Phys Ed for Kids, one in a wheelchair
 

I'm taking a class this quarter on teaching phys ed to elementary school students (I'm not sure why it's on the required list of classes, but I won't go into that here.)

We're doing team teaching this week, and my group is doing a movement/locomotor unit. We're having the "kids" (all adults, pretending to be first graders...fun, fun) act out different animals; the idea is to get them to figure out how animals move, then...well, move. We initially chose animals that would get the kids to move their entire bodies.

The challenge is that we need to adapt the unit so that someone in a wheelchair will get just as much out of it as the abled kids... but not take away from their experience either.

Here's where you guys come in... (woo!) What kind of animals could we use that focus more on upper body movement, that young kids would be familiar with?

Also, any ideas on a game-type activity we could play at the end? We've thought about crab soccer (which would be difficult for someone in a wheelchair) or maybe some kind of Charades (which would be fun, but only one person would be moving at once, so that's a lot of standing/sitting around for the other kids.)

Thanks, all!

A seal?

I don't know how you'd be able to get a wheelchair bound kid to act this out, though.
At least without inviting lawsuits from more organizations, advocating the disabled, than you ever knew existed.

Monkeys and chimps? Kids love 'em and they use their upper bodies to jump through branches and trees.

It seems like there are a lot of available movements in a chair. Your trunk, your arms, your head, your shoulders, etc. There's also the movement of the chair rather than the movement of individual in the chair. You could gain some speed, coast, and soar like an eagle with your arms outstretched. You could slither like a snake in a chair. You could gracefully cruise across a gym floor like a seal or a dolphin, weaving across the floor, and bobbing up and down above the waist for air (like a dolphin at the surface). You could lean forward and use one arm as an elephants trunk while moving around. If they can do "wheelies" that may approximate jumping...

Any animal that bobs its' head, such as a chicken. Owls use their eyes and are very identifiable that way. Hands can be used to simulate the top knot on a roosters head. I'll ask my teacher-friend for other ideas.

I guess they can't get more wheelchairs and play murderball...

almost any animal can be adapted to a kid in a wheelchair. you'd be surprised.
i've seen kids be turtles, alligators, lions, dogs, even a giraffe... think outside your box.
sit in an office chair and let your imagination run wild.
partner one with another child and watch a two-humped camel emerge. :)
the kiddo's chair is an extension of his or her body, just like legs.

math based four corners (where speed is not the issue, the answer is) is a good activity.