Use balls as a tool for physical education activities with preschool children. Set out basketballs or other types of bouncing balls and simply allow children to bounce them. Reinforce counting by encouraging children to count how many times they can bounce a ball. Blow up beach balls, arrange kids in a circle and have them toss the ball to one another and catch it. Place balls on the floor and encourage kids to kick the balls from one location to another, or have them try to kick the ball into a goal.
Hula hoops are another tool that can be used for physical education instruction with young children. Distribute hula hoops to children and show them how to hula, or twist them around their middles. Spin the hula hoops around legs and arms. Lay hula hoops out on the floor in a straight or jagged line and encourage kids to hop from one hoop to the next. Use hula hoops as targets; set them on the floor or hang some from a tree and have kids practice their aim by tossing bean bags or balls into or through them.
Use different types of beams to provide children with gross motor development. Set up balance beams or 2-by-4s on the floor (with mats surrounding them) and encourage children to try to walk across them. Set up a series of beams on the ground and have kids run and jump over them. Two adults can suspend a beam and children can limbo underneath it.
Encourage music appreciation, self-expression and development of gross motor muscles with music. Play different types of music and invite children to listen to the music and move around to it however they wish. Ask children to move around like different entities while listening to music; animals or objects, for example. Distribute props for kids to use while they dance around to the music, such as scarves, lengths of crepe paper streamers and ribbons. Play a game of freeze dance, where children dance around to music and stop when the music stops.