Kids love bubbles! This simple activity is a great way to help your child build balance, coordination and strength while having fun. We call it Bubble Smash! What you’ll need:

• A container of bubbles (you can find them at most dollar stores or in Walmart)

What to Do:

1. Blow bubbles for your child to chase.
2. Encourage them to run, jump, and stretch to pop as many bubbles as they can!
3. Let the bubbles drift high and low to get your child moving in different directions—reaching up, bending down, and changing speed and balance.

As your child chases and smashes bubbles, they’re practicing important gross motor skills, running, jumping, zigzagging, balancing, and coordinating their movements, all while having fun.

1. Container of bubble soap

Another classic way to develop gross motor skills is hopscotch. Who remembers playing hopscotch as a child? It is simple, active and full of learning opportunities.

Think about the muscle movements required in a typical game of Hopscotch! Players throw a marker … stand… hop… stop… bend… pick up… straighten up… leap… jump… hop… hop…land… turn… and repeat. Most of these movements happen on one foot, which is one of the most complex movements a body can do!

Hopping and jumping require strong gross motor skills, balance, and coordination. Hopscotch is a simple way to practice those skills. Plus, hopscotch naturally reinforces number recognition and counting skills.

All you need is some chalk and a sidewalk. If you don’t have a sidewalk to draw on or a playground nearby, but you have a hallway or any floor, you can set up hopscotch indoors using painter’s tape.

To play, start by drawing or taping a hopscotch grid with numbers 1–10. Give your child a small object, such as a beanbag, coin, or stone, to use as the marker. Take turns tossing the marker onto one of the numbered squares, then hop through the pattern, skipping the square with the marker. On the way back, stop and bend to pick up the marker before finishing the course. Then, it’s the next player’s turn to toss and hop again!

1. Chalk or
2. Painters tape (if inside)

Gross motor skills are those skills that require whole-body movement and involve the large muscles of the body. It also includes hand-eye coordination. An activity to assist in developing these skills is Throw and Catch. While throwing and catching, a child uses those large arm muscles. To be able to throw the ball to someone or catch a ball coming toward them from someone, a child’s hand-eye coordination must be good.

When throwing indoors, soft, spongy balls or beanbags are recommended. Start with larger balls and gradually move to smaller ones as your child’s skill level increases. Use balloons, deflated beach balls, or soft, spongy balls for children still mastering catching. These items move slower and are more forgiving if a catch is missed.

Remember, children develop at different rates. So, if your child struggles with throw and catch, you can start by rolling a ball back-and-forth on the floor. Rolling back and forth reinforces the same motion they will need to play catch.

1. Beanbag or soft object to throw

Animal Walk is another activity to help children develop gross motor skills. Physical and occupational therapists often recommend this activity because it strengthens the body and hands, improves coordination, supports both fine and gross motor skills and builds spational awareness. . We have included a chart to help you with this activity. Choose one animal from the chart and spend a few minutes a day having your child “walk” like that animal.

You can ask them to do something like, “Hop like a grasshopper and put this paper in the trash can” or “Crab walk to the bathtub.”

Each of these “walks” uses different muscles, builds coordination, and helps develop gross motor skills.

Tracing lines is a great way for preschool children to develop fine motor skills and practice the movements they’ll need for writing. We have provided sheets for you with dotted lines as a helpful tool, but you can also create your own by drawing dotted lines on a piece of paper.

Begin with tracing short straight lines and then progress to the more challenging lines with curvy lines and loops. Remind your child to hold the pencil firmly in their dominant hand using the correct pencil grip and use their non-dominant hand to hold the paper steady.

Note: Pay attention to your child’s hand preference. Children usually start to prefer using one hand over the other around the ages of 2 to 4, but it is common for them to change from time to time. Around ages 4 to 6, clear preference will be established. Children who do not show a preference and switch hands may struggle a little with fine motor tasks like cutting neatly with scissors or writing with a pencil.

1. Pencil or crayon
2. Printed tracing handout below, or parent-created handout

Another way to develop fine motor skills is practicing cutting. Using scissors is an acquired but necessary skill. Children need to know how to hold scissors and the proper rules for handling scissors safely. They need to learn what they can and cannot cut and how to use scissors effectively without frustration. This only comes with modeling and practice.

This may not be an easy task for children. When children are first given scissors, some will grab the handle, put the fingers in any hole, and try cutting, especially if children have watched people cut things. Others will grab the handle and try to use two hands to cut. Remember to be patient.

A good way to approach this is to teach and demonstrate the correct way to use scissors. Then have them practice putting their fingers in the correct holes. Then move on to having your child practice opening and closing the scissors. When they are comfortable with these two tasks, move on to cutting pieces of paper with no lines and then move to cutting along dotted lines when they are ready.

Just like tracing, we want to start with simple straight lines. Then progress to cutting curves and shapes when your child is ready. We have provided some cutting sheets, but remember, you can make your own by drawing dotted lines on paper.

1. Child safety scissors
2. Printed handout, below, or parent-created handout

An activity to develop fine motor skills is stringing beads on a pipe cleaner. Stringing beads requires children to use their hands in a very purposeful way. Think about the fine motor skills it takes for a child to pick up small beads, turn them the right way, align them to a pipe cleaner, and string them on. This activity helps develop fine motor skills because stringing the beads uses similar hand movements like gripping a pencil. Practicing this activity over and over will help children hold a pencil or crayon when writing and drawing at school.

To do this activity, you need some beads and a pipe cleaner. Have your child pick a bead and put it on the pipe cleaner. We recommend that you pour a few beads into a small dish or bowl and bend one end of the pipe cleaner so that the beads won’t fall off.

During this activity, you can even discuss the colors and shapes of the beads and make a pattern as you string them.

1. Beads or macaroni pasta (any pasta with holes)
2. String, yarn or pipe cleaners