Fun Gross Motor Activity Ideas for Groups of Kids

Gross motor activities — things like climbing, crawling, jumping and throwing — are great for little kids because those big movements are essential first steps to fine motor skills. They’re also lots of fun and a way for kids to burn off a little energy.

Teach Me Mommy has a great collection of gross motor activities for groups, which she road-tested on a group of five-year-olds. They require minimal amounts of equipment and some of them would be great for doing at home as well, such as jumping through a maze of hula hoops and using chalk shapes on the sidewalk to count, jump into and throw bean bags into.

(Read more: ideas for playing and learning with chalk.)

Life Over Cs has another great idea for a gross motor activity that can be one with one or many kids. Her move like an insect gross motor play includes a printable die with different movements on it that can be acted out by kids, such as crawling like a caterpillar, flapping like a butterfly and wiggling like a worm. So cute.

Do you have any go-to gross motor games you like to use with your kids? I’d love to hear about them!

[Photo via Teach Me Mommy.]

Check out these insect activity kits and these Insect bug keepers

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Easy Sensory Activities for Valentine's Day

I guess this isn’t exclusively a kid’s craft or learning activity (though cutting and folding are great for developing fine motor skills!) but I think kids would love having some of these printable holiday houses around the house or classroom to play with in the holiday season. Because they’re made of paper, they’re inexpensive to make, and while there is assembly involved the results are well worth the work.

If you have a cutting machine you can use the cut files from Delia Creates to make making your own paper village that much easier. She actually cut out all her buildings in different colors of card stock and used them to decorate a wreath, but you could also put them on the mantle or on a low table for kids to play with. Make a whole small world scene complete with fake snow, little characters and other elements, and kids are sure to start making their own stories to go with the setup.

This set of houses is printed and cut out using a craft knife. It’s meant to be an advent calendar, with each of the buildings numbered and you can stick a treat inside. But you could also just play with the buildings! You can get a free download of four buildings from Little House on the Corner, or head to the post to see where you can buy the whole set.

The Mavelo website isn’t in English, but their printable gingerbread house template is super cute to use as a gift box or to play with. If you need the instructions the website is in Polish but Google Translate seems to do a pretty good job.

Bora Illustrates has an adorable little house to print, cut and assemble featuring a cat, bird and gingerbread person. You could probably print it in black and white and have your kiddo color it, too.

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