Are the February blues settling in for you? I certainly hope not … but I must admit February is simply not my best month. And with another week ahead that is going to be colder than cold, I thought I would share a fun gross motor activity for preschoolers!
My little ones have been loving this activity, and it can be used in so many different ways. Best of all it is a GREAT gross motor activity for burning off some much needed winter-bound-inside energy!
I will walk you through our afternoon of playing with this awesome gross motor activity for preschoolers. I kept things very, very simple. Because it is February.
I took some big pieces of 2×4 wood, and a few other lengths of scrap wood from the workshop. At first the boys were balancing around on them like balance beams.
We popped some books underneath to make the balance beam a little taller – and this activity was a hit for quite some time.
Sam then decided to turn the wood into a race track for his cars. He would prop up one side of the wood with books, so the wood became like a ramp. Then the boys tried to connect all the different lengths of wood together, and try to make a car roll from the top all the way to the bottom. This was not very successful, but a fun activity full of learning all the same.
After that, I thought it might be fun to kick it up a notch. I grabbed a couple round logs of wood from up by our wood stove. If you don’t have round logs of wood handy, many other things could work – large rolls of craft paper, cylinder wooden blocks, or even just another piece of rectangular wood would do the trick (pretty much)
We placed the round log of wood under the 2×4, right in the middle, and the boys got to play with this new gross motor activity. When they walked from one side to the other, the wooden 2×4 board would tip from one side to the other.
Ben, who is 2, had fun playing with it just like this. It was tricky for him to balance on the beam, and he had a blast when it would tip to the other side.
Sam, who is 4, played with this activity in many different ways. He tried to balance the beam with his feet standing on either side of the log, trying to keep both ends of the beam in the air. He also played with changing the position of the log from the center to a far end. He was very intrigued to see how high the beam would rise when the log was off center.
Pretty soon an obstacle course was created with the two balancing beams, some couch cushions, and a gym mat. There was running, jumping, crawling, and balancing. Lots of lovely ways to burn off that preschool energy in meaningful ways.
We still have an obstacle course of sorts set us downstairs. I love being able to say to my little ones, “If you want to run/jump/be crazy like that, please head downstairs” instead of telling them simply to stop.
These little ones of mine were certainly made to move!
Hope you find this idea might give you and yours an afternoon of fun to chase away the winter blues!
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