My favorite game to play with
this age group is called the fishing game.The rules of the game are simple. First, I hand the child a noodle (the fake fishing pole) and tell them to “give it a big cast in to the pool to see if we can find anything”. After the cast I catch the end of the noodle underwater and wiggle it around all splashy and exiting like. Then I ask, “what did you catch”?! The child gets to imagine anything to pick for what they caught in the pool. This gives each child in the class their own individual time for creative expression. I’ve helped students catch anything from a regular old fish to a cake or a boot (but mostly sharks). After the child declares what they have caught I ask, “would you like to keep it or kick it away?” If they decide to keep it, they all have to put their hands in the water and scoop it in, this is where I tell them not to leave any gaps in their fingers or the fish might escape, secretly this is actually teaching them the proper way to hold one’s hands while swimming. If they decide to kick it away, they splash and kick their feet in the water from the side of the pool. One of the main reasons I love starting every class Monday through Friday with this game is because it creates something predictable for the 3 through five-year-olds in their new not so predictable pool environment. It also allows the children to get acclimated to the water and learn the basic swimming motions in an exciting way without having to jump right in.