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The following movement activities promote the following types of coordination skills:
Gross motor coordination: This type of coordination is the movement of arms, legs and body that allows children to walk, run, jump, throw kick and twist.
Fine motor coordination: This type of coordination allows children toperform tasks that require precision. Activities that require children to manipulate small objects will improve their fine motor skills.
Hand-eye coordination: This type of coordination allows children to guide their hand to complete the task.
Movement Activities:
Movement activity: Doors and Windows
Age: 5 years
Minimum number of participants:10
Resources needed: Clear space.
Other benefits: Spatial awareness, group work.
Instructions: The children form a circle while standing and holding their hands. The group spreads out enough so that everyone’s arms arestraight in the circle. This should form large spaces between the circle members. These large spaces represent the windows and doors. Then one child is chosen to be the runner. The runner starts running,and weaving in and out between the windows and doors. The children inthe circle randomly drop their arms down trying to touch or trap the runner who is weaving his/her way in and out of the windows and door.Once the runner is caught or touched by the arms of someone in the. circle, they are out. The runner chooses another child in the group to take his/her place and they become the next child to weave in and out of the windows and doors.
Movement activity: Centipede
Age: 5 years +
Minimum number of participants:
Resources needed: Clear space.
Other benefits: Teamwork, trust.
Instructions: Divide the group into groups of 5 or 6. The children ineach group sit on the floor and hold the ankles of the child behind them. They call out left, right and the group has to try to move while everyone is holding the ankles of the child in front of them. If there is more than one group they can have a centipede race.
Movement activity: Object Relay
Age: 5 years +
Minimum number of participants: 4
Resources needed: Clear space, a ball and a variety of objects (optional).
Other benefits: Imagination, teamwork, focus.
Instructions: Children stand in a line. If there are lots of childrenin the class you make more than one line. Each line has a ball. The ball must be passed down the line. The teacher calls out the instruction of how the ball should be passed down the line. Once the ball gets to the end of the line it has to be passed back. Suggested instructions:
- Pass the ball overhead.
- Pass the ball between your legs.
- Pass the ball without using your hands.
- Pass the ball by just using your chest.
- Pass the ball by just using your head.
If a team drops the ball then they have to go back to the beginning.
Extension: You could have a box of different objects that they must pass down the line. Each line should have the same objects. The line that gets all the objects down safely is the winner.
Movement activity: Bean Bag Balance
Age: 4 years +
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space, bean bags for each member of the class Other benefits: Focus, imagination, problem solving.
Instructions: The teacher gets the children put a bean bag on their heads and they walk slowly around the room. Once they feel comfortable the children can walk faster and faster. They can see if they can run with the bean bag on their head. Once they have mastered balancing the beanbags on their head then they can see if they can balance the bean bag on other parts of their body. Suggested Body Parts:
- Knees
- Foot
- Hands
- Thighs
- Shoulder
- Face
- Wrist
- Toes
Again, they start off slowly and then they get faster and faster. The child that can balance on the most body parts and move the fastest is the winner.
Movement activity: Pick Up the Bean Bag
Age: 3 years +
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space and a variety of bean bags, a basket orbox for each child.
Other benefits: Warm up, teamwork.
Instructions: The teacher gets a variety of bean bags and spreads them across the space. The children have 10 seconds to see how many beanbags they can collect. The group could divide into sub-groups of three or four and have a race to see who can pick up the most beanbags in the time allotted.
Movement activity: Roll the Dice
Age: 3 years+
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space, a dice for each member of the group.
Other benefits: Creativity, memory, focus.
Instructions: Everyone rolls their dice together. Each number corresponds to action such as: 1 Wiggle your body for 10 seconds. 2 Spin around 5 times. 3 Stand on your right leg for 15 seconds. 4 Hop 10 times. 5 Make a large circle with your arms 10 times. 6 Close your eyes and take 5 deep breaths. Once the children have become used to the actions, get them to come up with their own actions for each number.
Movement activity: The Troll’s Bridge
Age: 4 years +
Minimum number of participants: 3
Resources needed: Masking tape, objects to carry.
Other benefits: Energy, focus.
Instructions: Make a bridge with the masking tape. Tell the children that they are crossing a very narrow bridge and there is a troll thatlives underneath it. The children are crossing the bridge going to visit their friend. They are carrying a variety of objects with them.The children are told the troll won’t bother them if they stay on the narrow bridge and don’t drop anything. If they fall off the bridge or drop anything then the troll chases them. The troll can be the teacher or another child. If you want to make it more difficult tell them. to carry the objects over the bridge on their head.
Movement activity: Cooperative Chase
Age: 3 years +
Minimum number of participants: 6
Resources needed: Clear space.
Other benefits: Warm-up, teamwork.
Instructions: One child volunteers to be “It.” If he catches another child in the group then they join together and connect. The connected pair need to work together to catch a third child who in turn would connect to them. They do it until everyone is connected. If the group catches someone and the connection is broken, then that child is free to go.
From more movement activities, games and stories, click here.
For free movement activities click on the following:
The hare and the tortoise movement story.
Goldilocks and the three bears movement story
More movement activities for children.
Each child finds a space and sits down. Each child or a group of children are assigned a specific word and a corresponding action. The narrator/teacher reads the story aloud, and when the children hear their word, they must jump up and do their actions. The words are in bold to assist the teacher.
