The City Turns Off Its Lights

Children are the buildings of a city going to sleep: night falls, the windows go dark one by one and the buildings get smaller until they lie on the floor. A very calm story relaxes the body part by part.

How to play

1. Standing, we're tall skyscrapers with arms reaching up and windows lit (eyes wide open) (1 min).
2. With soft music, night falls: the top windows go dark and arms float down slowly; then the middle windows and shoulders drop (1 min).
3. The bottom windows go dark: bend the knees and sit down very slowly, like a building getting smaller (1 min).
4. The whole city sleeps: lying down with eyes closed, listen to cars passing slowly (the teacher makes a soft “whoosh”) and breathe calmly (2 min).
5. Morning comes: the teacher touches each child's shoulder and they stretch and sit up without hurrying (1 min).

Rules

• The lights go off slowly, no flopping down.
• No talking in the sleeping city.
• Each building stays in its spot.
• We get up when the sun touches us.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: the child relaxes in the chair by lowering arms, shoulders and head, closing the eyes if they want.
• Autism: let the child lie under a blanket or in a quiet corner, and say before touching the shoulder.
• Hearing loss: the teacher shows the lights going off with a clear hand gesture and the sunrise with a soft light.

Learning goals

• Relax the body part by part from top to bottom.
• Notice the feeling of calm after activity.
• Listen to and follow a calm story.

Equipment for a class of 25

• música

Teacher tip

Lower your voice little by little as night falls. If a child doesn't want to close their eyes, they can look at the ceiling. It's a nice goodbye after the city obstacle course.

More activities like this

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