K-2 PE Lesson Ideas

We begin talking about washing clothes. Ask the following questions: "Do you help wash the clothes at your house?", "Do you know how clothes are washed?", "What do we do first?", etc.

1. We will pretend this parachute is our washing machine. Everyone holds onto the parachute.

2. Ask three or four children to sit under the parachute (use developmentally appropriate methods to choose the children). The children under the parachute represent dirty clothes. The “dirty clothes” sit under the parachute. Allow them to react to the different “cycles” as appropriate (i.e., shake their upper bodies while the water enters, seated spin during the spin cycle).

3. Everyone holding onto the parachute pretends to pour soap in, turn the knob and pretend the water is entering. The children shake the parachute to demonstrate the agitation cycle.

4. Then comes the spin cycle. Have all the children walk in a circle clockwise, then reverse, walking counterclockwise. This can be repeated for the spin cycle.

5. Finally comes the rinse cycle. Demonstrate this by shaking the parachute in a manner similar to the agitation cycle.

6. Announce that the dirty clothes are all clean. Open the washing machine door by lifting up the parachute and having all the “clean clothes” come out to join their classmates.

7. Start a new load by having different children be “dirty clothes” under the parachute. Repeat until all children have had an opportunity to pretend to be “dirty clothes.”