Teachers, parents, out of school care co-ordinators – are you looking for new activity ideas?
Ones that are quick, easy and inexpensive to implement?
Do you want to support and encourage children to engage in active creative play?
Do you have hula hoops and don’t know what to do with them?
Hula hoops in educational centres are often just used as markers on the ground.
Let us show you how to utilise the value of this resource in fun and creative ways.
Introducing the Creative Hoop Play resource book full of fun and educational
hula hoop-based activities for young children.
Inspiration, stimulation and fun!
We understand how busy teachers and parents are, so we have done all the thinking and planning for you.
In the Creative Hoop Play book we don’t just give you clearly outlined activity ideas, we give you ten complete 30 minute session plans which include suggested music playlists, optional Te Reo words and phrases, and printable resource sheets.
And because we wanted to give you as much support as possible the book also contains a link to a page where you can access a teacher training video with step by step instructions for how to do basic hula hoop moves, and two video/audio files of the hoop stories which you can play and just follow along with.
For this programme we worked hard to come up with unique, interesting and practical activities for young children. It was tried and tested for three years under the name of Hoop with Heart and now we have reformatted the programme to make it accessible and able to be used by anyone around the world.
This is an incredibly versatile resource:
- teachers can use the 30 minute lesson plans for fitness sessions or as part of a theme study
- parents and teachers can use individual activities for fun or to help settle children
- activities can be enjoyed indoors and outdoors
- great for 5-15 minute “filler’ activities for primary teachers
People have been playing with hoops for centuries, but with the invention of mass produced colourful plastic hula hoops in the 1950’s, their use and popularity skyrocketed. This book takes hula hooping to a new level though, with a rich diversity of distinctive activity ideas which use hula hoops as a fun tool to stimulate both active and creative play.
While the lesson plans in this book were designed and written primarily to meet the needs of New Zealand early childhood services, everything in this book can be used universally to facilitate hula hoop-based activities for 3-7 year olds anywhere in the world. The Maori language (Te Reo) component of the activities is optional, and the Maori myth story-lines provide an interesting introduction to international cultural stories. Many of the activities are designed to be performed with music and suggested songs are listed as part of the activity session plans. These songs can all be accessed on Spotify, and other music databases, and similarly themed songs can be used as substitutes.
One of the key unique aspects of many of the activities in this book is that they encourage children to use hula hoops in creative and imaginative play. Imaginative and pretend play is an enjoyable and productive way to develop language and social skills, and emotional intelligence. The combination of whole-body movement and use of imagination facilitated by many of the activities in this book, effectively builds new neural connections, and stimulates cognitive and brain development.
Music and movement, and mindful and creative activities such as those described in this book also foster physical and emotional wellbeing.
This tried and tested programme has proved it’s value, and now we want to make it freely available in one online package.
The Creative Hoop Play book combines what used to be the teachers training manual and a separate activity manual. That’s two books in one.
What you’ll get in the Creative Hoop Play Package
- 10 full session/lesson plans (each with a different theme such as Sky, Sea, Farmyard, Fairy Tales . . . )
- Over 30 different activity ideas
- Printable resource sheets
- Suggested music for each activity
- Suggested Te Reo Māori words and phrases to use with the activities
- Relevant links to the New Zealand Early Childhood Education Curriculum – Te Whariki
- Teacher (parent) training demonstration video
- Video and audio files of the two hoop stories
Benefits of Creative Hoop Play
FUN!
Kids love to play with hula hoops! These basic plastic circles spark all sorts of games, play, and active and creative movement.
MOTOR SKILLS
The activities in Creative Hoop Play help children to gain increasing control over their bodies, including development of locomotor skills, non-locomotor skills, manipulative skills and increasing agility, co-ordination, and balance.
LISTENING SKILLS
The Creative Hoop Play activities give children experience in listening to and following simple instructions, and also with listening to music and moving to the rhythm of music.
A number of the activities encourage children to move when the music starts, and stop when the music stops.
IMAGINATION
Many of the activities in Creative Hoop Play help children to develop increasing confidence and a repertoire for symbolic, pretend, and dramatic play.
SPATIAL AWARENESS
Moving inside and around and with a hoop assists children to gain confidence with moving in space, and playing near and with others.
About the Creators
Bernadette Smith, aka The Hoop Lady, has been teaching people how to hula hoop for over ten years, and facilitated the activities described in this book with groups in pre-schools for three years. Bernadette’s energetic and heart-centred work sharing the benefits and joy of hula hooping was recognised with the 2018 New Zealand Register of Professionals Award. This REPs award is presented to a role model who reflects the ethics and values of exercise facilities and professionals in New Zealand.
Janine Lattimore trained as a Primary teacher, and has been leading and creating programmes and activities for children and young people for over 30 years. She worked alongside Bernadette teaching hula hooping with adults and children for three years.
Testimonials About the Programme
Our tamariki and kaiako have gained so much from hula hooping and WOW have we had so much fun together. . . We loved the range of topics that were shared with us and the learning outcomes and skills developed were absolutely positive. I was really impressed at how the programme is successful for everyone and children were always able to participate and successfully engage with the moves.
Megan Jones, Centre Director Ranigora Kindercare
We noticed the way you incorporated Te Reo into the programme which was great as we work hard on being bi-cultural, and ties into the National and Early Childhood curriculums. What a fantastic way to get tamariki involved, we found they were very responsive and what a fun way of moving to a story-line.
Kidsfirst Ilam Kindergarten Teaching Team
More About the Programme
Designed to be versatile so you can use it your way
You can use one off activities from the book, or whole pre-planned sessions, or mix and match activities from sessions. The sessions can be worked through in order from one to ten, or you can match the themes of the sessions (e.g. Sea, Farmyard, Circus, Fairy Tales etc) with a theme that you are currently highlighting in your educational centre.
Relevant for early childhood services and schools around the world
Although the Creative Hoop Play programme has been designed and written primarily to meet the needs of New Zealand early childhood services, the children’s activities are relevant for any pre-school service around the world.
The Māori language (Te Reo Māori) component of the activities is optional, and the Māori myth story-lines provide an interesting introduction to international cultural stories.
Hula hoops are an easily accessed, low cost resource in most countries. Children can use basic light plastic hoops. For teachers and parents we recommend purchasing adult sized hoops that are a slightly heavier weight as these are much easier for adults to use and learn to hoop with.
The Creative Hoop Play Programme supports the Eight Learning Principles of the International Early Years Curriculum (IEYC)
- The earliest years of life are important in their own right.
- Children should be supported to learn and develop at their own unique pace.
- Play is an essential aspect of all children’s learning and development.
- Learning happens when developmentally-appropriate, teacher-scaffolded and child initiated experiences harness children’s natural curiosity in an enabling environment.
- Independent and interdependent learning experiences create a context for personal development and are the foundation of international mindedness.
- Knowledge and skills development lead to an increasing sense of understanding when children are provided with opportunities to explore and express their ideas in multiple ways.
- Ongoing assessment, in the form of evaluation and reflection, is effective when it involves a learning-link with the home.
- Learning should be motivating, engaging and fun, opening up a world of wonder for children where personal interests can flourish.
Frequently Asked Questions
You do not need to be able to hula hoop to lead these activities with children. Most of the activities require no specialist hula hooping skills.
For the activities that do involve specific hula hoop skills, the instructions are broken down into very simple language and movements that young children will be able to follow, so adults should be able to follow them too. There is also a linked instructional video for facilitators (teachers/parents/programme co-ordinators).
Most of the activities only require enough hula hoops for one per person. Some activities can also be enhanced by using cones as markers.
You can use any type of hula hoops you have available. However, we do recommend that adults use an adult sized hula hoop as these will be much easier to use and to learn to hoop with.
*Please note: The Creative Hoop Play programme was originally called Hoop with Heart and was formed in collaboration with the New Zealand Heart Foundation. The basic programme has been retained, but is now an independent programme and the materials have been reformatted into one comprehensive book and video package called Creative Hoop Play for Kids.