Gross Motor Addition Game

Learn through Movement - Gross Motor Addition Game

My boys love educational gross motor games, and this week I am excited to be teaming up with Mess for Less and Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas to bring you a series entitled Learn through Movement.  For three days this week each of us will post an activity to help children learn while moving and playing.

For our math activity, I set up a simple addition game using sidewalk chalk.  I wrote the numbers 1-12 in circles.

Supplies: (affiliate links provided)

• sidewalk chalk
• dice

The directions were simple.  My boys took turns rolling the dice.  They added the sum of the two dice and hopped that many spaces.

J-Bug (3) loves hopping, jumping or skipping games.  Any gross motor activity captivates his attention.  (Don't you love you he has his stuffed penguin and blanket in his arm?)

We changed it up each time we rolled.  Sometimes I had them hop with two feet, sometimes they hopped on one foot, they stepped from number to number, and other times they hopped backwards.

This was a perfect addition game that both my preschooler and kindergartner could participate in.

JZ (5) made it into a race.  He added the dice quickly and tried to hope as quickly as possible to land on the sum.

Learning through movement is a great way to help young children learn and remember what they have learned.  The more healthy and fit a child is, the more efficiently his brain functions.  Also, when movement is combined with learning the activity is more likely to be remembered.  Have you ever tried memorizing a new song, poem or scripture verse?  Can it be done while sitting still?  Yes.  Have you ever added hand motions to go along with the words?  If you have tried adding motions while memorizing you probably know that you can memorize something much quicker with the added motions than when you are just sitting still.

For more educational gross motor games follow me on Pinterest.

Be sure and visit Mess for Less to see their Number Hunt and Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas to see their Addition Game, and stay tuned for more ideas for learning through movement!