Kids Running - Brown Bear, Yellow Bee Running Game

BROWN BEAR, YELLOW BEE - Running Game
by Carol Goodrow
Happy Feet, Healthy Food Kids' Club photos from Box-stacle another one of Carol's games.

crow

Games capture children's imagination. With the different activities, kids forget that they are exercising and just plain have fun.

Sometimes they even learn something while they play! A game is part of every session at Carol's after-school club.

ROWN BEAR, YELLOW BEE is a KR original. This game combines literacy, shape recognition, animal names, physical activity and color words. Kids pair up and go from station to station, reading the poems on activity cards and then performing the activities. It's pure fun. There is no counting laps or time requirement, just activities that will keep children happily on the move.

ATERIALS:
The poem cards. Print plenty to keep at each station. You can also make big signs with the same poems, but the little poem cards can be taken home by each child for home-play.

Cones to set up courses to go around or enter: circle course, finish line square, rectangle pen, triangle lake.

Diamond pattern blocks, Basket

ET UP STATIONS
Arrange stations with appropriate cards in different spots on a field. Kids go from station-to-station. Have a station for each card/poem.

POETRY and ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION
Click card graphics for printable cards.

ROWN BEAR, YELLOW BEE
I'm a brown bear and you're a yellow bee.
Run around the circle and try to catch me.

(Set cones in a circle. Bee chases bear around the circle. Then bear chases bee around the circle. Give the runner a head start so that there is some more chasing than catching.)

REEN TORTOISE, PINK HARE
You're a green tortoise and I'm a pink hare.
Race me to the finish-line square.

(Make a square with cones. First one inside the square wins the race.)

LACK CROW, WHITE MOUSE
You're a black crow and I'm a white mouse.
Let's steal 10 diamonds to put in our house.

(Use diamond pattern blocks and a basket. Stand behind a line of cones and toss blocks into a basket.)

LUE FISH, ORANGE SNAKE
You're a blue fish and I'm an orange snake.
Let's swim around our rectangle lake.

(Make a rectangle with cones. Slowly jog around while pretending to swim. Blow bubbles and move arms.)

AN DOG, RED HEN
You're a tan dog and I'm a red hen.
Herd me into my triangle-shaped pen.

(Hold hands and jog around a triangle made of cones.)

t home, practice reading the cards. Then adapt the game for backyard fun. Get your whole family involved.

Want more? Make posters and illustrations of the animals, shapes, colors, and activities in this game. Post them in your classroom or on home bulletin boards. Then make up some of your own Brown Bear, Yellow Bee activities. Create little rhymes with your own activities. Have fun with exercise and learning.

Draw and write about running. Send your artwork into KR to be posted. What kind of artwork? Anything to do with running, healthy eating, and fitness: Mini-posters, T-shirt designs, fun run fliers, book report covers, and more. We take poems and stories, too!

If you enjoyed this game, please send us a note.

LINKS

Running Games
Model Youth Programs
Kids Running Books
Back to School Fruit Cup
Back to School for Teachers
Back to School Archives
Teacher's Desk
Free Kids Running Bookmarks
Log-A-Mile Program

Artwork Permission Form
If you would like your child's artwork printed on KR, please send signed permission form in with artwork.
Send to:
rwedit@rodale.com

Carol Goodrow is the Founding Editor of KidsRunning.Com, full-time teacher, and author/illustrator of three children's running and fitness books: Happy Feet Healthy Food, The Treasure of Health and Happiness, and Kids Running. Her schoolchildren always have fun when they combine running and literacy.

rwedit@rodale.com