Lesson 3: Let’s Get Moving!
Objective: Teach kids movement-based games they can play with their friends and family Time: 30-45
minutes.
Supplies Needed: 1. Henry Gets Moving, either the book or the PDF. 1a. A projector and screen if using
the PDF. 2. A whiteboard, chalkboard, smartboard, or big sheet of paper. Enlist the teacher to help take
notes on game rules 3. A crowd of kids!
Opening: “Last week we talked about Henry Gets Moving. Who can tell me about what happened in the
book?” It may take responses from a few children to get the full answer. Also, we want to avoid using
words like ‘fat’ and ‘skinny’. This is all about how healthy habits and unhealthy habits, not fat and
skinny. You can use pages from the book to help kids recap the story.
The following pages may be most helpful:
Page 9: “So like we see at the beginning, Henry has trouble on the playground.
Page 13: And he says he gets tired easily. Why do we think that is?”
Page 20: Then he starts getting moving. And it’s a little tough at first, but he sticks with it.
Pages 22 & 23: And when Henry gets moving every day, how does he feel? “Today we want to teach you
games that you can play with your friends and parents so that it’s easy for you to get moving every day,
too. When Henry went to the doctor, she told him how much time he needs to spend being active every
day. Who remembers how much time that is?” Answer: 60 minutes (this is about the length of two tv
shows).
Activity: So let’s get moving! Here are some activities you can choose to do with the kids. It’s best if you
can take them outside, go to the gym, or another big open space.
However, if those are not available there are some options that work inside a classroom such as the
Henry Hustle.
1) Tag. This is a game where you get to run around all you want. There are no teams, and you don’t need
any equipment. One person is “it”, and when they catch someone and tag another person, that person
becomes “it”. The goal of the game is to not get tagged.

If the children are unfamiliar with Tag, you could take a few kids and role-play tag by walking
around if you are inside, or simulating Tag at real speed if you are outside. Rules: Determine the
boundaries. That’s the field that you will play on. Assign one of the players to be “it”. Give
everyone else a 5 second head start to begin running away, and after the person who is “it”
counts to 5, they chase people. Once they tag someone else, that person is “it”. You can only
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tag someone on the shoulder, arm, or back, and it has to be a gentle touch. It doesn’t count if
you slap or hit them. If someone runs outside of the boundaries, they have to do ten jumping
jacks, and then they are “it”.
2) Relay Races Make teams of up to 5 kids, set up a start line and finish line. Each member of a team line
up at the start, and cannot proceed until the team member before them has crossed the finish line.
1. The first member of the team has to crab walk to the finish line.
2. The second has to hop on one foot.
3. The third has to run sideways
4. The fourth has to do frog hops.
5. The fifth has to do 10 jumping jacks before they can run to the finish line. The first team with all
team members to the other side wins. You can have the kids participate as each member of the
team so they can participate in the different movements.
3) Duck, duck goose.
Rules:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Kids form a circle sitting down.
The “goose” walks around the outside of the circle tapping heads saying “duck”.
The “goose” then chooses another “goose” by tapping their head.
The original goose has to make it all the way around the circle and sitting in the new gooses’
spot before the new goose tags them.
5. If you get tagged, you have to do it all over again.
4) Freeze dance.
Rules:
1. Play music and dance around.
2. When the music pauses, FREEZE! You are out if you don’t freeze.
5) Wall Ball (best with children 2nd grade and older) This game is best played with 3-6 people. Find a ball
and a big, flat wall with no windows. A big rubber ball or a tennis ball work very well, but any ball that
bounces can work. Throw the ball against the wall and the other players have to catch it. It’s ok for the
ball to bounce before being caught. You can throw it against the wall and catch it yourself, or let another
player catch it. The fun starts when one of two things happen: 1) if a person throws the ball and it
touches the ground before hitting the wall or, 2) a person fumbles or drops the ball in any way. This
includes purposely throwing the ball at another player so that the ball hits them but they cannot catch it
before the ball hits the ground. When either of these two things happen, the fumbler/bad thrower must
run to the wall. Meanwhile another player is trying to throw the ball so that it hits the wall before the
fumbler can touch the wall.
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1. If the fumbler can make it to the wall first, game play continues.
2. If the ball gets there first, the fumbler has one strike, then game play continues.
3. Some kids play that when a player gets three strikes, he is simply out of the game.
4. If you want to keep everyone playing the game, then the player with the fewest strikes at the
end of the game win.
6) THE HENRY HUSTLE: If you have the ability to play music, the Henry Hustle is a great way to get kids
moving. Play the song and follow along with the choreographed dance.
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