The 18 Best Movement Activities for Preschoolers’ Gross Motor Development

Each round lasts two minutes during which students take turns quizzing each other and confirming the correct answers on their cards. At the end of the round, students will trade cards with their partner. The activity continues until all students have interacted with multiple partners and questions. The teacher will display a statement and give students 45 seconds to review it. Once the initial timer goes off the students get 30 seconds to stand up if they agree with the displayed statement, or to stay seated if they disagree. The third timer gives students 1 minute to discuss their position with their group.

Similar to the game Simon Says, this movement activity allows for one leader to pick and do the movement. The rest of the class will follow along, copying the movements of the leader. Obstacle courses can be fun for the teacher and the students. Add fun and challenging obstacle courses to your school day and enjoy watching students try to figure out how to get through correctly.

He/she will carry that card on the course to the end to find the corresponding pet. Once at the end point, select the corresponding “Pet Card” and place it on the “Pet Home Card” that he/she has been carrying. Turn around and repeat the actions until he/she gets to the start point. Jeremy is the former assistant strength and conditioning coach for the Holy Cross athletic department. Prior to joining Holy Cross, Frisch served as the sports performance director at Competitive Athlete Training Zone in Acton, Massachusetts. In 2004, he did a strength and conditioning internship at Stanford University.

Save the Picnic! Movement Game

Or, make a card with pictures of insects – like in the example below – and walk around the garden with your children finding as many of these creatures as you can. Young children enjoy symbolic play and you could even dress up for this one. Or get children to walk along a curb or other narrow, slightly raised platform. Pretend to be tightrope walkers and practise the skill of balance and concentration. Here are some fun Simon Says ideas with a special section of commands that will work the larger muscles.

Other students can respond to what their peers offer as well. Create a furniture course in your house or apartment. Add in specific mental or physical challenges to keep the kids guessing.

While some virtual reality headsets still cost thousands of pounds, some of the most popular ones cost less than £500. Incisiv has just released Dodgecraft, which replicates some of the moves and reflexes needed by rugby, football and dodgeball players. Prof Craig’s academic career at Ulster University focuses on perception and the study of movement, and she is a former rugby player herself.

Try these great alphabet exercises with your child, and they will learn while they are moving their bodies. Here are lots of exercises you can do with a Bosu ball (think of an exercise ball cut in half). Perfect for rainy days where we still need to move, but space is limited. Here’s a fun obstacle course, Super Mario Party-themed.

The team that has the fastest time tagging wins the game. Some of the key skills developed are quick changes of direction, efficient movement in tight spaces, and the ability to process a lot of visual input quickly. Providing small children with regular brain breaks helps them to re-energise and refocus on a task. During early childhood, regular physical activity is crucial for children’s development. Without movement, children would not grow properly and would have severe developmental delays. All of these factors makes it even more necessary for you as an educator to incorporate movement brain breaks into learning routines.

More fun activities for kids of all ages

Sports games are “the most obvious ones” to utilise the power of virtual reality, according to Prof Craig. Despite all the advances in technology, many of us still play games like we did a decade ago – on a screen with a hand-held controller. Have the kids stuff themselves into their pillowcases, then send them off down a carpeted hallway or across a room with a rug toward an imaginary finish line. Add in obstacles to make it more challenging and to keep the fun rolling.

Anecdotally, I have seen kids run back and forth for upward of 300–400 yards in a game. They do this without realizing they are actually conditioning because they are engaged and having fun. Things like chase, tag, hide and seek, and tree climbing fall into this Movement games category. The more children are exposed to activities that strengthen their concentration and frequent movement breaks to extend their focus, the more their attention span increases over time. Here are some of the benefits of regular movement activities for children.

Get more on this sweet idea over at Toddler Approved. All it takes to play balloon volleyball, baseball, basketball, or hockey is hot air (to blow up the balloons!) and a little ingenuity. Use trash cans on opposite sides of the room as baskets and a simple painter’s tape line to divide the room for a volleyball net. For hockey and baseball, use pool noodles to bat balloons in the air or on the ground.