2020/8/23 Bringing Active Play Indoors | NAEYC

Bringing Active Play Indoors

Resources / Publications / Teaching Young Children / April/May 2018 / Bringing Active Play
Indoors

LISA MUFSON BRESSON

Most preschool teachers have experienced them: those dreaded inclement weather
days. During the months when it’s too wet, too cold, or too hot to spend much time
outdoors, children bounce around the classroom or care space, craving active play.

Young children need many opportunities throughout the day to develop their large
muscles, improve their coordination, and use their limitless energy. Increasing core
strength and hand–eye coordination can help preschoolers improve their gross motor
abilities. Consider these activities for bringing active play inside!

Skills: Throwing | Catching |

Hand–Eye Coordination

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Garbage Ball/Sock Ball Throw

Create garbage balls by wadding up pieces of newspaper or wrapping paper and
covering them in packing tape (for sock balls, ball up two or three socks). Mark a chalk
or tape line on the floor, where children will stand. Depending on the age of the
children, place a target between three and six feet away. Encourage children to aim
their throws at the target. For most 3-year-olds, the target is simply there to direct
children’s throws. Many 4- and 5-year-olds can begin using it for accuracy. Help
preschoolers develop underhand and overhand throwing techniques first, and work on
accuracy later.

Clean Up the Floor

Put out a laundry basket of garbage balls and sock balls. With rope and fabric, create a
low “tennis net,” about two or three feet high, across your care space. Younger children
with less developed motor abilities can drop the homemade balls over the net.
Children with more developed skills can throw them over, switching between
underhand and overhand, while children on the other side work on their catching
skills. At cleanup time, children toss all the garbage and sock balls back into the
laundry basket.

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Skills: Striking | Hand–Eye

Coordination | Core Strength |
Self-Regulation
Easy Kicks
Stuff a sturdy kick ball inside one leg of a pair of panty hose. Tie the other leg to a
doorknob or hook in a wall or doorway, with the ball hanging just above the floor. This
way, the ball will keep returning to the kicker. For small spaces, tie the panty hose to a
doorknob to keep the activity to a confined area. Hanging it next to a wall allows
younger preschoolers, who are beginning to develop kicking skills, to balance with one
hand on the wall. Children will have lots of fun kicking.

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Easy Strikes
Push an inflated balloon inside one leg of a pair of panty hose and tie the other leg to a
hook in the ceiling or doorway. Give two or three children foam pool noodles or Rad
Rackets to hit the hanging balloon. (To make Rad Rackets, bend a wire hanger into the
shape of a ping-pong paddle. Cut a pair of panty hose in half so you have two separate
legs. Pull one leg over the wire frame and secure the hose to the handle with heavy
tape.)

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Skills: Climbing | Hopping |

Crawling | Balancing | Spatial
Planning | Self-Regulation

Spiderwebs

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Weave long lengths of yarn through sturdy furniture at different heights. (You can also
use crepe paper streamers for younger children, as the streamers will break if a child
gets tangled in them.) As children carefully navigate their way through the webs,
encourage spatial awareness using words like over, under, between, and through.

Navigation Station
Create a variety of balance beams of different heights and widths, using wooden unit
blocks, sturdy hollow blocks, and long pieces of foam and bubble wrap. Each material
offers children a different texture to explore. Encourage preschoolers to make their
way through the maze of balance beams. Depending on a child’s physical coordination
and abilities, she may try walking forward and backward, crawling, or hopping. It’s
helpful to set the beams up alongside sturdy furniture or next to a wall so that young
children can hold on if they lose their balance while trying a new skill.

Skills: Pushing/Pulling | Core

Strength | Teamwork
Lug-a-Jug
Fill a gallon jug with sand or water, carefully securing the top. Push the jug through
one panty hose leg. Create a handle on the other end by tying a loop or knot in the
panty hose, and encourage children to pull the jug along the floor of your classroom or
care space. Children can work alone or together to support cooperative play.

The Big Haul

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Using a very sturdy laundry basket, have one child sit in the basket while others pull or
push the basket around the room. You can vary the weight and difficulty by adding or
subtracting children or materials in the basket, like unit blocks, additional jugs, or
anything else the child wants to experiment with. Use language and questions that
encourage high-level comparing and contrasting, like more, less, heavier, lighter,
faster, slower, easy, and difficult. Children can work in pairs or small groups.

The Community Connection

What’s the best place to find free materials? Your own neighborhood! Consider asking
children’s families, local businesses, and other community organizations for

• Recycled catalogues, newspaper, and wrapping paper to make

garbage balls
(ask convenience stores, families)
• Mismatched socks for sock balls (ask secondhand and thrift stores,
families)
• Clean panty hose with runs or tears for Rad Rackets and tethered ball
games
(ask discount stores, secondhand stores, families)
• Wire hangers for Rad Rackets (ask dry cleaning shops, families)
• Scrap yarn for spiderwebs (ask craft stores, families)

Food for thought. . .

• Consider whether children are engaged in an activity. If a
majority are not, it’s okay to move on and try something else.

Try this: If multiple children aren't interested in an activity you planned, ask
yourself, Is it too difficult or too easy? Is the activity appealing? Did I introduce it
properly? Are they tired of doing it? Are they bored waiting for their turns?

• Children may have difficulty the first time they try a new
activity. Be patient and trust the process of growth and development
you are supporting.

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Try this: Teach children how to play games outdoors first, and talk about how you
could play the game indoors.

How Gross Motor Abilities

(Large Muscle Movements) Will
Build over Time
Children develop concepts, skills, and abilities at their own pace. Below are some
guidelines for age ranges and gross motor skills development to help you know
generally what to expect, what skills and abilities come first, and what comes next for
most children.

Around 3 years old: Children can jump, kick a ball, balance on one foot for three
seconds, throw overhand and underhand, switch feet when climbing stairs

Around 4 years old: Children can hop, walk backwards, gallop, walk on a balance
beam, bounce a ball and catch a ball, throw to hit a target, balance on one foot for five
seconds

Around 5 years old: Children can skip, kick and throw harder and with more
accuracy, balance on one foot for 10 seconds

References for Activities

With the exceptions of Spiderwebs and Navigation Station, the activities described in
this article are inspired by and adapted from activities in Diane H. Craft and Craig L.
Smith’s book Dr. Craft’s Active Play! Fun Physical Activities for Young
Children, published by Active Play Books (2010).

Note: Spiderwebs and Navigation Station are from Janis Strasser and Lisa Mufson
Bresson’s book Big Questions for Young Minds: Extending Children’s
Thinking, published by NAEYC (2017).

Photographs: © Getty Images; courtesy of the author

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Audience: Teacher
Age: Preschool
Topics: Child Development, Physical, Fine Motor, Gross Motor, Fitness, Health,
Other Topics, Play, TYC

LISA MUFSON BRESSON

Lisa Mufson Bresson, MEd, is an early childhood author and consultant with
Beyond Boundaries LLC. She is a former Program Manager for Grow NJ Kids, New
Jersey’s statewide QRIS for early childhood programs. Previously she taught in urban
public preschool settings for 13 years.

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