Planning: Physical: Activity
Theme: The Circus/Carnival
Activity
Skills/Development Matters
Criteria
Walk The Tight rope:
Lay out several lengths of rope or washing line along the floor.
Explain to the children that at the circus there are tight rope walkers and give a brief, fun
explanation of what they do.
Encourage the children to walk along the rope following its path to reach the other side,
stimulating their imagination and encouraging role play.
Some children may also be able to walk backwards or sideways.
To extend this activity, see if the children can do ‘tricks’ along the route e.g. stand
on one leg, jump forward, turn around.
Also, lay the ropes out in shapes/letters/numbers to walk on/around and discuss.
Skills: Balancing, walking, jumping,
Extension of the tight rope activity:
Put food models on the floor that the children have to pick up whilst practicing a
skill/physical movement. They could then hop to the item and pick it up, jump to an item
and pick it up, take giant steps to the item and pick it up, try walking sideways etc.
Walk along the tight rope with a bag, how many food models can they collect.
Skills: Balancing, walking, jumping,
Circus Tent:
Use a parachute and invite all the children to hold it at its edge.
With the parachute lowered, encourage the children to raise their arms (and the chute) as
high as possible.
Once the parachute is high, on a signal, all take 3-4 big steps underneath the parachute
(depending on its size), towards the centre.
Still holding the parachute tightly, children sit down at the edge of the chute, under what
should appear to be a circus tent.
Provides a nice environment to discuss/talk about the circus.
Repeat as many times as requested/wanted.
Skills: Standing, sitting, stretching,
holding, handling, height, moving at
the same time, following rules,
interacting, engaging.
Merry Go Round:
Skills: Walking, hopping, jumping,
rotating, stepping, changing
direction (shapes/numbers/letters).
rotating, stepping, changing
direction (shapes/numbers/letters).
Use a parachute and invite all the children to hold it at its edge.
Encourage the children to turn their bodies so that the chute is held with only one hand.
(ensure that the children are all facing the same way)
Walk, hop, jump, or skip around holding the chute, encouraging the children to choose the
movements.
It looks like a merry-go-round!
Simple and effective pulse raiser.
skipping, leaping, holding, handling,
moving at the same time, speed.
.
Juggling:
Have the children juggle with one bean bag. (throw up and catch).
Start off by encouraging them to only throw it up to eye level.
Increase the height of throw if eye level is proving too simple.
If they master that, see if they can do it with two bean bags!
Encourage the children to count how many times they catch the bean bag (age/ability
applicable)
Skills: Throwing, catching, spatial
awareness, holding, carrying.
Bean Bag Bucket Toss:
Supply each child with a bean bag.
Place a bucket/buckets (use hula hoops if buckets aren’t available) on the floor.
Use chalk to create a throw line (the distance from the bucket/hoop to the line should start
at roughly one metre but can vary on age and ability).
Have the children throw the bean bags into the basket.
Talk about what type of throw should/can be used (underarm/overarm etc.)
Skills: Throwing, aiming, reaching.
Bean Bag Toss: Feed the clown, lion, bear etc
Draw a large clown face (or another circus themed person/animal) on a piece of cardboard
with its mouth wide open.
Cut out the mouth so you have a hole large enough to toss the bean bags through.
Place the clown face on the floor, tape between 2 chairs or get a member of staff to hold up.
Each child then has a chance to toss the bean bags into the clown’s mouth.
You could substitute the bean bags for food models from your home corner (or use soft
fabric food models if available) to extend the healthy eating links. This would also challenge
the children with different sized objects. Discuss with the children what foods the clown
likes to eat.
Have several clown faces with different sized mouths to challenge the children on their
throwing and aiming skills.
You could substitute the clown face for a lion, bear or other circus animals.
Skills: Throwing, aiming, reaching.
Lion, Lion, BEAR!!!:
Played like "Duck, Duck, Goose" except the children will go around the circle and say "lion"
instead of "duck" and "bear" instead of "goose."
Substitute bear for other circus animals e.g. elephant, zebra, snake, tiger.
Skills: Running, spatial awareness,
evading, following rules, watching,
taking turns
Encourage the children to think about what animals they may see at the circus.
Clown Costume Race:
Place a selection of circus themed objects or items a clown would wear (raid your role play
cupboard!) into a box/open suitcase (have enough objects for at least one per child.)
At the opposite end of the space you are working in, place another open suitcase/box/hoop
with a picture of a clown in.
Encourage the children to run to the box/case with the items in, collect one item, and then
run back and place it in the other box/case/hoop with the picture of the clown in.
Turn into a relay race if age/ability is appropriate.
Skills: Running, avoiding, carrying,
remembering, exploring.
Lion Tamer:
Set up a hula hoop so it stands up securely (could be leaning against something or hanging
down from something (risk assess).
The children then try to throw a small stuffed lion, tiger or bean bag depending on
resources, through the hoop.
Decorate the hoop with coloured paper to look like flames (could be an activity you do with
the children beforehand.)
Skills: Throwing, aiming.
Circus Snacks:
At snack time, let the children create different edible food faces with a variety of different
foods e.g. clown face
Skills: Assembling, sharing, handling
equipment, imagination and creativity,
self-feeding, washing up, hand
washing.
What you need:
Paper plates
Variety of different food items e.g.
Grated cheese or carrot
Cherry tomato halves
Shredded or sliced carrots
Cucumber slices
Banana cut in half lengthwise
What you do:
Give each child a paper plate. Ask them to make clown faces using the different food items.
Have them add shredded carrots or the grated cheese to the tops for hair.
What other healthy circus snacks can you serve?
Plain popcorn, breadsticks and/or vegetable sticks and dips or fruity kebabs.
For simple child-friendly recipes visit the Startwell website www.startwellbirmingham.co.uk
and check out the children’s recipes located under the resources tab
Extension of the above activity to create some healthy circus food:
Home-made pizzas etc.
Support the children to prepare pizzas by using various healthy toppings to make the face
of their clown/lion/bear etc. Example ingredients:
• Ready-made mini pizza bases, halved English muffins or the children can make their
own pizza dough from scratch if time.
• Tomato puree/ passata
• Grated cheese
• Sweetcorn nib lets
• Sliced tomatoes
• Sliced peppers
• Pieces of ham or chicken
• Chunks of tuna
• Sliced mushrooms
Skills: Assembling, sharing, handling
equipment, imagination and creativity,
self-feeding, washing up, hand
washing.
Encourage the children to try the different ingredients. You can use your Startwell stickers
to praise and reward the children for trying new foods.
For an easy peasy pizza recipe visit the Startwell website www.startwellbirmingham.co.uk
and check out the children’s recipes located under the resources tab.
Active Story Time: Freddy, Fay and Suzy visit the circus.
Encourage the children to use their imaginations to create a physical story (active story
time) about the Startwell characters visiting the circus. Show the children the characters
(on the website or Startwell poster) and stimulate their creativity/imaginations by putting out
suitable dressing-up costumes, props (hats, toy animals, food models, toy money and cashtill, puppets, hula hoops, musical instruments etc.
Skills: Being spontaneous and
creative, dressing/undressing,
interacting, playing, engaging.
Fruit and Vegetable Shy
To get the children familiar with different fruits and vegetables, and stimulate conversation /
vocabulary about the different textures, sizes, shapes, colours etc, place a variety of fruit
and veg on a long table, desk or shelf – to act like a coconut shy. Choose a range of
different size and weight fruits/veg. Put a strip of masking tape on the floor a metre or so
away from the ‘fruit/veg shy’ for a throw line. The children then take it in turns to throw a
bean bag at the shy trying to knock off one of the fruits or veg. Once all of the items have
been knocked off the shy, they can be peeled, chopped and eaten for snack time.
Skills: Throwing, aiming, reaching.