GROSS MOTOR SKILLS FOR PRESCHOOLERS
Gross motor skills are those that require the use of large muscle groups. These often involve one’s ability to kick a large ball, catch a large ball in ones arms, sit down, or run. Manipulating the body into movement that requires curling, stretching, twisting and bending are our main objective with these activities. Fine motor skills are more to do with tiny muscles, such as those in your hand that must coordinate holding a pencil for example. For further examples to explain the difference between gross motor and fine motor skills check out Healthline, as they give thorough examples of their differences as well as supporting activities to match.
If you are concerned about gross motor delays in your children, or causes of gross motor delays, check out this gross motor milestone checklist, which sorts anticipated milestones from birth to age 5. Furthermore this chart by KidSense provides parents further insight into concerns to be made aware of if milestones are not achieved. Gross motor delays can be determined by a number of pediatric assessments and can be strengthened by a few physical therapy options. Working on gross motor skills with preschoolers drives us straight into the practice of balance, coordination, and body awareness.
Here are a few activities, games, and recommendations to help with the further development of a preschoolers gross motor skills. As a bonus, here are 50 indoor gross motor skill activities along with 20 outdoor gross motor skill activities. There are numerous ways to incorporate games into gross motor development training such as gross motor bingo. Many of the items in this list are games. You can even use a simple bean bag in multiple ways to help with gross motor development.
Let’s get started!
Red light, Green light!
This is a classic game that help with gross motor skills. The idea of controlling the body to a stop, and pushing the body to run, are quick off and on ways to train the brain in practice of gross motor body function. The next time you are out for a walk, or in the mall, try a quick game of red light, green light for a bit of fun, with gross motor practice.
Freeze Dance
Yes! Freeze Dance. Much like red light, green light; Freeze dance is is such a fun way to help children use large muscle groups to dance freely, and then be challenged to control those muscle groups to a halt when the music stops. Balance comes into play, as they are forced to stay still and not tip over as they are in the “Frozen” state.
Musical Chairs
We mentioned sitting earlier as a gross motor skill, but what way to make sitting fun, other than musical chairs?!?! In this game reaction time, group play, body coordination are all benefits of playing musical chairs. I highly encourage spacing out chairs to prevent kids from hurting or sitting on one another. On the safer side, feel free to use hula hoops, or carpet mats to sit them on the floor. Encourage them to sit crisscross apple sauce each time.
Pillow path on the floor
This game can be facilitated through pillow, sensory floor blocks, carpet squares, and the list goes on. Simply create a path throughout your home or classroom. Pretend that you are hiking on a trail, hopping over logs in an alligator swamp, or just having an ordinary day playing tag on the carpet squares. Choose what is best for you and your little ones. The pillow path helps to improve locomotor skills, such as hopping, jumping or skipping onto the next pillow. It also challenges balance, and body awareness as we endeavor to develop their gross motor skills.
Animal Simon Says
Simon says to hop like a bunny, jump like a kangaroo, crawl like a bear…These are great ways to get preschoolers moving, stretching and challenging their large muscle groups to bend and move while challenging their brain.
Alphabet Charades (Shape your body into a letter)
As you are practicing a letter sound, tracing, and recognizing a letter, throw in alphabet charades. You may prompt them to make the letter or they may pick one for others to guess. Some letters are easier than others to shape, so keep that in mind ahead of time. Easy letters include: Y, M, C, A (of course), plus F, K, L, lower case n, O, P, R, T, U, V, X, Z.
Yoga cards (You will love these!)
Balancing cards introduce body formations that inspire critical thinking along with gross motor skills. By mimicking the body posture on the card, first your preschooler has to think about how to do the same thing with their own body as they see on the picture (critical thinking). Next, they must challenge their own strength and coordination to maintain the stance. Traditional stances include tree pose, mountain pose, or warrior pose. Others are more abstract. Overall they teach one to identify different bases of support by balancing on different body parts such as your back, or your behind. All poses support healthy gross motor development, and of course critical thinking and learning long term.
Jump to ring the bell
In this activity tie a small bell on a string and hang it from a door way or other high spot. Have the preschooler jump to hit the bell. After a few successive times, elevate the bell just a little each time. The goal is to jump with control and land with balance. This activity is great because it tires them out, they really enjoy it, and of course it works on those large muscle groups.
Body Volleyball
The object of this activity is to volley a lightweight ball using different body parts. For this I recommend using a lightweight bouncy ball, stuffed animal or even a light bean bag. Explain that you will drop the large bouncy ball from the sky or other high spot and that you want them to deflect it with either their head, arm, leg, stomach, or hip. Demonstrate the activity first. After a few successful attempts and examples, your preschooler should now be comfortable to use different parts of their body to volley an object. Engaging with them at home with this type of activity I have found makes them unafraid of accidently getting hit, pushed, or bopped on the playground. They tend to be able to “brush it off” with a quick yell of “I’m okay!”, then get back to playing. Instead of being timid and afraid of a bouncy ball coming their way, they will actively step up to engage, catch, or deflect the object. Who wouldn’t be proud of their kids new found Spidey senses?!?!
Further reading - Gross Motor Development
*For further exploration, Visit the Center for Disease Control (CDC) for a full list of all CDC Developmental milestones for Social, cognitive, language and movement.