Gross Motor Milestones
Our observation and documentation in the Little Fish room, has been focused steadfastly on children’s milestones for their developmental age.
A number of children will be moving into the older age group next year and are already meeting most of their gross motor milestones.
This month we extended on the children’s developmental progress by offering experiences to help them climb and balance.
We encouraged the younger children to strengthen their muscles and build on their gross motor skills by offering plenty of tummy time to encourage crawling and activity walkers to push along to encourage walking.
Balance Beam Activity
We set up the balance beam on the verandah and encouraged the children to use their body strength to climb onto the beam themselves.
We then assisted the children to walk across the beam, strengthening their core balance and giving them a sense of achievement.
As a variation we placed the balance beam on an incline to challenge the children in their ability to walk up and down an incline.
We assisted the children by holding their hand at first and then gave them the opportunity to give it a go themselves.
With repetition, the children gained some confidence to attempt the balance beam independently, climbing up the steps and while looking around for guidance from educators, cautiously move across the beam themselves.
Developing Gross Motor Skills
Through observation the children demonstrated wanting to jump, climb and move their bodies.
We offered experiences to;
- Challenge the children’s capabilities on the climbing fort and slide; and
- Played music to encourage dancing.
Gross motor skills
- Involve the large muscles in the arms, legs and torso; and
- Relate to body awareness, reaction speed, balance and strength.
Benefits of developing gross motor skill
- Helps children gain strength and confidence in his/her body;
- Helps develop a child’s ability to achieve more complex skills such as kicking a ball; and
- Encourages physical activity which is important for a healthy lifestyle.
Building on children’s gross motor skills at home
- Create obstacle courses for children to crawl/walk over using pillows and blankets;
- Ball play- kicking, throwing, catching and rolling;
- Jumping on trampolines; and
- Exploring park playgrounds.
That’s all this month from Miss Rachel, Miss Sabrina and the Little Fish (Jalumm) room.
Also please follow our Facebook and Instagram Pages and stay up to date.
