Fun And Easy Activities to Develop Gross Motor Skills
- Gross motor skills are a part of physical development, one of the four facets of developmental milestones.
- Gross motor skills are the ability to move the body, coordinate limbs, and successfully use the arms, legs, torso, as well as other large muscle groups to achieve balance and strength.
- Gross motor skills are broken up into three groups; locomotor, manipulative, and stability skills - which all offer various benefits to the body's development.
- We have listed 5 fun and creative activities to help develop gross motor skills, as well as 3 timeless favourites that will never go out of style.
As a parent or educator, it is our responsibility to support the whole growth of the children in our care by considering everything from emotional support to healthy physical development.
Whether you are a mom or dad looking to find new activities to keep the little ones engaged at home, a nanny who wants to support the children in your care, or a kindergarten teacher looking for fun ways to develop the growing skills of your students - here are some fun and easy activities to develop gross motor skills in children aged 0 - 5 years old.
But First, A Quick Refresher On Gross Motor Skills
When it comes to childhood development, there are a set of milestones, otherwise known as “Ages and Stages” which are the developmental stages that each individual reaches at certain ages throughout their growth. Each milestone is made up of four domains or parts: Physical Development, Cognitive Development, Language Development, and Socio-Emotional Development.
Physical development is all about motor skills, the skills required to move the body. Gross motor skills are the movements that involve large muscle groups (such as the stabilizing of the core or abs) used to carry out everyday functions such as sitting and walking. Simply put, gross motor skills are the ability to move, coordinate, and successfully use the arms, legs, torso, as well as other large muscle groups. These skills are one of two skills sets that contribute to the physical aspect of development in a child. Gross motor skills develop during childhood and form the solid foundation for other physical skills (fine motor skills) to develop.
Types of Gross Motor Skills and Their Benefits
Gross motor skills can be further broken down into three different groups that focus on certain skills and offer distinct benefits. It’s important to keep these groups in mind when you are wanting to target certain skills to develop and create an activity plan tailored to each unique and individual child.
- Locomotor skills are used to move the body around and include skills like walking, galloping, hopping, jumping, leaping, running, skipping, and sliding.
- Manipulative skills are used to move and control objects to achieve a goal and include skills like lifting, pushing, pulling, kicking, bouncing, catching, and throwing.
- Stability skills are used to balance and transfer weight and includes skills like static balance (standing still on one leg or both), dynamic balance (balancing during or after movement like tumbling, climbing, and coming to a stop after running) and axial stability (like bending over to touch the toes).
These various skill groups help children develop muscle tone and strength, balance and posture, hand-eye coordination, improve reaction speed, encourage thinking actions through, and body awareness.
So now that we are up to speed on the theoretical side of gross motor skills - let's get into some fun and easy activities to practically improve these skills.
Fun and Easy Activities for Children Aged 0 - 5 years
Gross motor skills can be further broken down into three different groups that focus on certain skills and offer distinct benefits. It’s important to keep these groups in mind when you are wanting to target certain skills to develop and create an activity plan tailored to each unique and individual child.
- Sensory crawling - encourage crawling by placing little ones on a variety of surfaces such as soft cool beach sand, smooth wooden floors, cool tiles on a hot day, plush carpets when it’s colder, and bubble wrap for loads of giggles!
- Walking on clouds - build strength, balance and coordination by covering the floor in a variety of soft pillows and have some fun walking on the clouds. You can even go one step further to build a fort around the pillows so that the child has their own little cozy cave to escape to.
- Balloon tennis - blow up some balloons and let the fun begin! Bouncing, kicking, or hitting balloons to one another is a great way to improve manipulative skills. Extend this activity by adding in different coloured balloons for the children to identify as they manipulate the balloon. Has someone just learnt to crawl? Opt for a helium balloon and tie it around their foot so you can keep tabs on the little adventurer.
- Chasing Bubbles - these soapy spheres of joy are always a great idea to get the little ones moving. Whether they are catching them, chasing after them, or blowing them - bubbles will always get the body moving.
- Animal Yoga - this is a wonderful way to develop stability skills and strengthen muscles with the added bonus of calming the mind. This mindful activity helps children focus on their breathing while having fun in the process. Simply strike an animal yoga pose, take a deep breath in, and make the correlating animal sound (or the sound you think they make) as you exhale. The creativity in making up interesting animal sounds will bring on some laughs to balance the calming breathwork. It may even be a wonderful segway into animal roleplay games or charades.
Timeless Favourites
- Dance Party - These are a timeless gross motor activity that brings happiness while expending energy in the process! From following instruction songs (like this one) to making up your own interpretive dance moves to “Let it go”, stability and locomotor skills are exercised in this fun activity.
- Obstacle course - This fantastically fun and versatile activity can be tailored to suit various ages and developmental needs. Simply line up a series of activities to complete in a circuit and let the fun unfold. These smaller activities can include:
- Balance beam or walking along a line of tape at home. You can extend this for older children by asking them to walk backwards.
- Hopscotch, practising hopping on either foot as well as both feet. Extend this activity by placing numbers/letters/colours/shapes on the blogs for the little ones to identify.
- Climbing on and over solid objects (such as a bean bag) - be sure to only introduce jumping versions (such as “the floor is lava”) when the child is ready.
- Going down a slide or waterslide.
- Skipping between activity stations and running around cones.
- Treasure Hunt - the final timeless favourite for many reasons! A treasure hunt is a great way to apply locomotive, manipulative, and stability skills all in one. Simply hide objects around the yard, playground, or room and let the little ones seek them out. Extend this activity by requesting the objects get sorted once they are found eg., according to colours, number groups (one group of one, one group of two, one group of three etc.)
So there we have it, a few fun and easy activities to set up at home or in the classroom to develop gross motor skills. We hope this inspires loads of laughs and fun as you help your little ones grow into strong and capable individuals.
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