Movement Activities

Obstacle Courses

Obstacle courses are a great way to work on balance, environmental awareness, and motor planning in a fun way! Adaptations can include: how many steps are in your course, level of difficulty of activities, and level of cues or assistance your child needs.

Activities to include (be creative and use what you have at home!)

1) Using pillows or other items (jump rope, stepping stones, etc) to walk across like a balance beam

• Stand on pillows and to make activities like catching a ball more challenging

• Maybe play a game of lava where you can’t touch the floor but have to walk across various objects to move from point A to point B

2) Gross motor activities – skipping, galloping, hopping on one leg, walking backwards, taking side-steps, kicking a ball, catching, throwing, jumping jacks

3) Bowling

4) Animal walks: bear walk, crab walk, penguin walk, frog jumps

Examples:

1) Two-step course:

• First walk across three pillows placed on the floor

• Then kick a ball through a doorway (or any other space that can act as a “goal”)

2) Three-step:

• Skip from the kitchen sink to the couch

• Catch a ball thrown to you, and then throw it back

• Pick an animal walk (crab, bear, penguin, etc) to get back to the sink

Do what works for your space and your child!

Advice: make one of the obstacle course items challenging and the others a little easier to keep your child motivated and successful – if it’s too hard they won’t want to do it! Provide a lot of positive reinforcement when they complete it or when they attempt something that is hard for them! Be creative!

Yoga

Yoga is a great way to work on balance, strength, coordination, and motor planning. Here are some online resources for kids yoga:

1) YouTube – search kids yoga and there are several options

2) Cosmic Kids

3) Yoga cards – these are a great way to provide visual cues for kids to help make them more successful

Go Noodle

Go Noodle is a great program that gets kids moving and helps them with motor planning and coordination

family.gonoodle.com

Simon Says

Simon Says is a great way to work on turn-taking, mimicking movements (motor planning and coordination), as well as balance and strength. Take turns and keep it fun.