Shape Toss, Hop, Skip, and Jump! {Indoor Gross Motor Game}

It was supposed to rain today, so I planned an indoor activity for our motor development time.  Of course it didn't rain, but we still had fun jumping around inside.    The inspiration for this game came from Fun and Engaging Ideas for Toddlers, and then I put my own spin on it.

Using painters tape JZ (4) and I taped shapes to our kitchen floor.

We jumped from shape to shape.

We hopped on one foot.

We side stepped.

We crawled while trying to only put our hands, knees and feet inside the shapes.

Did you notice that I keep writing "we"?  Yes I played right along with the boys and even crawled on the tile.  I am a firm believer in actively participating.  I recently read a great blog post on this subject from Under the Golden Apple Tree.  She pretty much summed up my opinion.  

After jumping for awhile we grabbed some Bean Bags and threw them inside the floor targets.

I love how JZ got so into this game.  Look at his intense concentration.

We left the tape shapes on the tile for a few weeks and played with them almost daily.

This would also be fun to do outside with sidewalk chalk.  I didn't do anything specific with the shapes.  They called them out on their own as they jumped, but I didn't instruct them to.  For younger children this would be a great game for teaching shapes.  You could also use different colors of craft tape to introduce colors in an active way.

More indoor gross motor fun:

• Color and Movement Game
• Ball Toss This post is written using outdoor photos, but we have also played this same exact game inside being careful to use only soft balls and avoiding rooms with breakables. 

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