Do you have a mover and a shaker?! I do! I have a little busy body toddler running around my house all day long! Gross motor activities are a great way to poop your little one out! Along with being extremely beneficial of course 🙂 If your looking for a FUN, EASY, CHEAP, DEVELOPMENTAL, INDOOR, AND BENEFICIAL gross motor activity to do with your toddler, you found it! YAY!

What are gross motor activities?

A gross motor activity is an activity that involves coordinated movements using large body parts like your arms and legs! In this activity you will see Aliza using her arms, legs and core to preform whole body movements to complete a task! Some gross motor skills she uses is her balance and core strength! Although the task may look easy to us, it can be quite challenging for a toddler that lacks some of these skills! This is a great way to work on full body coordination that your little one will need for important functional skills later on!

What you will need:

• Two recycled paper towel rolls
• Paint of choice
• Bag of pom poms
• Basket
• Marker
• Tape

Setting up: Before you start, paint each of your recycled rolls and let them dry. Once they are dry label them LEFT and RIGHT. Tape each roll to the wall and make sure one is a little taller than your toddler so they really have to REACH! Fill your basket with pom poms and place them on a small elevated surface! Now your ready to get started!

Gross Motor Activity

For this activity you will have your toddler simply take one pom pom at a time and put it through a tunnel (roll). Adjust your rolls so that one is a little more challenging than the other! This is a great coordination activity that involves reaching, balance and strength! Simple, yet beneficial! Lets see what else we are working on in this activity 🙂

When do toddlers learn Left and Right?

Toddlers can learn their left and right as early as 3, although they may not “clearly” understand it until the first grade. It never hurts to start introducing this skill as it will help with reading, writing and math skills! For this activity I put the LEFT roll on the left side and RIGHT roll on the right side (DUH)! I tried to have Aliza use her right hand for the right side, and left hand for the left. Either way, try to encourage your toddler to use both hands during this activity. You do not have to stress left and right throughout play time, but definitely try to throw it in there when you can 😉

Fine motor skills for toddlers

Although our focus is on gross motor skills, this activity also targets fine motor skills. How? It takes fine motor skills in order to place small pom poms into a small tunnel! This is a great way to work on that pincer grasp and hand eye coordination!

Visual Scanning activity for toddlers

Visual scanning is the ability to use your eyes to scan a surface from top to bottom, left and right. This is an important cognitive skill to have when your little one starts reading! During this activity I had Aliza scan her basket to find different colors!

Color recognition for toddlers

Of course we used this activity to practice our colors! It is always so much FUN to see Aliza pick the right color! There are many different colors in a bag of assorted pom poms. Take some time practicing their color recognition skills.

Clean up!

Of course there is a big mess after, but that is okay ! It is also beneficial having your toddler help clean up 😉 Oh you know, working on those fine motor and behavioral skills 😉

YOU GOT THIS MAMA! Keep those busy bee’s busy!! I hope you have been enjoying all our activities and crafts! If your looking for another gross motor activity for your toddler you can CLICK HERE <3

-@cota_mom

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