bike

I Want to Ride a Bicycle

Child on Bicycle

MATERIALS

  • Music player and prepared music
  • Balloons,
  • Bike safety photos
  • Sally Jean the Bicycle Queen by Cari Best
  • Bicycle coloring page

SHORT DESCRIPTION/TOPIC

Teach children about road safety, and help them with physical strength, balance and coordination for learning to ride a bike.

DISCUSSION POINTS

Share a few tips on bike safety:

  • Always wear a helmet.
  • Wear bright clothes so you are easy to see by motorists and other bicyclists.
  • Avoid baggy pants that might get caught in your chain.
  • Watch out for anything that might make your bike tires skid.
  • Always stop and check for traffic in both directions.
  • Cross at intersections.
  • Walk your bike across busy intersections using the crosswalk.
  • Ride on the right-hand side of the street, in the same direction as cars do.
  • Don’t ride too close to parked cars. Doors can open suddenly.
  • Stop at all stop signs and obey traffic (red) lights just as cars do.

CONNECTING CIRCLE

Who here knows how to ride a bike? Riding a bike is a big responsibility. We’re going to talk about how to be safe on a bike. What are the benefits of riding a bike? Good exercise, fun, and it is good for the environment. Ecological Echoes, Body Benefits

Elephant Ears – Lets practice concentrating. Put on your listening ears! Quiet Quests

Objects Near and Far –  When you ride a bike, you need to be aware of lots of things around you because you are moving very fast. Quiet Quests

MUSICAL MUSINGS 

Play songs about bicycles during the next part of class. Playlist recommendations: Bicycle Song by Red Hot Chili Peppers, It’s a Beautiful Day by The Beach Boys, Broken Bicycle by Tom Waits, Tour de France by Kraftwerk, Riding on My Bike by Madness, Bicycle Race by Queen

POSES AS PATHWAYS/INTEGRATE THE ELEMENTS

Three important things for riding a bike include balance, coordination, and strong legs! Let’s work on each of these. The first 5 poses we will practice will help us improve our balance. Body Benefits

Stork – Storks can’t sing the way most birds can. They can hiss or screech. They also clatter their bills together. Can you make sounds like a stork? Ecological Echoes, Laughing Language

Tree – “I am strong!” “I am beautiful!” “I am brave!” “I am awesome!” Affirmations

Warrior 3 – This pose improves strength in your legs. Body Benefits

Crow – Crows have the biggest brain-to-body ratio among all bird species and their brains are like humans. Ecological Echoes, Bridge of Diamonds

Eagle – Spread your toes and make a firm base. We have 26 bones in each foot. Awesome Anatomy

The next six poses help improve our coordination:

Pedal Laughing – Pedal FAST, SLOW, pedal in really SMALL circles, in really BIG circles.

Row, Row, Row Your Boat –Continue to pedal and say, “Bertie the beetle rides a bicycle while Barry bear eats bananas!” Laughing Language

Shake Like Jelly – This pose helps us get rid of tension in our muscles. Body Benefits

Face in the Mirror – Now that we’ve practiced pedaling, we must learn how to steer our handle bars. Everyone find a partner, we’re going to practice steering our partner as if we were steering a bicycle. Bridge of Diamonds

Roller Coaster (reversed – the person at the back is going to ‘direct’ the person in front of them) – And now, a very important part of riding a bike is using the breaks, you must learn how to stop quickly!

WE ALL WIN

Balloon Freeze and Flow – Same rules as freeze and flow apply – but the object will be to bat a balloon around and when the music stops, you must stop the balloon by catching it and holding it still. Modify the rules so that you can’t touch the balloon with your hands.

Let’s do some poses that will help strengthen our legs. Body Benefits

  • Bug-Picking Chimp
  • Popcorn
  • Lightning Bolt

What are some things we do to stay safe on our bikes? 

Finger Dancing – (show helmet picture) Helmets protect our heads and our brains if we fall. (Quiet Quests)

Volcano – (show traffic sign picture) When we ride bikes, we must follow traffic laws.

Seated Twist – (show photo of traffic scene) When you ride a bike, you share the road with cars, pedestrians and other bicycles. Bridge of Diamonds

Show pictures in various orders, at various speeds and have kids do the poses.

READING COMES ALIVE WITH YOGA

Sally Jean the Bicycle Queen by Cari Best. Integrate the following poses:

  • Acorn to Tree (pages 1-5)
  • Ladder to the Clouds (pages 7, 9, 29 and 30)

VISUAL VIGNETTES

Color the bicycle coloring page.