat.
• Hearing loss: the teacher shows fast or slow with her arm as well as the tambourine.
• Different skill levels: kids who tire early choose gentler animals; skilled kids do frog jumps in fast parts.

Learning goals

• Feel their heartbeat and breathing in their own body.
• Tell the difference between excited and calm states.
• Match movement speed to a sound signal.

Equipment for a class of 25

• tambourine: 1

Teacher tip

Three-year-olds sometimes can't feel the beat: show them the neck or let them rest a hand on your chest. Keep fast parts very short, one minute at most.

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