Add this fun and simple idea to your list of Christmas games for kids – it’s perfect for promoting core strength, balance, and social skills!
We were short on present-themed gross motor activities during our play groups at The Treehouse this week and this fun idea came to mind at the last minute! The kids loved it! All you need are some basic props and the game can be changed up based on what supplies you have on hand.
What You’ll Need:
-Something to use as “presents”. Bonus points if you wrap them too! We used these cardboard bricks but you could also try the activity with smaller wood building blocks
or even shoe boxes.
–Scooters
*You could also do this activity without scooters using different movements – see below.
-Something to use as a “sleigh” where kids can stack the boxes. If you have these cube chairs in your classroom, they would work perfectly.
What to do:
1 || Scatter your presents all over the play space on the floor. Have kids ride on their scooters (either on their stomachs or sitting), picking up the presents one at a time and stacking them on the “sleigh”.
2 || Kids will have to work together and take turns to make sure the stack doesn’t fall over. If it gets knocked down, they simply start again, picking up the presents and adding them to the stack.
3 || When all of the presents have been stacked up, the kids have a new challenge. They have to work together as a team to push the sleigh from one place in the room to an end point, without knocking the stack over. It takes some serious self-regulation and control to push the sleigh slowly enough to keep the presents from falling!
How to change it up:
If you don’t have scooters, try having kids crab walk to pick up the presents, balancing the boxes on their tummies as they walk. Or try balancing the presents on their heads, walking slowly so they don’t fall down!
Make it a race! Have each child find and pick up only presents of a certain color, making their own personal stack of presents. When their stack is complete, they push it carefully to the end point on the other side of the room. Who can stack their presents on the sleigh and get the sleigh to the end point first?
[…] week, we inspired some gross motor movement with our present stacking Christmas game. It was perfect for promoting core strength, balance, and social skills. We thought we would […]