Gross motor skills Archives - Page 2 of 2

Add ribbons and swirl

05/07/2011 by Cathy James 10 Comments

I loved Jeanne’s comment saying the title of yesterday’s post sounded like a recipe, so continuing with that idea we today we have ‘take one child, add a dash of ribbons and swirl together with music.’

Children always have the best play ideas, don’t they? These pictures show B enjoying dancing with the streamers she made after discovering a forgotten bag of ribbons. She simply tied a one to the end of a stick and was ready to go. Both my girls love dancing but I’ve resisted sending them to an organised dance class for now, instead letting them explore their own dance style.

Create your own dance studio [Read more…]

Five fabulous ideas for feet

22/05/2011 by Cathy James 10 Comments

Five fabulous ideas for a feet theme.

1. Set up a shoe shop: gather together as many different types of shoes as you can: lace-ups, high heels, flippers, wellies, ballet shoes, walking boots, football boots, slippers. Talk about when you would wear all these different types of footwear – what’s special about them? Add in some imaginary play and have some of the children be the shop assistants and some be the customers. Add in some maths by measuring everyones feet and graphing the results.

2. Explore movement and see what your feet can do: Play musical statues but have the children try out a different movement each time the music re-starts. Can they walk, hop, skip, run, go backwards, walk on tip toes? Try some other challenges such as seeing if they can pick blocks up with their feet and load them into a bucket. Or hold a crayon between their toes and do some drawing.

3. Discover animals’ feet: use toy animals or print off some pictures and investigate their feet. Talk about paws, hooves, webbed feet, claws and talons. Add some classification practise by sorting the animals into those with no feet, two feet, four feet, lots of feet. How do the animals’ feet suit how they live? Which animals can walk on the ceiling?

4. Make some footprints: for a great collaborative work of art tape big rolls of paper to the floor and then play some music. Have the children step in some paint and then dance their way over the canvas.

5. Read all about feet: with this fabulous selection of stories suggested by NurtureStore’s Facebook and Twitter friends. (Come and join us on Facebook and Twitter for lots more resources and idea swaps)

Like our ideas? Please VOTE FOR US in the UK Mum and Dad Blog awards!

happily shared with made by little hands Monday and math Monday and preschool corner and Outdoor Play and we play and math Monday and Tot School

Parachute games

16/03/2011 by Cathy James 16 Comments

We love parachute games! They are great for some large scale play with a group of children and are wonderful for promoting team work and listening skills, as everyone needs to work together to follow instructions and listen to cues to make the games work. You can play parachute games inside or out, with a play parachute or a big piece of fabric or a bedsheet. You don’t even need a whole class of children – I’ve played this happily as a pair with a toddler who loved bouncing their teddy on the sheet.

Parachute play ideas to try:

Follow the leader: Have someone be the leader and give the rest of the group instructions – and of course the leader can be one of the children rather than the grown-up! Try giving instructions to walk to the left, skip to the right, hold up high, couch down low, shake the parachute gently, shake the parachute quickly.

Add some bounce. You can add a seasonal element or fit parachute play to a theme by adding some props on to the top to bounce around while you play. Cotton wool balls make great snow, and we use fir cones in the autumn. We find teddies love a ride and balloons add a dash of chaotic fun!

As well as having the children work together around the edge of the parachute, have them listen out for instructions that apply just to themselves. Have everyone lift the parachute way up high and then give instructions for children to run underneath the parachute if they are wearing something green, if they have brown hair, if they like eating bananas and so on.

You can also pick someone to sit in the centre of the circle and wrap them up like a birthday present, or spin them like a washing machine. Remind the children to keep the parachute low to the ground when you do this, so the person in the centre doesn’t have their head covered. It’s very funny for the children to have one of the grown-ups sit in the centre to be wrapped up (believe me, I’ve tried it!)

Sherry and Donna from Irresistible Ideas have some great photos of their children enjoying parachute play with music and show how working together means you can even make your bouncing teddy hit the roof!

We’re always looking for new inspiration – what ideas for parachute play have you tried?

(Thanks for our Facebook friend Lily Vanilli for the washing machine idea.)

Happily shared with For the Kids Friday and Preschool Corner

Games for crawlers

13/02/2011 by Cathy James Leave a Comment

When baby’s start being on the move a whole new world of adventure opens up to them. Whether they’re crawling, shuffling, or hitching along on their elbows makes no difference – once they’re off, there’s lots of fun to be had exploring their surroundings from this new perspective.

Of course, you need check your play space to make sure things are safe now your baby is mobile, but you can also see which new play possibilities you can add in. The easiest thing to do is set up some ‘play stations’ around the room, with something enticing in each place for your baby to crawl over to and explore. You don’t need to buy anything new but it’s a great idea to keep changing what you put out so you catch your baby’s eye with something new, and you provide lots of different shapes, sizes and textures for them to explore.

How about a little peek-a-boo treasure hunt. We talked about babies loving seeing familiar faces with last week’s lift-the-flap love book and you can extend this into a game too. Take some photos of favourite people (you might want to laminate them or cover them in sticky backed plastic to make them a little sturdier) and ‘hide’ them around the room. You’ll want them to be easy for your baby to spot, so have them down at crawling level, poking out from behind the sofa or the corner of the toybox. Then it’s ready, set, go! to see how fast your baby can round up granny and grandad from behind the bookcase!

These ideas encourage your baby to practise their crawling and develop their gross motor skills. They encourage exploration and give you lots to chat about together as you play.

More activities for babies and toddlers

Zero to Two: The Book of Play is full of fun activities for babies and toddlers. Download you copy here!