Gross MotorPreschoolers18 Comments
This is a week of indoor gross motor activities that are just meant to burn off that extra energy when you’re stuck inside.
There’s no ‘real’ (academic) learning involved, not themed in any way… just good ol’ fun physical movement activities to do inside.
Now is a good time to have some indoor activities planned, for those days that you’ll need them. When we have a lot more indoor time, it’s so hard to burn off their energy.
I always have a few go-to indoor ideas (like our fine motor rubber band activity and lines of tape), but it’s always good to have a way for them to go crazy for a few minutes, in a controlled way that I like.
Hence, the need for some indoor gross motor activities.
Free feel to plan your own week using our hundreds of indoor activities found here.
How to Plan a Week of Kids Activities
Just to give you a little background on how I’ve planned a week of activities for my own kids… whether its indoor gross motor activities, crafts, fine motor activities or art projects… or more likely, a well-rounded week of activities that includes each of them all (that’s what we like to focus on in The Activity Room to make sure we develop all areas).
I start with gauging what my child is interested in (using the “My Child This Week” sheet in the free weekly planner). Then fill one out for each of my kids and what they’re into at the moment. I use this as my guide to plan our activities accordingly.
With each of my kids’ interests, I brainstorm 7 activities to do that week. I jot them down on the simple ‘Activities To Do This Week’ planner. For example, for a week of activities to learn a letter, it could be any of our letter learning activities.
But for this one in particular, I wanted the ability to be able to focus in on getting energy out when the kids are stuck indoors: the week of indoor gross motor activities.
And of course, I often like to include a day of family time. I think the kids will especially love this family activity!
You can go ahead and download our active indoor week here to have handy anytime.
Here’s a week of super fun indoor gross motor activities to do with the kids.
This week of indoor gross motor activities is a sampling of what it would be like to be a member of The Activity Room and have all the activities planned for you, week after week.
You can learn more about joining here.
Monday’s Indoor Gross Motor Activity: Walking on Pillows
Lay pillows and cushions on the floor in a line. Attempt to walk across them!
Supplies needed:
- pillows
- cushions
Find details: Walking on Pillows
Tuesday’s Active Fun Activity: Paper Hands & Feet
Trace and cutout your child’s hands and feet on paper. Tape the paper hands and feet to the floor and have your child match their hands and feet to the paper. Re-position the paper hands and feet and repeat!
Supplies needed:
- paper
- pencil
- scissors
- tape
Find details: Paper Hands & Feet
Wednesday’s Physical Game: Indoor snowball fight
Make snowballs with balled up socks, or wadded paper, and have a snowball fight!
Supplies needed:
- socks or paper
Find details: Indoor snowball fight
Thursday’s Indoor Activity to Get Moving: A Tape Road
Tape two lines as the sides of the roads around the house! Create intersections and curves!
Supplies needed:
- painter’s tape
Find details: A Tape Road
Friday’s Gross Motor Counting Activity: Simple Frisbee Toss
Tape 3 lines of tape on the floor about a foot apart. Stand back and toss the lids like a frisbee to land on the tape line!
Supplies needed:
- plastic lids
- painter’s tape
Find details: Simple Frisbee Toss
Saturday’s Physical Control Activity: Follow the Line Motor Planning
Lay out a jump rope on the floor in a long long. Move a ball from one end to the other along the rope using your hands… how about your foot?
Supplies needed:
- jump rope or string
- ball
Find details: Follow the Line Motor Planning
Sunday’s Family Fun Game: Don’t Step in the Lava!
Spread sheets of paper around the room, within jumping distance of each other. Jump from paper to paper to not step in the lava (the bare floor).
Supplies needed:
- paper or pillows
Find details: Don’t Step in the Lava!
For handy visual reference, here is the 7 days of indoor gross motor activities.
Keep a downloaded version of our week of active indoor activities by requesting it to be emailed to you too. (We’ll even send you activities every week to keep it fresh and fun all the time!)
What are some of your favorite indoor gross motor activities to do with preschoolers?
WANT TO SAVE THIS ACTIVITY?
Enter your email below & we'll send it straight to your inbox so you can access this activity later! Plus, you'll get simple activities from us every week!
Malu says
Great ideas!
Any tips for what I can use to tape the paper down on carpets? The only bare floor in my house is in the kitchen, and there’s not much room in there. Any ideas that won’t ruin new carpeting?
Jamie Reimer says
Painter’s tape should work well for it — it depends on how fluffy the carpet is though. Instead of paper, you could use pillows.
Steph Fern says
Some great ideas!
I have to add, though, that in Australia, we are also having the problem of having to stay indoors, but because it’s too, too hot to go outside. From 7.30am to well past bedtime, I’m finding so hard to get the kids outside because of the heat, and, though we can do some indoor gross motor games, everyone gets cranky and tired quickly. We’re getting cabin fever!
Jamie Reimer says
Yes, we need these in the summertime too!
Zandra Rose says
Great tips this week, we’ll have a lava fun ;)
Jamie Reimer says
hahaha :) Lava giggles for sure :)
Karren Scullion says
My 1 and 2 year olds won’t get some of these..any suggestions for younger kids?
Jamie Reimer says
Hey Karren — you may like some of these weekly plans — https://handsonaswegrow.com/activities-one-year-olds-week/ or https://handsonaswegrow.com/things-to-do-toddlers/
We also have a set of weekly plans for one year old here: http://room.handsonaswegrow.com/shop/discover and two year olds here: http://room.handsonaswegrow.com/shop/play/