Crunch, Crunch: Stomping Dry Leaves
Children walk over a big carpet of dry leaves, making them crunch in lots of different ways: giant steps, tiptoes, shuffling feet, and little hops. It gets bodies moving and explores different ways of traveling while listening to the sound each one makes.
How to play
- Before starting, the teacher spreads the leaves into a big carpet and everyone sits to listen to how one leaf sounds when you crumple it (1 min).
- Walk across the leaves with regular steps and listen for the "crunch, crunch" (1 min).
- Loud giant steps, then quiet little mouse steps on tiptoe (1 min).
- Shuffle your feet like street sweepers and push the leaves to the sides (1 min).
- Two-foot bunny hops all over the carpet; when the drum sounds, freeze (1 min).
- Crawl on hands and knees to push all the leaves back into the middle (1 min).
Rules
- Leaves stay on the ground. We don't throw them at faces.
- I look where I'm going so I don't bump anyone.
- When the drum sounds, I freeze like a statue.
- If I find something sharp or strange, I tell the teacher.
Variations
Easier
For 3-year-olds, just regular, giant, and mouse steps, with the teacher modeling up front.
Standard
For 4-year-olds, all the ways of walking plus freezing on the drum.
Harder
For 5-year-olds, the teacher calls "no noise now" or "lots of noise now," and each child chooses how to move to make it happen.
Adaptations
- Limited mobility: spread some leaves on a smooth area so the child can roll through in a wheelchair or walker and hear them crunch under the wheels.
- Autism: if the crunching is too much, start with leaves in a cloth bag to crumple by hand and join when ready.
- Hearing loss: signal the freeze by holding a big leaf up high as well as using the drum.
Learning goals
- Explore different ways of moving.
- Connect how hard you step with the sound it makes.
- Warm up the body gradually.
Equipment for a class of 25
- dry leaves
- hand drum: 1
Teacher tip
Check the area first and remove small twigs, pebbles, or litter. Collect the leaves on a dry day: wet leaves don't crunch and they're slippery.
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