Stirring the Wizard's Cauldron

Standing in a circle around a hoop that becomes the cauldron, children stir an imaginary potion with different body parts and toss in ingredients by jumping. It warms up the joints in an orderly, playful way.

How to play

1. Circle around the hoop: the wizard-teacher explains we're brewing the movement potion (1 min).
2. Stir with one arm, then the other, then both, making big circles (1 min).
3. Stir with your hips: hands on waist, circling one way and then the other (1 min).
4. Stir with knees together, then with your ankles, one foot at a time (1 min).
5. Add ingredients: a frog jump, a kangaroo hop and a bat spin, then everyone blows on the cauldron (1 min).
6. One drum beat means the potion is ready: we "drink" it and feel our bodies wake up (1 min).

Rules

• Nobody steps into the cauldron: it's hot!
• We stir slowly so it doesn't splash.
• We all add our ingredient at the same time.
• When the drum sounds, the potion is ready.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: stir with arms, head and trunk; ingredients go in with claps.
• Visual impairment: stand next to the teacher, who guides the movement hand-over-hand the first time.
• Autism: give the child the job of "drum keeper" who announces the potion is ready, a clear and predictable moment.

Learning goals

• Loosen up shoulders, hips, knees and ankles.
• Follow an orderly top-to-bottom sequence.
• Coordinate a movement with the rest of the circle.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Large hoop: 1
• Hand drum: 1

Teacher tip

Set the hoop in the middle before they come in: a cauldron already waiting really hooks them. Model each circle slowly first; the classic mistake is stirring at top speed and getting dizzy, so say "stir like it's honey."

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