Developing Gross Motor Skills (8 Activities)

Motor skills are motions carried out when the brain, nervous system, and muscles work together. Fine motor skills are small muscle movements, such as grabbing something with your thumb and forefinger. Gross motor skills are bigger movements that use the bigger muscles such as running and jumping. (Resource: babycenter.com)

So often we focus on ways to practice and develop fine motor skills. So here are a few ways to get the bigger muscles moving with gross motor skill activities:

DIY Golf Course

Putt the ball through tunnels, under chairs, around stuffed animals, etc. 

Bowling

Use toilet paper tubes cut in half with cupcake liners on top as your pins. 

You can even use water bottles as pins. Roll a ball to knock them down. 

Obstacle Course

Make an obstacle course with pillows, painters tape, tunnels, blankets, or boxes. 

Move around, under, and over the obstacles. 

Indoor Balance Beam

Put a piece of painters tape on the floor and practice walking, crawling, or hopping on the balance beam. 

Human Size Board Game

Set up 10 pillows and start at the beginning. Roll the die and bounce from pillow to pillow (how many you rolled). When you get to the end, you win. 

Bean Bag Toss

Cut a square in the top of a shirt box. Toss bean bags and try to get as many as you can in the hole. 

Beware of Crocodiles

Cut out crocodile shapes from construction paper. Put them on the floor in a vertical line with letters, colors, shapes, or words at the end. We worked on names of the people in our family. Have your child tip toe, jump over, or gallop around the crocodiles to find a certain item at the end. For example, "Can you find the card that says Mom? Watch out for crocodiles!" and he would jump down, find the card, and jump back with it. 

Falling Flowers

Stand on a chair and drop silk flowers or silk leaves down to the floor. Let your child try to catch them midair in a bucket or cup.