Locomotor Highway

The blacktop becomes a highway with four lanes, and each lane uses a different way of traveling: gallop, skip, slide or jog backward. Students learn and compare the fundamental locomotor patterns.

How to play

1. Use cones to mark 4 parallel lanes about 65 feet long and post a picture card at the start of each: horse (gallop), bunny (skip), crab (slide) and shrimp (backward).
2. Teach each movement in place and then over 15 feet (4 min).
3. Make 4 lines of 6 at the lane entrances; two go every 5 seconds, travel their lane and walk back outside to the next lane (6 min).
4. Add traffic signs (3 min): green means fast, yellow means slow and red means stop and balance on one foot.
5. Finish (2 min) by asking which movement was fastest and which was hardest.

Rules

• Stay in your own lane without drifting into the next one.
• In the backward lane, look over your shoulder and go slowly.
• Pass only on the left and without touching.
• Walk back along the outside of the highway.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: a personal lane with speed changes and turns in a wheelchair, following the same signs.
• Visual impairment: lane marked with a rope on the ground and a buddy alongside.
• Fitness level: students who need lower intensity travel one way and rest on the way back.

Learning goals

• Tell apart the gallop, skip, slide and backward jog.
• Adjust speed to signals.
• Follow shared traffic rules.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 16
• picture cards: 7

Teacher tip

Kids often mix up galloping and skipping: clap a da-da-DUM rhythm. Stand at the end of the lanes to see technique from the front.

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