Activities for preschool children should include those that develop physical gross motor skills. Broom hockey and soccer are two activities that will promote major muscle coordination and its just plain fun for preschool aged kids.
What are Physical Gross Motor Skills?
According to the Encyclopedia of Children’s Health, gross motor skills are the abilities required in order to control the large muscles of the body.
Some important physical gross motor concepts and skills that preschool age children learn to master are balance, spatial orientation (which means that the child is aware of the position of his or her body in space as well as in relation to other people and objects), laterality (which means that the child is aware of the left and right sides of the body), and the coordination of major muscles.
Children learn gross motor skills through practice. Activities which involve hopping, jumping, and climbing as well as games which involve catching and kicking balls are great examples of activities that promote the development of gross motor skills.
Preschool teachers and daycare providers can encourage gross motor skill development through effective lesson plans and play. A fine example of an activity that promotes the development of gross motor skills is broom hockey and soccer.
This lesson plan includes not only the preparation instructions, procedure, and materials list for this activity, but also the age appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.
List of Materials
Two child sized goals
Child sized brooms (one for each child participating)
Large, medium, and small sized balls for kicking and sweeping.
Preparation
Set up two child sized goals. Find child sized brooms and several different sized balls. Set the goals at opposite ends of the playground or play area
Procedures
Invite the children over to the area. Explain to them that you are going to play hockey. Model to the children how to sweep the ball into the goal. Show the children that they can also kick the ball into the net.
Learning Objectives
Objective 1:
To provide the opportunity for projectile management through sweeping the ball into the goal.
- Verbal Cue A: Can you sweep the ball into the net?
- Verbal Cue B: Let’s sweep the ball into the goal.
Objective 2:
To provide the opportunity for projectile management through kicking the ball into the goal.
- Verbal Cue A: Can you try to kick the ball into the net?
- Verbal Cue B: Let’s kick the ball into the goal.
Objective 3:
To develop spatial relationships (body and space perception) using the prepositions inside and outside, forward and backward, and straight ahead in verbal cues.
- Verbal Cue A: Can you kick the ball forward inside the net?
- Verbal Cue B: Sweep the ball straight ahead into the goal.
Please keep in mind that this is not a competitive activity, so do not keep score, create foul lines, or enforce rules that promote competition.
For more preschool activities, see Online Preschool Lesson Plans.
 |
