When developing curriculum, preschool teachers and daycare providers must include age-appropriate activities for young children that develop physical gross motor skills. Butterfly Catcher is an activity that will promote major muscle coordination, and enhance familiarity of spatial relationships and projectile management.
What are Physical Gross Motor Skills?
According to the Gale Encyclopedia of Children’s Health [Gale, 2005], motor skills are actions that involve the movement of muscles in the body. “They are divided into two groups: gross motor skills, which are the larger movements of arms, legs, feet, or the entire body (crawling, running, and jumping); and fine motor skills, which are smaller actions, such as grasping an object between the thumb and a finger or using the lips and tongue to taste objects”. This lesson plan focuses on gross motor skills.
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.
This Butterfly Catcher lesson plan includes the preparation instructions, procedure, and materials list for this activity. It also provides age-appropriate learning objectives and a sample of the simple supporting verbal cues necessary to encourage participation and support learning.
Butterfly Catcher Materials List
- Large pieces of tissue paper
- Scissors
- Yarn
Butterfly Catcher Preparation
Make butterflies by wrapping yarn around large pieces of tissue paper. Tie a knot to secure the yarn. Make as many as necessary; the more kids participating in the activity, the more butterflies you will need.
Activity Procedures
Invite the children over to activity area. Explain to them that you are going to catch butterflies. Throw a butterfly into the air and let children take turns catching them before they hit the ground. Allow the children to take turns tossing butterflies to each other and take turns catching them.
Gross Motor Learning Objectives
Objective 1: To provide the opportunity for projectile management by tossing butterflies into the air.
- Verbal Cue A: Can you toss the butterfly into the air?
- Verbal Cue B: Let’s throw the butterfly high toward the sky.
Objective 2: To provide the opportunity for projectile management by catching butterflies.
- Verbal Cue A: Let’s catch butterflies!
- Verbal Cue B: Can you try to catch the butterfly before it touches the ground?
Objective 3: To develop spatial relationships (body and space perception) using the prepositions forward, backward, and straight ahead in verbal cues.
- Verbal Cue A: Can you toss the butterfly forward toward Amy?
- Verbal Cue B: Toss the butterfly straight ahead toward Joe.
Please keep in mind that this is not a competitive activity, it is simply a fun, skill building activity. Therefore do not enforce rules that promote competition. For more preschool lesson plans, see Online Preschool Lesson Plans.
This activity was adapted from The Encyclopedia of Infant and Toddler Activities by Kathy Charner, Maureen Murphy, and Charlie Clark [Gryphon House, 2006].
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