GRADE

TOPIC

UNIT

PreK

Lesson 5 – Near/Far

Games

 Equipment Needed

• 12 -18 Cones or boundary markers
• 24 vinyl spots or place markers
• Music
• Music player/speaker
• Boundary Station Cards
• Stop Sign and Go Sign, Near & Far Station Cards
• Hoops
• PPT slides,
• Projector (onto wall)/TV
• Content Standard Benchmarks or Common Core Standards

Learning Goals, Objectives, Expected Outcomes

Psychomotor

1. move safely among other children as they travel through space.
2. travel within the designated boundaries.
3. stop when given verbal, audio, or visual commands.
4. demonstrate the concepts of near and far.
5. move near and far; related to boundaries, equipment and people.

Cognitive

1. describe the concepts of near and far.

Affective

1. Have Fun

ACTIVITY

PROCEDURE AND TRANSITIONS WITH

MODIFICATIONS AND OR ACCOMMODATIONS

SETUP

DESCRIPTION OR DIAGRAM

Entrance Routine

This entrance routine is specific to your school community.

Part 1

Warm-up/Review

Set up your activity space with the cones and spots as boundaries.

Introduce the hoops to the children, and teach or review this vocabulary: travel, stop, and freeze, Near & Far. Always show an item as you talk about it.

Safety

Review the safety rule: Play Safe. See if any of the children remember it from a previous lesson. Today’s lesson teaches the children that following directions for moving and stopping will help them be safe.  Look where you are going, travel to open spaces and Stop immediately and put the equipment on the ground.  These are all ways that the children can demonstrate they are being safe.

Travel Stop Review

Warm up with traveling through open space, inside the boundaries and stopping on the signal. Remind the children that when you say “travel” it means; move around to all the places inside the boundaries. “Stop or Freeze”, (another word for stop; a good word for stopping because when something is frozen, it cannot move) means; stop moving or stop what you are doing immediately and look at the teacher; stay right where you are. Note that stopping on command is not an option; it must be done for the safety of each child.

Encourage the children to find different ways to travel. After you have practiced traveling and stopping with a voice command, review Travel Stop with music using equipment! This week you will use hoops for the first time. Introduce the hoops then travel and stop using the hoops to practice stopping and putting the hoop on the ground during instruction.

Connections

Practice using the terms near and far wherever you can relate the concepts during the school day.

Reinforce color concepts like Primary colors (Red, Yellow and Blue) and Secondary colors (Orange, Purple and Green) or Complimentary colors (Blue/Orange, Yellow/Purple, Red/Green) when defining the near and far problems for the children. For example: Put your hoop near a hoop that is a complimentary color to your hoop.

On a walk or out in public; ask the children to travel so that they stay near you. Compliment them when they are staying near to you. This will demonstrate to the children what your parameters are regarding NEAR. When you feel that a child is moving FAR from you, explain that is FAR from you and you want them to be NEAR to you. Staying Near to you in public places is SAFE.

Practice using the terms near and far wherever you can relate the concepts during the school day.

Differentiation Strategy

When the music stops you will see the children who freeze away from everyone, still in the boundaries. Point out the how they have frozen away from others, explain they are moving away from everyone, and that is why, when they freeze they are far from everyone else.

Encourage the children who quickly grasp the concept to demonstrate creative shapes inside their hoops.

Part 2

New skill or concept

Near & Far

“When I say go, I would like you to get a hoop and travel with your hoop until I say freeze. Remember to drop the hoop and stand inside it when you stop moving.” After everyone has a hoop and is traveling around the space, freeze the children.

Choose one specific cone from around the boundaries and point it out to the children. If possible, put the word “Near” on the cone. Ask one child to travel with their hoop and stand right next to it. Point out that next to, close to, and by, are other ways to say near. The child is standing in their hoop, near the cone.

(If Possible, have enough cones around the boundaries so each child can go to a different cone.) “When I say go, find a spot near one of our boundary cones. Once you find a spot near a cone, put your hoop on the ground and stand inside it. “You can ask them to find a cone to be near to that matches the color of their hoop.”

Once everyone has found a spot near a cone and is standing in their hoop, tell the children: “This time when I say go, take your hoop and place it near a different boundary cone.”

Continue doing this a few more times. Ask the children to find a cone they haven’t stood near to each time they travel to a new cone. Give the students a task to do inside their hoop once they have found a space next to a cone. The children who find a cone quickly will have something to do while they wait.  Additionally you will be working on sequencing.

“Safely travel with your hoop over to me.” Choose one specific cone from around the boundaries and point it out to the children. If possible, SHOW the word and picture of the girl standing “Far”. Point out to the class that the child is standing Far from the cone. That means she is standing away from the cone, which is the opposite of Near. Look at where we are sitting, far from the cones! When I say go, find a place to put your hoop, far from the cones inside our boundaries. (show the children a station card with the hoops spread around in the gym as a visual example) Once you find a place, put your hoop down on the ground and stand in it.”

Do this task a couple times. Again, giving the children a task to do inside or around their hoop to show they are ready.

“This time see if you can find a spot far from the boundaries and far from other hoops!

Teaching Tip

It is a good teaching practice to praise the children that listen and follow directions. It will make them feel successful and will provide the other children a practical cue as to what is expected of them.

As you instruct and teach, be sure to move in the order in which the activities are presented so that concepts and skills are being learned in the desired sequence.

Describe the types of traveling you see and want to reinforce. You can also name types of travel you want to see tried.

You may need to put a time limit on finding a spot far from the cones. A simple count down after the signal to go will do the trick.

As the children travel, give a lot of specific praise to those who are traveling safely and respecting others’ spaces.

The near and far concepts are prerequisites for learning about “own space” in the next lesson.

Assessment Strategies

As your children solve the problems you set in the lesson, observe them to see that they are physically demonstrating Near and Far in relation to the boundaries/cones.

As the children are moving, watch to see that they are all using at least three different ways of traveling and freezing. These do not have to be difficult ways, just different; walk, run, crawl are three different ways of traveling that are all possible for three-year-olds.

Watch to see that the children are traveling safely by looking where they are going. See that they travel away from others.

Part 3

Practice

“This time you have to find a spot Far from the cones in five seconds.  I’ll count the seconds for you.  Try to find your spot by the time I get to zero!  Ready? Go, Five, Four, Three, Two, One and Zero!”

Continue having the children find places to put the hoops inside the boundaries that are near and far from the boundary cones.

Change part of the task each time by asking the children to change the way they travel, or change the shape they make in the hoop, etc.

Assessment Strategies

Observe the children to see that they are able to demonstrate an understanding of near and far by solving the challenges you present.

Part 4

Stretching & closure

Review