33 Gross Motor Activities to Get Kids Moving

Gross motor activities are an essential child development skill that uses large muscles to do things like run, jump, skip, reach, and hop.

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Gross motor skills are movements that involve large muscles – arms, legs, and the whole body. Children learn and use gross motor skills through play and everyday activities. These movements help with balance, coordination, and physical strength.

Children develop certain skills at different milestones, and your child’s pediatrician can help you determine age-appropriate gross motor skills. They will help your child participate in activities at home and in school.

Whether your child needs practice or you’re looking to add some variety to playtime, here are our favorite gross motor activities. Many don’t require any prep or supplies at all.

Freeze dance

Turn on music that your kids can get up and dance to. Tell them that when the music stops, they have to freeze in whatever pose they are in. Pause the music at different intervals and let them stand frozen for a few moments before starting again.

Hopscotch

Draw a hopscotch board on the sidewalk with chalk or use tape to mark off squares indoors. There should be 10 squares alternating between singles and pairs. Use a beanbag or a soft toy and toss it onto the first square. Hop down the row, alternating on one or two feet to match the squares, and skipping the toy. Pick the toy up and hop in that square on the way back, then repeat with another one.

Marching

Find some classic marching music. Let kids dress up and put on a parade to march around the house or just practice marching in place.

Balloon balance

Blow up an inflatable balloon. Toss it into the air and have your child hit it to see how long they can keep it in the air.

Balance beam

Visit a park and practice walking on a balance beam. At home, mark a line on the floor with tape that your child can practice walking along.

Play ball

Choose a soft, lightweight ball for young kids and practice throwing, catching, rolling, bouncing, and kicking it. Try doing it while sitting and standing.

Hide and seek

Playing hide and seek – indoor or outside – encourages kids to walk, run, crouch, and move their bodies to fit into hiding spaces.

Blowing bubbles

Bubbles will move in unpredictable ways. Let your kids blow bubbles outdoors and chase them to pop as many as they can. You can even make your own homemade bubble solution.

The floor is lava

Playing “the floor is made of lava” is a silly way to get kids moving in creative ways. Rearrange the furniture, toss couch cushions on the floor and encourage kids to find other ways to move across a room without touching the ground.

Target practice

Set up a target and let kid practice throwing something at it. Throw stuffed animals or balls of socks into a laundry basket. Build a tower of blocks to knock over with a beanbag.

Mission impossible

Use tape to string yarn across a hallway in a crazy pattern. Make some lines cross high, others low, and some at an angle. Tell kids to walk from one end to the other without touching the yarn.

Walk like an animal

Get creative and try to walk like different animals. Waddle like a duck, gallop like a pony, hop like a bunny, and scuttle like a crab.

Obstacle course

Build an obstacle course using items you have at home. Indoors, use chairs, pillows, a step stool, and toys. Outdoors, make one with branches and sticks, plastic cones, or outdoor toys like a hula hoop.

Find and tag

Find and tag is a bit like playing I spy. Ask your child to find and tag different items you can see around a room. This activity involves a lot of different movements as well as spacial awareness.

Act the weather

Choose a space and tell your child to act out different types of weather. They can use their bodies to be like wind, rain, a tornado, snow, etc.

Tumble and roll

This is better outdoors, but if you’re indoors, just make sure you clear enough space. Have kids tumble or roll from one spot to another.

Build a tunnel

Line up chairs or other furniture in a long row and throw a blanket over it to cover the sides. Have kids crawl through the tunnel from one end to the other.

Calendar movement

This is a great activity to do together every morning. Choose a movement to do each morning. Check the date on the calendar and do that many. For example, do 6 jumping jacks on the sixth.

Race a dinosaur

What kid wouldn’t love to race against a dinosaur or an animal? Choose a stuffed dinosaur or another favorite plush toy. Designate a base and have your child run from you to the base while you throw the stuffed dinosaur to get their faster. When you miss, try again or pick a new base.

City of boxes

Save empty cardboard boxes and tape them closed. Let your child stack them into a tall tower – or a while city of towers.

Egg race

You can use a real egg, a plastic Easter egg, or any small round toy to have an egg and spoon race. Choose a starting and ending point. Have kids carry the “egg” on a spoon from one point to the other without dropping it.

Toy bath

Choose a few toys that can get dirty and then be washed, like Hot Wheels cars. Set up a tub of water with soap and sponges outdoors or fill the bathtub with a few inches of water so kids can give them a bath.

Don’t step on a crack

Take a walk in a park or around your neighborhood and see if your children can do it without stepping on cracks on the ground.

Ribbon flags

Give your child a ribbon, scarf, or another soft fabric item to run with so that it flies behind them.

Basket races

Fill a laundry basket or another similar-sized container and have your child push it across the room. The could really help with chores – or just be a chauffeur for a stuffed bear.

Parachute

At school your child and classmates may have played with a full-sized parachute in PE. You can recreate the fun at home with a small blanket. Have children hold the corners and put a small stuffed animal in the center; raise and lower the blanket to bounce them out.

Water play

Set up a plastic tub of water with spoons, cups, funnels, a shovel, or other tools so they can practice scooping and pouring. This will get messy, so outdoors is best, but they can also play in the bathtub if you don’t mind the cleanup.

Clap ball

Give your child a ball of any size. Have them toss the ball up and clap before catching it. With a larger ball, they could also bounce and clap.

Frisbee tic-tac-toe

Set up a giant tic-tac-toe board in your backyard using sticks, pool noodles, or similar. Use frisbees of different colors (or just mark them with tape) to play tic-tac-toe. Take turns throwing to get three in a a row.

Riding a bike

Riding a bicycle, tricycle, or scooter exercises a lot of different gross motor skills. To make it even more interesting, set up a simple obstacle course of objects or draw one with chalk for them to ride around.

Broom ball

Give your child a broom and have them use it to sweep a ball into a goal. Choose different goals to go around obstacles or go up/down a slight incline.

Picking flowers

You child can help you with simple yard work tasks like pulling weeds and picking up leaves. Alternatively, visit a park or walk around the neighborhood to pick (a few) wildflowers.

Stair climber

Fill a basket at the bottom of your staircase with stuffed animals. Have your child carry them one at a time to an empty basket at the top.

Gross motor skills are important for toddlers and preschoolers to learn. Older kids can benefit from practicing them too. Plus, gross motor activities are a fun way to get kids of all ages up and moving.

More fun ideas from Backyard Summer Camp:

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• 15 Backyard Nature Activities for Kids
• 10 Classic Jump Rope Songs for Kids