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How to Use Gross Motor Skills to Enhance Learning

Simple and fun activities can be used to engage students in learning while developing important gross motor skills and the large muscles to enhance thinking. Activities that involve hand-eye coordination, running, jumping, hopping and even walking can teach and engage them while exercising and developing important muscle groups needed to continue learning. From crawling to walking, a child develops important gross motor skills primarily by keeping active.

Things You'll Need

  • Putty
  • Small colored beads
  • Envelopes
  • Rubber kick ball
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Instructions

  1. Hands in Gross Motor Skills

    • 1

      Seat students in groups of four around round tables.

    • 2

      Place a ball of putty in the center of each table of students.

    • 3

      Place a small cup or envelope filled with colored beads next to the putty.

    • 4

      Review the emotions "happy," "sad," "silly" and "mad" with the students. Draw a picture of each on a Whiteboard or chalkboard and discuss them.

    • 5

      Show students how a ball of putty and beads can create an emotion face. Create one in front of them, carefully demonstrating every move, beginning with the placement of each eye, the nose, the mouth and even some hair. Use different colored beads for each feature; for example, use orange beads for their hair by sprinkling them along the sides, blue for the eyes with one bead for each eye and red for the lips by dotting them along to create a smile.

    • 6

      Instruct students to make silly friends showing emotions. Give one group the emotion "happy," another group the emotion "sad," another "silly" and another "mad." One at a time, have each group show their emotion face.

    Feet in Gross Motor Skills

    • 7

      When all students are in a circle, demonstrate how to kick a large rubber ball. Kick it lightly with one foot and kick it again with the other.

    • 8

      Kick the ball to the student to your right, instructing that student to kick it to the next student. After each student has kicked it to the next, demonstrate how to pick it up and throw it to the student on the other side. Throw it lightly, but not far.

    • 9

      Instruct students to throw the ball to the person next to them. After each student has thrown and caught the ball once, show students how to do a "kick-and-throw" with one student kicking, the next throwing and so on. This will help students develop short-term recall and important hand-eye coordination as they remember their turn in kicking and throwing.

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