Big Brush House Painters
With a pretend paintbrush, kids paint a giant house: the walls top to bottom, the ceiling on tiptoes, the floor with their feet and circles with their elbows. It's a gentle joint-mobility warm-up full of imitation and imagination.
How to play
- Kids spread out, each facing a pretend wall. Say: "Today we're painters. Everyone has a giant brush and a bucket of paint."
- Dip the brush: squat, dunk it in the bucket and twist the wrist to wring it out. Repeat before each part.
- Paint the wall: top to bottom with a long arm, on tiptoes and then squatting. First one hand, then the other. A minute and a half.
- Paint the ceiling: on tiptoes, arms up, side to side. Paint the floor: use a foot as the brush for big circles, then the other foot. A minute and a half.
- Paint with your body: circles with the elbows, knees and hips, like they're brushes. A minute and a half.
- Finish: shake out the brush with your whole body and wipe your hands. Ask what color everyone painted.
Rules
- Paint in your own space without touching anyone.
- Make moves big and slow.
- Squat down and stand up carefully.
- The paint is pretend: nobody paints anyone else.
Variations
Easier
For 3-year-olds, just the wall and floor, with the teacher painting up front.
Standard
For 4-year-olds, the wall, ceiling, floor and elbows.
Harder
For 5-year-olds, paint shapes the teacher calls (sun, house, wave) with different body parts.
Adaptations
- Limited mobility: paint while seated with arms, head and any parts the child can move.
- Visual impairment: the teacher describes each move and guides with a hand if the child is okay with it.
- More skilled kids paint the floor balancing on one foot; less skilled kids paint with arms only.
Learning goals
- Loosen shoulders, wrists, elbows, knees and hips.
- Act out an everyday task with big movements.
- Explore high, middle and low levels.
Teacher tip
Ask what color each child's paint is: switching colors as you switch body parts keeps attention. Do it yourself up front at the same time.
PatioLab has "Big Brush House Painters" and 4199 more activities ready to drag into your lesson and run from your phone in the gym.
More activities like this
More warm-ups for Elementary
Across-the-Floor Gymnastics Steps
A gymnastics warm-up where students travel across the gym on the diagonal in small waves, using basic steps: tiptoe walk, side gallop, chassé, grapevine, and scissor…
Action Verbs and Adverbs Warm-Up
The teacher calls an action verb and students act it out in their spot; then an adverb is added that changes how it is done, like "row slowly" or "climb sneakily." It…
Active Blind Man's Bluff
A dynamic version of Blind Man's Bluff in which a guide uses only their voice to lead a blindfolded partner to tag classmates moving inside a small area.
Active Corners
Each corner of the space is marked with a cone and an exercise; the teacher calls a corner and students run to it to complete the exercise.
Add-On Dance Circle
In circles of 6, students take turns adding a four-count move, and the group repeats the whole sequence from the beginning with music, building a dance together.
Agility Ladder to the Beat
Quick-feet drills on the agility ladder following the beat of the music: every foot strike lands on a beat, and when the song's tempo goes up, the feet speed up.