Well mother nature hasn’t been on our side these last few months, so if it’s not a snow day, it’s freezing cold and becomes an indoor day. The Preschool 2 classroom put their thinking caps on and got moving. The children started singing “Going on a Bear Hunt.” As the educators observed the children’s performance, we decided let’s try and set up an indoor obstacle course to get them moving and be active in a safe manner. We set up obstacles of stepping stones, medicine ball bowling, peddling a bike as fast as you can, crawling over and under, jumping on a trampoline, balance beams and floor is lava rocks.
The children were so excited to take turns and move their bodies, they encouraged and cheered each other on as they began each obstacle.
They learned to take each challenge differently, using different muscles to complete each obstacle. They worked on slowing down to keep their balance while walking across the balance beam bridge, bending their knees to lift the medicine ball and roll it towards the cone, getting down into a crawl position to go under obstacles and moving their legs as fast as they could while peddling a bike or bouncing on the trampoline. So many different gross motor opportunities for their bodies to explore. The children also had the opportunity to race each other in the big school gym after hours. It was a great way to help us move and be physically active in a positive and safe environment.
Well let’s hope that Mother Nature will continue to be kind with fewer cold days so we can explore and recreate our gross motor obstacle course using shovels, sleighs, climbers, buckets to create snow castles and snowshoes to make prints. Let the winter fun continue!
