30 Gross Motor Skills Activities for Preschoolers Your Kids Will Love

Little kids can develop their gross motor skills through a variety of fun activities. Active play that uses the large muscles of the legs, arms, and trunk is important for your preschooler's health and physical development. In fact, learning to harness the power of their muscles to run, jump, throw, catch, and kick is vital to the growth of their bodies and brains. Plus, it's a lot of fun.

Read on for our list of great gross motor skill activities for preschoolers to inspire active fun for the whole family.

Indoor Gross Motor Activities for Preschoolers

Muscle-moving play doesn't have to take up a ton of room. With just a little floor space, your preschooler can enjoy these gross motor skill-building activities inside:

Playing The Floor Is Lava

 Create obstacle courses with furniture, pillows, boxes, and blankets, and have your kids find their way through. Make it even more interesting by playing "The Floor Is Lava."

Dancing

Kids can freestyle or follow songs with movements, such as "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes," "I'm a Little Teapot," "The Wheels on the Bus," or "Popcorn."

Target hopping

Can you hop like a bunny? Set up targets with masking tape or cardboard to make jumping from place to place on the floor more fun.

Large-scale arts and crafts

Large crafting projects can stimulate both gross motor skills and creativity. Break out the art supplies and help your preschooler turn that old cardboard box into a rocket ship or boat.

Playing pretend

Kids boost gross motor skills when they use their bodies to become waddling ducks, stiff-legged robots, galloping horses, soaring planes, or any other creature they can imagine. Want to really get them moving? Play a game where you walk like an animal together and have them try to move like all different types of animals.

Pulling and pushing large toys

 Playing with wagons, large trucks, doll strollers, or shopping carts helps develop upper-body strength and coordination.

Playing flashlight tag

Turn off the lights and break out the flashlights. The person who is "it" in holds the flashlight and attempts to "tag" everyone else with their beam of light. Play until everyone is tagged out and then pick a new person to be "it."

Kid-friendly yoga

Yoga isn't just for grownups. Your preschooler will love getting into funky positions while learning the names of each one. And falling over is part of the fun.

Throwing paper planes

Help your preschooler make and decorate a paper plane and then use their arm muscles to see how far they can throw it.

Puzzle hunt

Hide pieces of a favorite puzzle around the house and have your kids look for the pieces as they put them together.

Outdoor Gross Motor Activities for Preschoolers

Kids have plenty of room outside to play hard and challenge their growing muscles, and in fact, even so-called rough and tumble play practiced in a supportive and safe environment can help kids regulate big emotions and learn to socialize. Help get their imaginations working by suggesting activities and games such as:

Doing balance practice

Have your child walk on a low beam or plank at the playground or a homemade balance beam.

Navigating an obstacle course

Set up outdoor obstacle courses with rocks, logs, or playground equipment that require your preschooler to climb, stretch, and reach.

Using ride-on toys

Encourage your child to play with tricycles, scooters, and other ride-on toys that require them to use their muscles.

Engaging in water play

Most kids love water play of all kinds, from swimming to playing with water squirters or sprinklers.

Playing at the playground

Playgrounds offer ample opportunities for kids to pump their legs on a swing, shoot down a slide, climb ladders, and run freely.

Going on a walk or hike

Take a walk around the neighborhood or a park. Pump up the fun and bring simple instruments to form a musical parade. As you walk, tell stories, look for colors, count, or play games.

Playing catch

Provide large, soft balls for throwing, catching, kicking, and rolling.

Doing a silly scavenger hunt

Set up a scavenger hunt but with one rule—no walking! Instead, kids can get from place to place to gather their items by marching, skipping, jogging, dancing, hopping, crawling, or even tip-toeing.

Having a weed-picking competition

Garden beds full of weeds? Help your preschooler identify the weeds, set a timer, and see who can pick the most before the timer goes off!

Giving the hula hoop a try

Older preschoolers are right around the age where they can start getting the hang of a large hula hoop. Even if they can't quite keep it going, hula hoops make for lots of active fun for kids with a little creativity.

Gross Motor Skills Games for Preschoolers

Some activities for developing gross motor skills work best outside, while others can be done indoors. But some of the best ways to motivate major movement in preschoolers is to get to play a game. Give one of these indoor and outdoor games a try:

Hit the target

Use hula hoops or sidewalk chalk to designate targets on the ground, then have kids throw bean bags or balls (even snowballs) at the targets. 

Jump the brook

Set out two jump ropes or draw two chalk lines representing the brook, and have kids try to jump over them. For a few levels of challenge, try making it wider in some spots and narrower in others. Or try having them jump with two feet and then with just one.

Paper plate skate race

 Use paper plates to glide along the carpet. Try to imitate speed skaters, hockey players, or figure skaters and have a competition or race.

Paper ball soccer

Instead of playing a real game, just let your kid enjoy kicking the ball and aiming it toward a goal, large cardboard box, or laundry basket turned on its side. For an extra challenge, try using use crumpled paper instead of balls.

Hopscotch

There are so many great variations on hopscotch, this classic outdoor game, and between drawing the court, throwing the rock, and hopping and jumping, your preschooler will love this gross motor skill activity.

Tag

Teach little ones simple ways to play tag or other classic games such as "Follow the Leader," "Mother May I," and "Simon Says."

Limbo

See how far your preschooler can bend to get under the broomstick. Change it up by going reserving the game, and having them jump over the stick starting on the ground and moving it up bit by bit.

Twister

Another classic childhood game Twister, and you can play even if you don't have the traditional board. Try creating your own board by drawing circles with sidewalk chalk.

Keepy-uppy

Fans of the show Bluey will be familiar with the name of this balloon game, but just about all of us played it as kids. Fill a balloon with air or use an old, deflating helium-filled balloon from your last party. The rule: The balloon can't touch the ground. Keep the balloon up in the air using any part of your body.

Freeze dance

Your preschooler will love this movement-based game. Stream a fun freeze dance song and get everyone involved or go old-school and have someone responsible for pausing the music to make everyone freeze.