Activity: Get Back, Copy Cat!

Reinforce valuable playtime skills like taking turns, following directions, and listening while playing a silly Copy-Cat game together.

Materials:
Commands/motions (listed below)

Directions:
Put on some lively music, then say, "Get back, Copy Cat!" before encouraging your child to follow your lead and perform each one of these motions:

• Hiss and claw like a fussy cat.
• Skip forward then sideways and return back to your original position.
• Purr and stretch like a lazy cat.
• Soar like a bird to the right and left.
• March like a soldier.
• Hop like a bunny.
• Gallop like a horse.
• Balance on the left foot, right foot then hop from left to right while counting to ten.
• Okay! Turn-about is fair play. Switch places and let your child see how well you play Get back, Copy Cat!

Talk about It: Ask your child to make up more familiar motions or characters to model. Then ask your child to tell why he/she thinks that taking turns, following directions, and listening while playing games are important things to remember and practice. Encourage your child to name other games or activities that call for people to use these same skills.

Take it Further: Use these fun ideas to continue building playtime skills:

• Take turns playing games of Simon Says and Follow the Leader.
• Stand facing a mirror together and take turns making different kinds of faces.
• Take turns adding ingredients and cooking up a favorite recipe. Then do the same during the all important clean up!

With a Group: Here are some simple group games that will reinforce good playtime skills with friends:

• Out of Sight!- Have children sit in a circle with closed eyes...no peeking because that's not fair! Sneak one child out of sight. Ask children to open their eyes and say, "Someone's out of sight and I think it's ___________!"
• Play Ball!- Play catch with different kinds of balls, encouraging children to take turns throwing, catching, and retrieving the balls.
• Pass the Ball- The goal is to take turns using different types of balls and to not let them touch the ground as they are passed from child to child.