While trying not to channel the character Sue Sylvester from the TV show Glee, Anne taught early childhood gym class on Friday.  For those of you who are not Glee fans, Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch) is the show’s antagonist and the school’s gym teacher.  On Friday Anne had eight half-hour classes, two pre-school and three kindergartens and three first grade classes.  At these grade levels gym class comprises opening calisthenics and then an active game.  Calisthenics are never all that interesting and all that need be added about them is that they left Anne feeling sore the next day.

Anne started the day with the game Red Light, Green Light (One person is it.  On green light the rest of the class can run, on yellow light they can walk, but on red light they must stop. The objective of the game is to be the first one to touch the it person and then become It.), but that didn’t seem to be a big hit.  Cries of cheating left Anne wishing she had a stoplight camera, but failing that she decided to switch games.  More popular was the game Duck, Duck, Goose.   In this game the children sit in a circle.  One child is again it and starts a round walking around outside the circle.  Each of the sitting students is passed with a tap on the head (Lightly, please!) and the word duck, until one child is tapped with the word goose.  At this point the chase begins.  The goose tries to tag the It before they sit-down again.  Success makes the goose the It.  Failing that, the goose must sit in the center of the circle, the “stinky place”, until another goose fails and takes their place instead.

New to me was the game Mister Heart.  This is basically a game of tag, but with room for over-acting and an educational message.  In this game one student is Mister Heart and three other students are the doctors and the rest of the children line-up at one end of the gym, while Mister Heart and the doctors stand in the middle of the room.  The kids call out, “Mister Heart, Mister Heart, what makes you so healthy?”  Mister Heart will answer with something healthy, like apples, carrots or toilet paper (??).  After each callout the class takes three steps closer to Mister Heart.  The game proceeds until Mister Heart answers with something unhealthy, like cigarettes.  At this point all of the kids scatter and run and Mister Heart runs after them to tag them.  Once tagged the caught child feigns having a heart attack and collapses to the floor and awaits the ministrations of one of the three doctors.  The doctors ask the heart attack victim, “What is something to do for a healthy heart?”  The answer acts like a cure and their off and running again.  Usually, Mister Heart waits until the class has come close before the trap is sprung.  Anne found this game a lot of fun to watch.

Mister Heart, Mister Heart, what makes you so healthy? … Bicycling!