Gross Motor Skills Activities for Little Kids

Little kids need to spend hours every day enjoying gross motor skills activities. For preschoolers, active play that uses the large muscles in their legs, arms, and trunk is important for good health and physical development. Learning to harness the power of those muscles to run, jump, throw, catch, and kick is key to the healthy growth of their bodies and brains. It's also fun.

Muscle-moving play doesn't have to take up a ton of room. Given just a little floor space, your child can still enjoy skill-building activities inside. Try:

• Dancing, either freestyle or through songs with movements, such as "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," "I'm a Little Teapot," "The Wheels on the Bus," or "Popcorn," provides lots of motion. 
• Dance and movement classes, like pre-ballet or tumbling, can be fun and provide motor-development skills, but they can be an expense and are not the only option. It's more important that kids simply have time and opportunity to move their bodies, so don't worry if these classes don't work for your child or you.
• Playing pretend: Kids boost motor skills when they use their bodies to become waddling ducks, stiff-legged robots, galloping horses, soaring planes, or whatever they can imagine.
• Pulling or pushing wagons, large trucks, doll strollers, or shopping carts, can be a motor-developing part of play.
• Building and navigating obstacle courses with furniture, pillows, boxes, and blankets will develop large motor skills.
• Large-scale arts and crafts activities stimulate both large motor skills and creativity.

Kids have lots of room outside to really challenge their muscles and play hard. They will enjoy:

• Walking around the neighborhood or park. For variety, add in marching, jogging, skipping, hopping, or even musical instruments to form a parade. As you walk, tell stories, look for colors, count, or play games.
• Obstacle courses with rocks, logs, or playground equipment.
• Swimming and other water play.
• Balancing: Have your child walk on a low beam or plank at the playground or a homemade balance beam.
• Riding tricycles, scooters, and other ride-on toys.
• Throwing, catching, kicking, and rolling large, lightweight, softballs.
• Swinging, sliding, and climbing at a playground

Some of these work best outside, but others work equally well indoors or out. Motivate major movement with games such as:

• Tag or other classic games such as Follow the Leader, Mother May I, or Simon Says. Avoid or modify games that force kids to sit still or to be eliminated from play, such as Duck Duck Goose or Musical Chairs.
• Hit the target: Use hula hoops or chalk to designate targets on the ground, then have kids aim bean bags or balls (even snowballs). 
• Paper plate skates: Use paper plates to glide along on a carpet. Try to imitate speed skaters, hockey players, or figure skaters.
• Jump the brook: Lay out two jump ropes, or draw two chalk lines to represent the brook, and have kids try to jump over it. Try making it wider in some spots and narrower in others for a few levels of challenge.
• Soccer: Instead of playing a real game, just let kids enjoy kicking the ball and aiming it toward a goal or a large cardboard box or laundry basket turned on its side. You can try an easy indoor version that uses crumpled paper instead of balls.

Kids this age are also working on fine motor skills. Although those develop a bit later, they are crucial for important tasks like holding a pencil, cutting with scissors, using silverware to eat, and more. The following activities, and others like them, help children strengthen and learn to use the small muscles in their fingers and hands.

• Sand play: Pouring, scooping, sifting, building
• Puppet shows
• Sidewalk chalk or any art project, like finger painting or playing with clay
• Fingerplays: Songs such as "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" that have accompanying hand movements
• Cooking: Includes pouring, shaking, sprinkling, kneading, tearing, cutting with a butter knife
• Lacing cards or stringing beads
• Coloring and tracing with crayons, pencils, or markers
• Cutting with safety scissors
• Manipulative toys such as blocks, puzzles, or dolls with clothes to take on and off

Provide your preschooler with plenty of time to work her muscles, big and small. They all have to work together to help her succeed.