Anyone want to share any of your especially successful tricks/games to help with the Learn-to-Skate kids? My daughter (who I am posting this for) is always looking for good ideas! Here are some of her favorites:

-To help kids keep their heads up - put a small stuffed animal (beanie baby) on your shoulder. Ask the kids to keep their eyes on it to make sure that it's not going to fall. Skate backwards while they skate forwards towards you.

-To keep the arms up: tell them to do like a bird, an airplane or a scarecrow.

-To keep the little guys moving: use colored cones (or even places on the ice - goal crease, red/blue line, etc.) as destinations. "Okay, everybody. Let's go over to the green cone!" It frees the instructor up to help the slower ones.

-Talking kids into doing something scary: use your marker to draw a line very close to where you're starting from. Encourage the kids just to go there doing the scary element. Have them do regular forward skating until another line (longer distance) and then draw another close line to try the scary element to again.

-Beanbag on the top of a little one's head gets them to concentrate on controlling upper body.

-Participatory games are the best. "Travel" and ask each kid where he/she would like to go. "Shop" and ask what they would like to buy (Daughter loved the pushing the grocery cart idea, Gary!). "Make" ice cream sundaes and ask what sort of ice cream/toppings they would like in it.

-Draw on the ice a lot!

-Stuffed animals are great; beanbags are great, too.

The kids I taught always loved playing tag! Red light green light and mother may I worked well too.

Simon Says is usually a big hit with the younger crowd.

I draw a path on the ice with symbols for the different elements, like a spiral for turning around, animal faces or geometric figures to do swizzles over, squiggly lines for backwards wiggles etc.

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My coach's son used to play "trains" on the ice - his dad would make "railway lines" for him to follow, and he was allowed to push a cone around once he'd finished his formal practice.

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Mrs Redboots
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I love my computer because my friends live in it!
Ice dancers have lovely big curves!

Freeze tag is always a winner for us at the rink. It helps with learning to stop "on a dime" and not fall over!

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Montreal, QC, Canada

at our club we play follow the leader and to get the kids to learn how to go in and outta the pilons we put stuffed animals and then tell them to go and touch each stuffed animal!!! we find that bubbles work to get them to keep them moving we tell them to pop them and follow them!!!we also play red light green light and with the really little ones to get them to learn how to stand up we get them to lay on the ice and make snow angels then get up on their knees and stand up!!

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~*~*~before the rainbow u have to put up with the rain~*~*~

What Time is It Mr. Fox? - Let's say you say 4 o'clock...then they have to do 4 swizzles, 4 marches, whatever. When you say lunch time, they have to skate away fast before they get caught!

CandyLand - Draw a bunch of candy on the ice, a little ways away from a house. Have the kids do sometime to get to the candy (like we have tots/snowbunnies do back wiggles) then get as much candy as they can stuff in their pockets, and skate forwards fast back to the house to hide it!

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- Ashley

Last night, we drew a "swizzle bug" on the ice with black marker. A series of 7 football shapes with foot long straight lines connecting them. A couple of antennae and a squiggly tail. Voila!!! A swizzle bug.

The class takes turn skating the pattern. After a few tries, we told them to keep swizzling across the rink on the "Invisible Swizzle Bug".

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

I like using "props" so I always have some toys and markers with me for lessons. I taught toddlers how to use their arms/shoulders to turn by having them be "fairies." I saved a few paper towel cores and told them to pretend they were wands. They had to skate around the toys on a serpentine path that I drew on the ice. As they passed each toy, they had to wave their wands with both hands to sprinkle fairy dust on each toy. It made them turn their arms/shoulders along with their feet. After removing the "wands" they can usually still move their arms properly. Of course, the middle schoolers also love this game.

I'm not much for games - I still don't understand how to play "Red Light, Green Light" on the ice - but I do play "Bus Driver." I have the kids pretend to drive a big bus with a huge steering wheel by holding their arms up in front of them. Then we "drive" around the cones or toys by turning "the wheel" left or right. Beep the horn a few times and they're happy and having fun. After a few tries, remind them to sit down on the seat and they'll start learning to keep their knees bent.

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It's a fun game when you're teaching kids how to stop. We actually use "red light", "yellow light", and "green light".

Green light means stroke or march forward.

Yellow light means a two foot glide (if they've reached that stage).

Red light means stop, of course.

We start the kids from one side of the rink and call out the signals as they cross the ice.

We do this after we've given them the basics of the snowplow stop.

I like the "Bus Driver" idea. I'm going to have to incorporate that into the program.

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Many go fishing all their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after. - Henry David Thoreau

That's just great. I'm going to have to use that sometime!

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- Ashley

I am new to teaching groups and was going to post a Q about games for kids on the ice. I presently use Mr. Fox, red light/ green light, Simon says, and follow the leader. I ask kids to create other lights for red light /green light. They will come up w/ purple light for a spiral or hop or something. The enjoy participating in creating rules for the game. I also ask for volunteers to be Mr. Fox or Simon or the leader. They love this.

The Swizzle Bug is great. Will try it. I also like the Bus Driver one. I found this site
http://www.sfsc.on.ca/games1.htm
and will try "Stride and Glide". That looks like fun.

Kay

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haven't tried this yet, but am considering it for some of my younger basic groups. I have mostly female students above the Sam levels. I thought of buying a set of inexpensive plastic tiaras to encourage them to keep their heads up or to denote the leader for a game. Obviously, it would not be appropriate for boys.

Kay

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You could always get a crown or two as well...

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- Ashley

my kids coach used gloves or even guards on their heads

As a reward, we let the kids have "cone races" at the end of the lesson. They just grab a cone, line up and skate as fast as they can to the end of the rink. Sometimes I race them, but I'm only allowed to use one foot! LOL

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