If your little one needs to burn off some extra energy and you are not able to go outside, how about trying out some of these games designed to develop gross motor skills?

Create a “spider web” or an “avoid the lasers” game.  You can use painting or masking tape to stick up string, or even Christmas tinsel. Hang the string across a hallway, or create a space between some chairs, going diagonally in different directions, and your child has to try and carefully climb through the spaces without pulling any of the string down. This works on their balancing skills, and spatial perception.

If you have a small space such as a balcony, you could also stick tape down to create different designs to inspire your child to jump, hop or crawl on all fours through the design. Thinking of different animals they could be whilst engaging with the activity is another way to have some more fun with this. A green frog hopping? Or a pink flamingo balancing? Or even a purple spotted kangaroo, it’s totally up to your child!

Indoor hopscotch using tape on the floor, and a beanbag to throw uses balance, hand-eye coordination, and counting.

If you have a clear space and a hula hoop, your child can skip or jump through the hoop.

An indoor “egg” and spoon race (for cleaning up purposes it can also be a small ball, or at least a hardboiled egg), engages both hand-eye coordination, and balancing skills.

 

Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum links:

  • Physical Development: Movement and Handling. Your child is practising their gross motor skills, and hand-eye coordination, learning about the ways their body is able to move, and how they interact with the environment around them.
  • Mathematics: Numbers; Shape, space and measures. Needing to be able to calculate and constantly measure the environment around them is a skill which is incorporated into the Mathematics area at this stage. Counting and numbers can also be woven into activities like this, such as counting the hops, skips and jumps on the tape balancing exercises, or the numbers on the hopscotch.
  • Expressive arts and design: Being imaginative. Seeing beyond the materials as they are, and transforming string into an “avoiding the lasers” game, draws on imagination and motivation from your child. Pretending to be an animal hopping around like a frog requires your child to perceive themselves as another being, and to think of the characteristics of how that animal would move and behave.