We all know how it goes – our child just can’t stop moving, jumping, and climbing all over the place. These gross motor skills are so important for kids! Which is why I have three boys doing a DIY obstacle course in my living room as I type. You might’ve also heard that we should be encouraging them to keep moving around, but why? Gross motor activities for preschoolers are essential for young children to develop better body awareness, balance coordination, as well as self-awareness and confidence. So how do we help our child at home? I removed the guesswork and created this list of 25 low-prep gross motor activities.
RELATED: Bikes are such a fun way to practice gross motor development and have been a staple in my boy’s childhood. I wrote this parent’s guide to bikes for kids to help point you in the right direction.
What are gross motor skills?
Gross motor skills involve full-body movements, mainly involving larger muscle groups, like the torso, arms, and legs. Strengthening these areas of the body also helps improve balance and coordination. Remember catching a ball in the backyard with your friends? You were actually improving your hand-eye coordination and developing arm strength. All while having fun!
Physical activities such as tossing a ball, chasing a friend, and climbing the monkey bars on playground equipment typically take practice. You will notice your child’s gross motor movements improve over time. Young kids become more self-aware and confident as they explore their large muscle groups.
It’s no secret that gross motor skills matter and make a difference in a child’s development. Worried your child isn’t practicing enough gross motor? Stop the stress! You might actually be surprised by how much gross motor development stems from natural everyday play-based activities!
Everyday activities for gross motor skills
- Balancing your body (no fancy equipment required!)
- Catching a reusable water balloon
- Coordination
- Crossing the mid-line
- Dancing
- Galloping
- Hopping
- Jumping
- Moving from side to side
- Navigating an obstacle course
- Running
- Skipping
- Swinging
RELATED: Want to take the active play practice outside? Here are my favorite outdoor toys for kids.
Gross motor skills vs. fine motor skills
There are two types of motor skills: gross motor and fine motor.
- Gross motor skills use large body muscles to improve large motor skills
- Fine motor skills use smaller muscles in the wrists, hands, and fingers to engage in smaller movements
Both motor skills are equally important to develop and can often be developed together! Think about how catching a ball requires you to wrap your fingers around it.
Looking for ways to support your child’s fine motor skills? Don’t miss my fine motor activities post that I created specifically for busy teachers and parents that need simple and fun ideas.
Ages and stages of physical development
Here are some general guidelines to help develop your child’s gross motor skills. Use this article from the AAP for a deeper understanding how to improve motor and developmental milestones.
Age three: Children should begin to be able to demonstrate coordination by running, swinging, throwing, dancing, catching, pedaling a tricycle, and even hopping.
Age four: You will begin to recognize a more confident use of large muscles. Children will start to run more efficiently and put one foot on a stair at a time when climbing down.
Age five: Children should be able to master all of the above, plus have more robust balance, agility, and coordination. Some five-year-olds will begin to learn how to ride and pedal a bike. Practicing on a balance bike in the earlier years can help with this!
20+ gross motor activities for kids
Filling your child’s day with physical activity may feeling overwhelming and complicated, but I’m here to help you out. This list of gross motor activities for preschoolers is full of easy ideas for your kids to do to get active inside and out. Because let’s be real: when younger siblings are napping and everyone stays home, it isn’t possible to sit still. Let’s help our toddlers and preschoolers move arms and legs inside and out.
RELATED: Have chalk? These chalk activities for kids are a blast!
Indoor gross motor activities
Obstacle courses are great fun, but sometimes we just don’t want to clean up the mess it brings on. From a parent that had an indoor fort filled with painter’s tape and bed sheets in her living room for three weeks, I am no stranger to clutter. Instead of grabbing all the gear, I created 11 play-based indoor gross motor activities that are a little more contained – and still loads of fun!
Apple Scoop and Sort
Grab some apples, water, and a scooper. Sorting apples by color is a great gross motor activity for little kids that strengthens their arm muscles and lets them learn to hold a steady hand.
Toy Transport
I know that writing and moving your body are not typically grouped, but pre-writing with colors is like a little secret mission. Here, your child moves left to right and sees lines like straights, zigzags, and curves in the same way that we form lines and letters. Pretty sneaky, right?
Gross Motor Movement Cube
I can assure you that one thing preschoolers need to do is MOVE. Toss this movement cube from the couch as your child runs to grab what they need.
Gross Motor Wooden Tracks Mini Golf
Creative activities come from taking an idea and designing an activity on your own terms. This indoor mini-golf course (made with train tracks) is right the play activity you need for innovative thinking and learning through free play.
Magnetic Tiles Bowling
Some days call for extra snacks, while others call for magnetic tiles bowling. Spoiler alert: this case calls for both! Because you know kids are hungry. All. The. Time. Gather that collection of magnetic tiles and get playing today!
Pour to the Lines
This gross motor activity has children practice their pouring skills without making a mess (or at least the mess goes in the large sensory bin)! Water play activities are a hit and also introduce measurement.
Preschool Color Hunt
Get moving with an indoor scavenger hunt! Read the colored word and find something to bring back to the table (this also makes a terrific early morning Breakfast Invitation).
Primary Color Hunt
I don’t mean to play favorites, but this primary color indoor hunt is just the best. Once my preschoolers could identify the colors red, blue, and yellow, this primary color activity was ON. Move throughout the house and collect toys to sort.
Sticky Pumpkin
Watching your child’s expression as their hand sticks and slowly peels off the paper is wonderful. Sticky pumpkin is a fun fall activity to explore as you hopefully enjoy it from the sidelines.
The Claw Gross Motor Grab
We all know children learn and play in various ways, and this indoor game for preschoolers is a hoot! When planning simple games, I like to include items we already have. Find the kitchen tongs, and gather the stuffies. This idea is the perfect way to help hand-eye coordination and strengthen arms.
Wooden Tracks Gross Motor Tree Farm
The boys played with the wooden train tracks for days. We only cleaned them up because I needed to walk without tripping over a track. Sounds reasonable in my books, but they begged for more! A great way to catch an afternoon cup of coffee at home with kids.
Outdoor gross motor activities
It goes without saying that the outdoors is a great place for getting active! Here are 10 outdoor activities to improve gross motor skills. Scavenger hunts are another easy way to implement movement and gross motor skill development.
Ball Bounce Reading Activity
Let’s retell one of our favorite Thanksgiving stories with this ball-bouncing activity to strengthen large muscles.
Chalk Game for Outdoor Play
This outdoor game takes chalk, a recycled box, and a driveway. The result is a simple game with a lot of laughter.
Gross Motor Musical Color Scavenger Hunt
Not only did my two-year-old love this game but my four and six-year-old did as well. Grab some chalk and head outside. This is one of the outdoor gross motor games for preschoolers that you HAVE to play!
Hop the Lines, a Preschool Jumping Game
We were trying to teach our three-year-old how to hop, and he could use a little practice – I needed a toddler jumping activity. So we grabbed painter’s tape (a personal favorite) and whipped up a fun game to improve gross motor strength!
Outdoor Dice Movement Game
We have ample time to build math skills. Preschool is the time to let your child play and discover new math concepts. A little practice with this game will give them some experience to take math to a higher level when they enter kindergarten.
Outdoor Gross Motor Color Hunt
The outdoor color hunt is also one of the first activities we have ever played in this little corner of the web.
Outdoor Water Tracks
Sometimes indoor toys need a change of scenery, which can also give kids a new way to play outdoors. This new configuration is so much fun for older children who love STEM activities! It was exactly what we all needed – I got to catch my breath alongside my kids as they explored some physical sciences and engaged in a bit of problem-solving.
Prewriting with Movement
Lately, I’ve had a couple of requests for writing activities. This gross motor activity for preschoolers is fantastic because it gets your child writing and moving. It’s a combination of prewriting movement magic and gross motor abilities!
Pumpkin Balance
We love a fun pumpkin activity! Even better? Outdoor pumpkin fun with sharing laughs to make this one a true winner! This fall activity for kids is an absolute blast.
Run and Sort
Learn math outdoors with this color-sorting activity for toddlers! This outdoor math activity will allow your toddler to color, sort, get fresh air, and move around! A winning combination for all!
Learn and grow with gross motor activities!
Gross motor skills activities are essential for our kids to function and better understand how their bodies work. These preschool activities will help them learn to control their muscles and give them the strength they’ll need to go about their day-to-day routines. As children master simple tasks, they can move on to more complicated ones, improving self-awareness and confidence!
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FAQs for gross motor skills for kids
Gross motor activities include movements with large body muscles. They include running, skipping, crossing the mid-line, jumping, hopping, throwing, bouncing, balancing, kicking, and catching.
Examples of gross motor activities are balancing on a curb, jumping or hopping to different circles, experimenting with hula hoops, or kicking a ball. Toddlers and preschoolers have plenty of time to develop the large muscles in their bodies as long as we give them opportunities to do so.
Absolutely! Water tables are absolutely worth it; you don’t need to get the most expensive. They not only interest many age groups (toddlers, preschoolers, and older kids) but also hold high value in learning. Scooping and splashing water help little children hold a steady hand and develop hand-eye coordination.
