Moves Our Grown-Ups Bring

Each grown-up teaches the group a move from their life or homeland (kneading bread, rowing, hanging laundry, milking, sweeping, a dance step from their country), and everyone repeats it to the tambourine beat. We warm up the whole body while learning where our families come from and what they do.

How to play

1. Make a big circle, alternating kids and grown-ups; the teacher starts with a move: "This is how my grandma kneaded bread" (1 min).
2. Taking turns, a grown-up steps into the middle, says in one sentence where the move comes from, and does it slowly (2 min).
3. The whole circle copies it to the tambourine: slow first, then fast (1 min).
4. Keep going with more grown-ups until there are five or six different moves (1 min).
5. The teacher calls the moves one after another and everyone links them without stopping, like a dance routine (1 min).
6. Finish by doing each child's favorite move very, very slowly, in slow motion (1 min).

Rules

• Watch the person teaching and copy them.
• Fast tambourine, fast moves; slow tambourine, slow moves.
• Every move counts, from near or far away.
• We clap for whoever goes to the middle.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: do the moves with arms and trunk, sitting in the circle.
• Hearing impairment: also show the beat by raising and lowering a hand where everyone can see it.
• Shy families or those who don't speak English: they can teach the move without words, and the teacher names it.

Learning goals

• Wake up the whole body with big, varied movements.
• Learn about the jobs, chores and dances of the families in the group.
• Match movement speed to the tambourine beat.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Tambourine

Teacher tip

A few days ahead, ask two or three families to think of a move so nobody freezes on the spot. Make sure it isn't always the same grown-up and that moves come from different cultures and jobs.

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