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Growing Hands-On Kids

Growing Hands-On Kids

Child Development Tips, Tools, and Strategies

You are here: Home / Gross Motor Skills / Ideas for Gross Motor Play in Your Tot-School & Preschool

Ideas for Gross Motor Play in Your Tot-School & Preschool

July 25, 2014 By Heather Greutman 3 Comments

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Today is the last day in our 5 days of Tot-School & Preschool Ideas series! Today we are going to talk about ideas for gross motor play, probably one of the most important things to include for our kids!

I hope you have been enjoying this Tot-School & Preschool Ideas series I have been doing this week in connecting with the iHomeschool Network and their Summer Hopscotch! There are a ton of other homeschool bloggers sharing their series this week too, so be sure to head over to the page and check out all the other topics!

Here are the rest of the topics in this series, in case you missed them:

  • Practical Life Skills
  • Fine Motor Skills
  • Sensory Activities
  • Handwriting (Pre-writing)
  • Gross Motor Skills

Get your kids moving with these fun gross motor play ideas for your toddler & preschooler! | www.GoldenReflectionsBlog.com

 

We all know that kids need to move! Movement is crucial to their overall development. All the other skills we talked about this week, fine motor, sensory, handwriting, practical life, all depend on movement! If your child is not building up strong muscles and healthy bodies, all these other skills will be lacking!

Children 6 years old and under are in what's called a hands on learning phase. This also means all body movements for learning! It is so important for them to move and explore their world!

So today I am sharing my favorite ways to get kids moving!

Ideas for Gross Motor Play

Movement and learning are important parts of development for kids! | www.GoldenReflectionsBlog.com

One of my favorite things I have found recently are the ABC's of Movement Flashcards. They were designed by Laurie Gombash, a Physical Therapist in order to promote movement as well as language skills! These cards are great to use are pre-writing activities too! Kids will be able to form the letters better with their pencils when the can feel the entire movement of that letter through their bodies!

You can read my official review and also see a video demonstration on how the cards work over at my Why Movement is Important for Learning post.

The Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks

 

The Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks would be ideal for your older preschooler! I absolutely LOVE this ebook by Heather Haupt and I recommend it all the time here on GRB. There are 60 Brain Break cards included that give you tons of movement ideas to put into your day! These are perfect for your older children too, getting the entire family moving together!

Move > Focus > Learn with the Ultimate Guide to Brain Breaks

 

A couple fun ideas I have done with my 2 year old are a tunnel play game and also a laundry basket push game.

sensory processing playTunnel play game to encourage crawling, a great sensory processing play activity! | www.GoldenReflectionsBlog.com

Both of the activities above are great to work on proprioceptive and vestibular sensory input! We talked about it a little bit when we talked about including sensory activities in your tot-school and preschool, but here is a brief overview, in case you missed that.

What is the Vestibular System?

The vestibular system is composted of the middle/inner ear area and have to do with the sense of balance. So any of your large, gross motor movements, such as hanging upside down, walking a balance beam, crawling, rolling, spinning, swinging, all engage the vestibular system. In children with sensory processing difficulties, they often have a weakened vestibular system which does not allow them to regulate in-coming sensory input properly.

What is Proprioceptive Input?

Proprioceptive input is sensory input gathered from large muscles and the spine. Many of the same activities that include the vestibular system that we talked about above are also great proprioceptive input! Other things like jumping, skipping, jumping jacks, running, are all great proprioceptive sensory activities.

 Gross Motor Play Ideas for Toddlers & Preschoolers

  • Scooter board activities
  • Relay races
  • Jumping
  • Hopping
  • Skipping
  • Running
  • Climbing
  • Riding a bike
  • Playing sports
  • Trampolines
  • Hiking
  • Swimming

These are just a few ideas to get you going!

I also have a couple great gross motor play pinterest boards you can follow, one for bilateral coordination activities and one for vestibular & proprioceptive activities!

Follow Heather G. | Golden Reflections Blog's board Bilateral Coordination Activities on Pinterest.

Follow Heather G. | Golden Reflections Blog's board Vestibular & Proprioceptive Activities on Pinterest.

You can also find me on Facebook where I share tons of ideas every day and we have a lot of fun chatting too!

 

 

iHomeschool Network 5 Day Hopscotch 2014!

 

Sharing with: Crafts on Sea, Hip Homeschool Moms, Left Brain Craft, B-Inspired Mama, Toddler & Preschoolers, Enchanted Homeschooling Mom, Living Montessori Now

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Filed Under: Gross Motor Skills Tagged With: For Parents, Gross Motor, Infants/Toddlers 0-3, Preschool 3-5, Tot-School

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CONTENT DISCLAIMER: Heather Greutman is a Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant. All information on the Website is for informational purposes only and is not a replacement for medical advice from a physician or your pediatrician. Please consult with a medical professional if you suspect any medical or developmental issues with your child. The information on the Websites does not replace the relationship between therapist and client in a one-on-one treatment session with an individualized treatment plan based on their professional evaluation. The information provided on the Website is provided “as is” without any representations or warranties, express or implied. Do not rely on the information on the Website as an alternative to advice from your medical professional or healthcare provider. You should never delay seeking medical advice, disregard medical advice, or discontinue medical treatment as a result of any information provided on the Website. All medical information on the Website is for informational purposes only. All activities outlined on the Website are designed for completion with adult supervision. Please use your own judgment with your child and do not provide objects that could pose a choking hazard to young children. Never leave a child unattended during these activities. Please be aware of and follow all age recommendations on all products used in these activities. Growing Hands-On Kids is not liable for any injury when replicating any of the activities found on this blog. YOUR RESPONSIBILITY The Website was developed strictly for informational purposes. You understand and agree that you are fully responsible for your use of the information provided on the Website. Growing Hands-On Kids makes no representations, warranties or guarantees. You understand that results may vary from person to person. Growing Hands-On Kids assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions that may appear in the Website.

Comments

  1. Katie Pinch says

    August 5, 2014 at 10:59 am

    Hi Heather, thanks so much for sharing this post at the Love to Learn Linky. You have some great ideas for encouraging gross motor play which is so important for health reasons, coordination, and even brain development! I can’t wait to see more of your posts, I hope you will come share again this Thursday!

    Reply
    • Heather Greutman says

      August 15, 2014 at 9:39 pm

      Thank you very much Katie.

      Reply
  2. Jill says

    April 11, 2015 at 10:38 pm

    We can’t get enough gross motor play! These are great ideas!

    Thank you for stopping by the Thoughtful Spot Weekly Blog Hop this week. We hope to see you drop by our neck of the woods next week!

    Reply

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