Submitted by Andrea Cope, Texas
Idea posted February 14, 2003
Question: How do I get more use out of those cool bean bags? Any tried and true bean bag activities for the K-3 crowd?
Answer: Using "Tideo," we sit in a circle on the floor. Once they can pass a single bag on the beat, I slowly add in more bags, one at a time. When they can handle that, I start adding them in both directions around the circle. When it seems about to disintegrate into complete, laughing out loud chaos, I pull the bean bags one at a time as they get to me. I try to time it so all bags are pulled in time to sing the final chorus with hand motions and finger snaps. By the way, when they're first learning to pass on the beat, we sing to match the actual passing beat. We slow down when the passer does and speed up when the passer does. They find that frustrating enough to concentrate harder.