Fruit Salad

Even a small amount of movement increases the flow of blood (oxygen and glucose) to the brain, boosting alertness and focus.

Like all our warm-up activities, this game is fun, easy and everyone can participate. As well as boosting energy levels, it’s a great way to transition to the next activity and prepare tamariki for learning new things.

Nominate a player to be in and ask everyone else to form a circle of chairs around them.

• Divide all players into three types of fruit, i.e. apple, orange, pear.
• Then to start the game, the person who is 'in’ calls one of the chosen fruit types. E.g. apples, oranges or pears.
• Everyone from the selected fruit must get up quickly and change places, while the remaining players stay seated.
• When players change positions, the person who’s in can try to ‘steal’ one of the empty chairs, whoever is left without a chair is now ‘in’.
• If the person in the middle calls ‘Fruit Salad!’ all players must change positions.
• The game can finish whenever you like, but we recommend ending when everyone is engaged and having fun. You want them to be asking for more so you can play it again and again!

Once tamariki are familiar with Fruit salad (above), encourage them to choose new topics for the game. E.g. Colours of the rainbow, healthy kai choices, Aorangi (planet) names, or a topic you’re studying in class.

Using the new topic, divide the class into three (or more) groups – E.g. Mars, Earth, Venus – and have everyone practice calling these new words.

Ask tamariki to come up with a relevant “Fruit Salad” alternative (to get everyone to move). E.g. “Deeeep spaaace!”

Once students have mastered the above, advance the game by having the person who is ‘in’ say statements that describe them and others in the group.

E.g. "People with brown hair... People with pet dogs... People who like pizza..."

Players the statements describe change places; while others stay seated.

If the person in the middle calls your class name (e.g. “Room 4!”), everyone will change places.

Try other fun activities which prepare tamariki with focus and energy for learning.