Planning Nurturing Preschool Physical Development Through Playful Activities

Planning Preschool Physical Development Through Play

Planning activities for preschoolers that develop those essential fine and gross motor skills is an important part of lesson planning. Young learners need activities that are interesting to them, safe, and challenging while still within their physical limits. We can help get your planning started with some ideas, tips & tricks and even a freebie!

Before you start planning your physical development activities

Early learning standards are an essential part of planning lessons. Early Learning Standards serve as guidelines that outline the developmental milestones we can expect young children to achieve. These standards cover domains such as cognitive, social-emotional, physical, and language development. By aligning activities with these standards, we ensure that our little learners are not only having fun but also building a strong foundation for future academic success.

The team here at Pre-K Printable Fun uses early learning standards as a guide to design our products, as well as plan suggested activities on our site. Download our free Pre-K Printable Fun Early Learning Standards here.

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Let's Start Planning Your Physical Development Activities

For the purpose of this post we are featuring Physical Development activities for a "Fruit and Vegetable Gardening Theme". To get started with planning you will need something to record your planning notes (paper/pen, tablet etc.), standards you are working with, and a general idea of the materials you have to work with. Teacher Tip: If you have a lot of materials consider creating a Digital Inventory List for easy reference.

Activities to Build Fine Motor Skills

Fine motor development is important for children to master self-help skills and learn to color, write, and properly use scissors. Fine motor is also linked to cognitive development. For fine motor development offer a variety of activities that children can engage in independently during self-directed play as well as intentionally planned activities.

When planning fine motor activities consider where your students are at developmentally. Begin by planning for the developmental level of the overall group and then make modifications as needed for those that still need more support as well as those that have developed mastery of the skill. Here are some ideas for activities as well as way to differentiate.

Preschool Toys and Materials for building Fine Motor Skills

Here are some suggested toys and materials students can play with independently. These encourage students to manipulate small objects, as well as use their fingers and hands to pinch, twist, and pull.

• Mr. Potato Head
• Garden themed puzzles
• Fruit and Vegetable Magnet Sets
  
• Fruit and Vegetable Stacking Toys
• Garden Themed Sorting Toys
• Soft Fruit and Vegetable Toys to Squeeze
  
• Fruit and Veggie Stickers and Stamps
  
• Gardening Tools
  

Lacing Activities

Engage your preschoolers in making their own learning materials! Create DIY lacing cards with your preschoolers for a powerful fine motor experience, then place in the classroom for self-exploration. You can get these 3-part cards for free in our shop.
Early Learning Standard: Uses fingers to squeeze and rotates wrists to manipulate objects

Differentiation Ideas:
Offering more support:

• for preschoolers that need more support supply them with the finished card and be sure to put tape around the ends of the yarn.
• Punch larger holes if needed

Challenging your students:

• Advanced preschoolers can benefit from using the hole puncher
• Try cutting the bottom of the 3-part card off and encouraging advanced preschoolers to lace it to the upper portion.

Play Dough Activities

Harvesting a Mini Garden
Provide play dough or kinetic sand along with mini vegetables for children to plant and harvest on repeat creating a fun opportunity for working on those fine motor skills. Early Learning Standard: Manipulates small objects with tools and fingers

Differentiation Ideas

• This activity may be altered for children that don't enjoy the feel of dough, by swapping out fabric to use as the the "soil"
  
• For children that struggle with sensory or need a further challenge, add tweezers for them to manipulate the fruit with.
• For children that need an extra challenge this would also be an excellent opportunity for patterning practice.

Stringing Beads

Pea Necklaces
String green beads to create a pea necklace - Fostering hand-eye coordination and fine motor control

Mosaics

Create a Seed Mosaic
Incorporate fine motor into other domains.  Creating a seed mosaic is a great option for creating a art while getting in essential fine motor skill development.
Early Learning Standard: Manipulates small objects with tools and fingers

Differentiation:

• Provide seeds in a variety of sizes for children to practice picking up seeds in all sizes
• Provide tweezers for children that want an extra challenge
• For advanced preschoolers challenge them to build letters with the seeds.
  

Stamping

Grape Cluster Stamping Craft
Use recycled materials to create your own grape cluster.

Weaving

Picnic Blanket Weaving Craft
Weave pieces of paper to create your own picnic blanket.

Scissor and Tweezer Activities

Fruit/Veggie Pick-up
To make this game, pair up our free 3-part fruit and veggie cards with pretend (or real) fruits and vegetables. Spread the fruit and vegetables around the room and have them place the matching fruits and vegetables on the correct cards.
To add an additional gross motor component, practice hopping to the vegetables like a bunny! Early Learning Standard: Moves with Balance and Coordination

Carrot Cutting Craft: Provide craft supplies to cut and create carrot shapes - Enhancing fine motor skills and creativity

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Planning Gross Motor Activities

Now it's time to plan gross motor activity ideas!
Gross motor play is essential for development. Development occurs from large to small, so children need to workout those arm muscles in order to properly develop and fine tune those fine motor skills. Gross motor play is also essential for good health, spatial awareness, developing balance and body control as well as releasing energy (do they ever run out of that??)

Relay Race

Berry Basket Relay
Incorporate a relay race where children carry plastic strawberries to a fruit basket- Emphasize running, balance, and teamwork.

Indoor Scavenger Hunt

Healthy Harvest Hunt
Organize a scavenger hunt for plastic fruits and vegetables.  This type of activity promotes active play, observation, and teamwork. Scavenger hunts are also fun activities to take outside!

Rolling Race

Apple Rolling Race
Roll apples across the floor using hands or feet - Promoting coordination and gross motor skills

Tossing Games

Fruit and Veggie Toss
Toss pretend fruit into baskets or hula hoops - Enhancing hand-eye coordination and accuracy

Balance Games

Banana Balance
Balance toy bananas on different body parts during a movement game . These types of games improve balance and coordination

Obstacle Course

Fruit and Veggie Obstacle Course
Create an obstacle course with fruit and vegetable-themed stations - Enhancing gross motor skills, coordination, and creativity

Hopscotch

Fruit and Veggie hopscotch
Draw a hopscotch board with fruit and vegetable shapes - Combining physical activity with shape recognition

Outdoor Self Directed Play

Outdoor Gardening

• Wheelbarrows and dirt/sand (talk about a workout!)
• Rakes
• Watering plants

Teacher Tip: Add these self-directed play ideas to your lesson plan, self-directed play is an important part of early learning programs

Parades

Picnic Parade. Organize a pretend picnic parade with fruit and vegetable props . This type of activity also encourages imaginative play and storytelling

Differentiate:

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Add ideas to your lesson plan

We hope you learned more about how to plan for gross motor activities! Choose your favorite activities and add them to your plans. We gathered these ideas from our Free Growing Fruits and Vegetables Theme Planning page, hop on over to get even more ideas to finish your lesson plan!
Did you know we have more than 50 FREE Theme Planning Pages? Be sure to bookmark for future lesson planning needs.

Get out your lesson planning page and fill in your chosen physical development activities.
For parent communication consider adding the standard to the bottom of the activity description, hang a copy of the standards near your lesson plan.
*Teacher Tip: for differentiation make notes on a separate piece of paper, keep this with your lesson planning records for review.

Finish your plan

What are you favorite different types of physical development activities?
Share them in the comments!