Painting the House with Elbows and Knees

Children pretend to paint an imaginary house: the high walls with their elbows, the low walls with their knees, and the floor by sliding their feet. They practice noticing and moving less familiar body parts while warming up the whole body.

How to play

1. Sitting in a circle, the teacher explains that today we are house painters, but we forgot our brushes, so we'll paint with our bodies! (1 min).
2. Standing up, we dip an elbow into an imaginary paint can and paint the wall in front of us from top to bottom, one elbow, then the other (1 min).
3. We squat down and paint the bottom of the wall with our knees, making small and big circles (1 min).
4. We paint the floor by sliding our feet all around the room like mops, without bumping into anyone (1 min).
5. The teacher calls out a body part (shoulder, bottom, head, heel) and everyone paints the nearest wall with it (1 min).
6. We step back to admire our freshly painted house, stretch up to the ceiling, and blow on it to help it dry (1 min).

Rules

• Paint your own piece of wall, not your friends.
• Pretend paint doesn't splash: move your elbow and knee gently.
• When the teacher says "Brushes freeze!" we stop.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: a child in a wheelchair paints with elbows, shoulders, and head on an imaginary wall at their height.
• Autism: preview picture cards of the body parts in the order they'll be used, and keep the same order every time.
• Hearing loss: the teacher points to the body part on themselves before saying it, and shows an open palm for "Brushes freeze!"

Learning goals

• Recognize and name elbows, knees, shoulders, and heels.
• Move individual body parts separately.
• Warm up the body gradually at the start of the session.

Teacher tip

Exaggerate the painter moves (dip, wipe, paint), since that's what kids copy most. A common mistake is dropping hard onto the knees, so remind them that knees paint softly, like a brush.

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