What are gross motor skills and why are they important for my toddler to develop? Gross motor skills are physical skills that require whole body movement and involve the large muscles of the body.
Everyday functions such as running, jumping, standing, or walking along with hand-eye coordination activities such throwing, catching, or kicking are all examples of gross motor skills.
There are many ways that you can encourage gross motor development in young children. Here are some fun gross motor movement activities you can try with your toddler!
Active Songs
Kids love music, and a lot of children’s songs already are action songs! Some examples of action songs for children include:
- Hokey Pokey, The Learning Station
- I’m a Little Teapot, The Kiboomers
- The Floor is Lava, The Kiboomers
- Party Freeze Dance, The Kiboomers
- Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around, The Kiboomers
- Open, Shut Them, Super Simple Songs
- Wheels on the Bus, Super Simple Songs
- If You’re Happy and You Know It, Super Simple Songs
- Head Shoulders Knees and Toes, Super Simple Songs
- We are the Dinosaurs, The Laurie Berkner Band
- The Goldfish Song, The Laurie Berkner Band
- Baby Shark, Pinkfong (A parent favorite)
You can listen to most of these songs for free on YouTube by various artists. We sometimes use YouTube, but we often listen to these songs on our Alexa using Amazon music.
Duck Duck Dance Game
My daughter recieved the game Duck Duck Dance for her birthday. It is one of our favorite games! My son, who is not yet two years old, even enjoys this game.
Children roll the four dice, and then they perform the actions on the dice. Some of the actions include: march, jump, stomp, clap, and so forth.
Duck Duck Dance is a fun motor development game for toddlers, and parents, to play together!
Monkey Around Game
Monkey around is another fun game that encourages movement! The game contains cards that prompt players to do movements together, from hugs and high fives to gross motor skills such as hopping, marching and balancing.
Monkey Around is a great first game for an active toddler!
Roll & Play Game
I bought the game Roll & Play for my son’s second birthday, and I wish I had bought it sooner! This game is encourages creativity, active play, and gross motor skills.
The game comes with a plush cube and game card in six different categorei: emotions, counting, body parts, colors, animal sounds and actions. This game is full of endless learning opportunities and is a great fun!
Which gross motor movement activities will you try with your toddler?!
