Body Brainstorm — How Many Ways Can You Move?

Turn divergent thinking into a whole-body game: “How many different ways can you get across the room?” “Can you move like something that’s NEVER been seen before?” “Show me a sad way to walk… a bouncy way… a way nobody has ever moved.” Instead of generating ideas with words, the child generates them with their body — every answer is a new movement nobody told them to make.

  1. Clear a little space. Pose an open movement challenge: “How many different ways can you cross to the wall? No way can be the same!”

  2. Cheer each new idea — hopping, crawling, slithering, spinning, tiptoeing, rolling, crab-walking, giant steps. Count them as they pile up.

  3. Add imagination prompts: “Move like you’re heavy as an elephant… light as a feather… like a robot… like something melting.” Or “invent a brand-new dance move and teach it to me.”

  4. Copy the child’s invented moves back (they love being the leader), then ask for “a different one.”

  5. String favorites into a short made-up sequence or “silly-walk dance” and perform it.

Variation: add music and change its mood (creep to spooky music, bounce to fast music). Use a scarf or ribbon and ask “how many ways can you make it move?” Play “the floor is…” (ice, sticky mud, hot sand) and invent a way to cross each.

Requirements

  • Space: A clear, open area indoors or out — a few square meters with nothing to bump into
  • Surface: Non-slip floor, grass, or a rug; bare feet or grippy shoes
  • Materials: None; optional music, or a scarf, ribbon, or beanbag as a prop
  • Participants: 1 child, or a group taking turns inventing and copying moves
  • Supervision: Moderate — keep the space clear and watch for collisions and overexcitement

Rationale & Objective

This is divergent thinking expressed through the body, and it has a direct precedent: E. Paul Torrance designed the Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement assessment for children aged three to eight, scoring fluency, originality, and imagination through exactly such prompts — “how many ways can you move across the floor?” and “can you move like…?” Because it doesn’t depend on a young child’s verbal skill, movement is an ideal channel for creativity at five. Generating many novel movements exercises movement fluency and originality, and treating each child-invented move as genuine creativity reflects Beghetto and Kaufman’s (2009) mini-c. Finland’s national curriculum names physical expression as one of the diverse forms of expression, and HighScope’s KDI 42 has children represent what they observe, think, imagine, and feel through movement. The game builds toward the subdomain’s divergent-thinking markers and links naturally to the Dance & Expressive Movement subdomain.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: offers one or two ways to move, like walk and run, and repeats them; copies others rather than inventing; the open-endedness is still new
  • Developing: produces several different movements with prompting, enjoys the animal and imagery prompts, and begins to offer an original move of their own
  • Proficient: invents many varied movements without much prompting, makes deliberately unusual choices, and matches movement quality to an image like heavy, floaty, or jerky
  • Advanced: generates a large, inventive range of original movements, combines them into sequences, teaches invented moves to others, and improvises expressively to changing music or moods

Safety Notes

  • Clear the space of furniture, sharp corners, and obstacles before fast or spinning movement, and define boundaries
  • Use a non-slip surface and bare feet or grippy shoes, and watch for slips during sliding or spinning moves
  • Build in calm-downs after spinning or vigorous play to avoid dizziness, collisions, and overexcitement, especially in a group
  • Match challenges to ability and leave room for safe risk while preventing genuinely risky moves like jumping from height
  • Give children space from each other so invented moves don’t lead to bumps

Hints

  • Playfulness: join in and let the child be the dance teacher correcting YOUR moves; the more theatrically you copy their invention, the harder they’ll work to invent another.
  • Sustain interest: change the theme often (animals one day, robots the next, weather, emotions), add music to shift the energy, and keep sessions short and high-energy so it stays a treat.
  • Common mistake: demonstrating ’the’ way to move (which makes them copy you) or judging moves as silly — keep prompts open and accept every invention; resist turning it into a structured dance lesson.
  • Limited space / no equipment: no props or music needed — even a small clear patch works for ‘invent a move with just your hands,’ or seated ‘how many ways can you move your arms?’ for tight spaces.
  • Cross-domain: the movement builds gross-motor skills, balance, and body awareness; matching moves to feelings grows emotional literacy; following and inventing sequences supports memory; adding music links to the Music and Dance subdomains.
  • Progression: find two or three ways to cross the room → generate many different ways without repeats → match movement to an image or feeling → invent and name an original move → combine moves into a sequence and teach or perform it.

Sources

  • Torrance, E. P. (1981). Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM). Scholastic Testing Service — a creativity assessment for ages 3–8 (fluency, originality, imagination)
  • Runco, M. A. & Acar, S. (2012). “Divergent thinking as an indicator of creative potential.” Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 66–75
  • Kaufman, J. C. & Beghetto, R. A. (2009). “Beyond big and little: The Four C Model of Creativity.” Review of General Psychology, 13(1), 1–12
  • Finland National Core Curriculum for ECEC (2022) — Diverse forms of expression (physical expression)
  • HighScope KDI 42 (movement)
  • UK EYFS — Expressive Arts and Design — Being Imaginative and Expressive ELG