12 Gross Motor Skills for Preschoolers

Gross Motor Skills for Preschoolers

Gross motor skills for preschoolers are one of the easiest skills to work on with young children.

What are gross motor skills?

Gross motor skills are also called large motor skills and can be used interchangeably. These are abilities that use large muscle groups like walking, running, and jumping. And they are full-body movements that use the arms, legs, and torso. Now do you see why gross motor skills for preschoolers are one of the easiest skills to work on?

Development of these skills happen usually around the same time for every child. But boys do develop gross motor skills a little earlier than girls. (Girls develop fine motor skills earlier though!)

Why are gross motor skills for preschoolers important?

Development of gross motor skills for preschoolers is important because these are abilities that we use every single day, all day long. Children need to be able to efficiently move around and explore and play and learn to keep developing in other areas. Gross motor skills enables them to do just that.

Gross Motor Skills Milestones

This is a brief list of gross motor skills milestones to show you the variety of different skills our large muscle groups are needed to do. There are more than this; I just picked a few.

• Birth to 1 year old – Holds head up, rolls over, crawls, pulls to standing position
• 1 to 2 years old – Cruises around furniture, walks, walks down stairs with support, walks independently, runs alone, jumps in place, jumps over objects, kicks a stationary ball, throws ball intentionally
• 2 to 3 years old – Walks backwards, marches in place, jumps in place with two feet together, carries a large ball while moving, flings a beanbag
• 3 to 4 years old – Runs, walks up and down stair while alternating feet, climbs up and down on playground equipment, rides tricycle using pedals, gallops but not smoothly, strikes a balloon with a large paddle, kicks ball forward by stepping or running up to it
• 4 to 6 years old – Runs smoothly and quickly changes directions, jumps and spins, plays “Follow the Leader” using a variety of movements, gallops and skips with ease, hops on one foot then the other, attempts to jump rope, catches a thrown ball with both hands, dribbles a ball

What if my child can’t do all of these skills?

It’s okay! More than likely, you just haven’t thought to work with your child on that particular skill. Most of these gross motor skills for preschoolers are skills that kids just automatically practice during play. One day you will notice your preschooler standing on one foot and say, “Wow! I didn’t know you could do that!”.

Then there are gross motor skills for preschoolers that you might need to show them just one time how to do, like how to skip and gallop. Usually after you show them one or two times how to skip and gallop, they take off and can do it like an expert!

And honestly, as homeschooling families, you may not teach certain skills that public schools teach in physical education class. For one thing, we don’t have all of the specialized equipment. And sometimes we just plain don’t think about it!

Here’s an example!

For example, jumping rope…teaching my kids how to jump rope never crosses my mind. Why? Because we don’t own any good jump ropes! For example, when my kids do receive one as a gift, they are usually the cheap, flimsy ones that just don’t turn well. And buying an expensive jump rope like we had in gym when I was growing up isn’t on my short list of things to buy.

But guess what? They somehow end up learning how to jump rope, whether at friends’ houses or a homeschool co-op class, after all. Because I know that if I teach them the basic, fundamental gross motor skills, then they will be able to quickly learn specialized gross motor skills easily. So let’s take a look at those major gross motor skills for preschoolers below.

6 Main Gross Motor Skills for Preschoolers

Here are the 6 main gross motor skills for preschoolers that we can work on as parents. It just takes a little intentional effort on our part. Most of these skills are ones your preschooler works on their own every day anyway!

1. Balancing Activities – Balancing activities such as standing on one foot, walking on a straight line, walking on a low balance beam, standing on one foot playing hopscotch, riding on a balance bicycle
2. Riding Toys – Riding toys such as tricycles are a great way to practice muscle coordination. It takes skill to pedal and steer at the same time!
3. Rhythmic Activities – Children need to practice rhythmic movement, such as dancing or clapping to the beat of a song.
4. Ball Skills – This is one that takes some time to develop and needs you to work with your child. Have you ever thrown a soft ball to your toddler or young preschooler, and he just stands there laughing? Or she tries to catch it after the ball has hit her? These are typical steps in learning to throw and catch a ball. Totally normal! Just keep working on it and practicing.
5. Jumping Skills – Jumping skills include hopping, skipping, jumping, and galloping. These skills develop your child’s bilateral coordination which means it takes both sides of the body to do. Both sides have to coordinate together to get it to work. Sounds hard, right? It is, and that’s why it takes practice to develop these.
6. Climbing Skills – These include activities that need strength to perform too. Playgrounds are perfect to practice these skills on such as climbing a jungle gym, hanging from money bars, and climbing the ladder to the slide. In addition, swimming uses these same muscles as climbing!

What activities can help develop gross motor skills for preschoolers?

There are some activities that you can set up for your preschooler to do at home to work on certain gross motor skills. And other activities are just normal everyday activities that preschoolers already do naturally. But above all, keep it FUN for them!

12 Gross Motor Activities for Preschoolers

1. Hopscotch

This game is loved by all ages! Hopscotch works on the very difficult gross motor skill of hopping on one foot across the board and bending down to pick up the rock.

2. Bean Bag Activities

The popular game of corn hole is perfect for this! Or just a simple yet highly effective game of toss the bean bag in a bucket.

3. Beach Ball Basket

Toss a beach ball or other soft ball into a laundry basket. Take steps further back after each complete basket.

4. Kick Ball

A good game of kickball will help develop the skill of kicking a moving ball while running. If it’s just you and your child, just roll the ball to him and encourage him to run and kick it.

5. Balloon Volleyball

Use a low net and balloons to do a “volleyball” game!

6. The Floor is Lava Game

Yes, I had to add this one! It requires lots of large muscles to run and climb.

7. Trampoline

Trampolines are perfect for developing gross motor skills for preschoolers. But first make sure it’s safe from dry rot and old springs and has a safety net!

8. Post-It Note Jump

A fun rainy day activity is to have your child jump and reach as far as he can and touch the wall. Wherever he touches, place a Post-It note. Encourage him to jump higher and reach past that sticky note. And keep moving it as he reaches higher on the wall.

9. Classic Movement Games

Classic games such as Hide and Seek, Freeze Tag, Red Light/Green Light, Simon Says, and Mother, May I are wonderful ways to get moving! In addition, these also help practice the skill of quickly turning direction while running.

10. Build an Obstacle Course

Get your kids input and ideas and let them help! Build a simple obstacle course with items you already have: boxes, hula hoops, riding toys, etc.

11. Dancing

I’ve found homeschoolers don’t do this very much; let’s change that! Play some fun kids music and get out there and dance with the kids! Similarly, you can also make a game out of it: dance until the music stops then freeze. They can’t move until the music starts again.

12. Walk the Line

This is an easy and fun indoor or outdoor activity to practice balancing. If you have a child that’s into pirates, call it “Walk the Plank”. Indoors, use masking tape and make a straight line on the floor. Outdoors, use chalk to make a line. Have your preschooler walk on the line without getting off. Show him how to hold his arms out to his side to help keep his balance. Mastered that? Move on to doing a forward flip and try to stay on the line! It’s harder than it sounds!

Practice more gross motor skills for preschoolers

To help you practice gross motor skills for preschoolers and kindergarteners, I have created a line of printable cards for brain breaks that help kids practice large motor skills. You can get them in a variety of different themes, like holidays and seasons. Since they have been so popular, I plan on expanding the line to include more themes. Take a look at my TPT store to see what they look like!

What can you do with these cards? I like to use them as brain breaks in between subjects or to break up a long lesson or just to get the wiggles out. For instance, I like to pull them out when I see my little ones start to get wiggly and not paying attention. Get them moving when you see signs of losing their attention!

Want to know what I recommend to teach preschool at home?

Are you thinking of teaching your preschooler at home soon? Not sure what he or she will need to keep up with peers in private preschools? With my background in Early Childhood Education (preK through 3rd), I’ve taught in preschools and even taught preschool to my own 4 children, successfully preparing them for kindergarten while following developmentally appropriate practices. So sign up below to get this FREE 16-page guide to the top 10 essentials that I recommend you need to start teaching preschool while saving hundreds of dollars!