The Explorers: Maracas (Moving and Grooving)

“Beach Ball Toss to Classical Music”: We love beach balls. They are easy to find and inexpensive props that can be used for many different games. Today, each of us sat on a carpet square in a circle. We then passed around a beach ball while classical music was playing. When the music stopped, we briefly stopped the game and then played a different variation of the game, e.g., changing direction how the beach ball was passed, passing the beach ball to our partner overhead, etc.

Although this game seems fairly simple at a first glance it addresses many different skills:

• Paying close attention to a partner.
• Following directions.
• Responding to non-verbal clues (e.g., stopping the ball pass when the music stops).
• Controlling impulses such as not throwing the ball when the instruction was to pass the ball slowly to a partner.

“Yogurt Cup Maracas”: After a beach ball game, we created self made maracas. Here are the steps:

• Each of us decorated 2 yogurt cups with stickers. Some of us worked with a friend.
• We then filled one of the  yoghurt cups approximately one third with beans. This step required that we helped each other, e.g., one of us was holding the yogurt cup while our partner scooped the beans into the cup. We had a choice between different kinds of beans (e.g., Pinto beans, black eyed beans). We learned that the different beans make different sounds.
• Last, we put the two cups together and attached masking tape where the two cups met. Again, this step required teamwork.
• Of course, we wanted to try out our maracas and engaged in a little percussion session to the music of the "Gipsy Kings."