Hi.  I have been loking at a number of ways in which you can get moving and a-grooving playing games and doing great activities with brothers and sisters, oh and mum and dad

Street Dancing!

• Street Dancing is one of the coolest ways to have fun – you might have seen George Sampson or the group Diversity doing it, both who won the TV talent show Britain’s Got Talent.
• Keep your eyes open next time you’re out in town, some street dancers like the crowds so busy shopping centres are good places to see them at it.  It’s a mix of hip hop and house dancing with some gymnastics thrown in but anyone can give it a try, you don’t need to be in a gym!
• One of the features of street dancing is that there are loads of “dance off competitions” where friends dance against each other with the audience deciding who is the winner – it can be fast and furious and often made up on the spot!
• If you want to give it a try why not see if your local leisure centre or community centre has a hip hop or modern dance class that you could join?  You’ll be flipping around like a flap jack in no time!

Listen again Street Dancing

Swimming!

• You might not think Monsters like swimming but I LOVE it!  Nothing better than getting my cossie on and ripping up a few lengths.  What do you mean you’ve never seen a monster in a swimming cossie?  Well what else am I supposed to wear – a suit of armour?  Hee hee!
• Swimming is one of the easiest types of exercise to get involved with as there are swimming pools in every single town.  Learning to swim is a really sensible thing to do, you might already be learning at school, maybe you can swim already.
• Even if you can’t you can use arm bands or inflatable rings to keep you afloat so there’s no need to be scared – there aren’t any Sea Monsters in swimming pools either – well not in many of them!
• If you don’t like swimming you can still have fun at the pool – splashing about, laying back and letting all your troubles float away, or watching other people doing fancy dives; its a great way to have fun with friends.
• Why not ask your mum and dad if you can go swimming this weekend?  Maybe see if your mates can come along too – it’s splashing good fun!

Listen again

Trampolining!

• If exercise isn’t normally your thing you might find trampolining puts a spring in your step – its basically bouncing around for fun!  Hee hee!
• Well OK, there’s a bit more to it than that – there are different moves with funny names you can learn like seat drops, pikes, swivel hips, somersaults… they’re not as easy as they look and you have to be mega fit to be able to put them all together.
• Safety is really important and you have to make sure you have spotters – they’re people who stand around the edge of the trampoline in case you fall off.
• If there’s a leisure centre near you why not ask about trampolining next time you go for a swim?  Quite often they run classes in the evenings and maybe you could join one.
• Just don’t practice on your bed, your mum won’t like that and I’ll get all the letters complaining – OK?

Listen again Trampolining

Rowing!

Row Row Row Your Boat
Gently Down the Stream
If you see a crocodile
Don’t forget to scream!!!

• Hee Hee! You probably won’t see many crocodiles in this country but it is a great way to see lots of wildlife close up, you might even see a sea monster if you’re lucky!
• Rowing is great fun and you don’t have to live near the sea side to do it – it’s something that can be done on boating lakes, canals and rivers – in fact lots of other places.
• Rowing is a great activity to do with your parents or friends.  It can be very relaxing, especially on a nice warm afternoon, where you can float along, have a race with some ducks or even play pirates with some friends in another rowing boat!!
• You don’t need to own your own boat, as it is very easy to hire a boat for an hour or two.  Make sure you go with your Mum or Dad or Nanny or Granddad or another adult you know though, you wouldn’t want to fall in and get all wet – yucky!
• So remember, if there is a boating lake or river near you, why not check out the opportunities to go messing about on the river, and go rowing with family and friends.

Listen again Rowing Boats

Flying a Kite!

• Flying a kite is easy to do anywhere outdoors but is best where there’s a load of space to run about – monsters LOVE running about.  Especially if we can go AAARRRGGGHHH whilst we’re running.  Hee hee!
• Kites need a bit of wind and a bit of practise.  They come in all sorts of sizes from teeny tiny ones that you can fly with one hand to giant ones that can lift a man or woman off the ground – wee heee!  That would be really great wouldn’t it, beats queuing for the bus hee hee!
• The Ancient Chinese were flying kites over 2000 years ago, not quite sure why, some kites are used to hunt with so maybe they hunted with them, or maybe they just liked running around outside going AARRGGHH!

Listen again