Crab-Crawl

Crab-Crawl

Motor play where children practice various ways of crawling

  • 1-5 years
  • Group size: 2+
  • Duration: 15 min
  • Alternative physical activities
  • Mountains, forests and fields
  • Gym / Sports hall
  • Indoor
  • Open space

Children crawl in many different ways. To create engagement, it is important that adults are playful, spontaneous, and let themselves be carried away by the children's imagination.

Examples:

  • Crawl sideways like a crab, crabs have claws, so include the 'claws' in the movement
  • Be a dog: walk, run, stop, sniff, and perhaps 'pee on the lamppost'
  • Be a monkey, with quadrupedal hopping and 'banana-things' (picking, eating, throwing bananas)
  • Be a lion: angry lion, kind lion. Maybe all the lions lie down in the pride? Has anyone found food? What do the lions do then?
  • Pretend that several animals are crawling around at the same time – the children suggest animals
  • Crawl like a little baby with a pacifier
  • Crawl in formation, for example in a pyramid or backward in a line

Let the children come up with ideas for new animals and ways to crawl, and build on their suggestions in the play.