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Goal HPD-4: Children develop the large muscle control and abilities needed to
move through and explore their environment.
Older Toddlers:
• Move their arms and legs to complete a task (kick, jump, step, pedal, push away). HPD-4h
• Move through the world with a variety of movements and with increasing independence (run, jump, pedal). HPD-4i
• Use familiar objects that encourage large motor movements (riding toys,
crawl tubes, large ball in basket, slide).  HPD-4j
• Perform actions smoothly with balance, strength, and coordination (dance, bend over to pick up a toy, reach up high on a shelf, walk up and down steps). HPD-4k

Concepts:
- movement
- muscle control
- exploration
- play
- strength
- coordination
- large motor skills

Questions:
- How do we encourage a variety of movements inside the classroom?
- What happens when we involve our senses in our movement activities? (ie - closed eyes to improve balance)
- What other objects can be used to encourage large muscle control?
- How can we use playground equipment to explore our movements?
- What other environments can we explore besides the classroom and playground?

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Tricycles can be used to strengthen arm and leg muscles and improve hand-eye coordination. Children can peddle or use their feet to make the tricycle propel forward.

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Wood beams can be found hidden in unintentional areas on a playground. I've seen many used as mulch borders! Children enjoy balancing with their arms held out while trying not to fall off. This "toy" covers balance, strength, and coordination. Children can explore their environment to find their own balance beam!

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What child does love balls? Especially ones of different colors and shapes! Whether throwing or rolling, balls can help children build strength, coordination, and balance. Not only are they using their large muscles, but they are also building small muscle control and hand eye coordination.

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These large blue foam blocks are great for outdoor and indoor play! Stacking, building, balancing these blocks focuses on many areas of muscle control.

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Rock walls and slides help children to explore their muscle control and strength and to feel adventurous.

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Wood blocks for inside the classroom offer movement and muscle development, as well as engaging the imagination.

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Short or adjustable basketball goals allow children to stretch, reach, bend over, and run while developing large muscle control.

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Not all play has to take place on our feet! Crawl tubes are a great way to build onto the foundational skills of crawling while encouraging large motor movement.

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Hula-hoops are great for hip and leg control, developing back muscles, and just having fun. They can be tossed, rolled, or hopped in and around.

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Multilevel playground equipment where children can step, climb, slide, crawl, and more, are beneficial in building muscle control in a variety of ways. Children also benefit from climbing stairs when this type of equipment isn't available.

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In this College of Charleston blog, I learned about a few different activities that can be used to support the standard that I chose. The "What's your name workout", yoga for kids, and "tic tac toss" are all experiences for children that will get them moving and having fun. Each of these activities can be done inside or outside and encourage a variety of movements while engaging other senses and knowledge.

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Gross motor skills are the abilities required to control the large muscles of our body for activities like walking, running, jumping, and skipping. Teaching children motor skills is directly related to their physical fitness and development. By introducing them to these skills at such a young age, it can help children develop and mature their movements as they grow. Giving children the opportunity to move is the most important thing you can do. These movements can be small or big, and don't need to be complex. Jumping, dancing, skipping, running, and walking all give children the opportunity to work on their gross motor development. Focusing on these skills will help children learn to enjoy movement and exercise and help them practice healthy habits for the future.

At ECDC children have plenty of time to move during free play in the classroom, run around during outside time on the playground, or build forts during the afternoon in the multipurpose room. As school ends and we're still home during the pandemic, there are plenty of ways to keep children busy and active during the summer.

Honoring Outdoor Play
Giving children the opportunity to play outside helps them appreciate nature, move their bodies, and explore the world around them. Providing students with hands-on, outside learning stimulates their senses through what they hear, touch, see, and feel. Children can build with sticks, rake leaves, jump in mud puddles, and help plant gardens. Through outdoor play, children learn to enjoy the natural environment and learn to seek out exercise, fresh air, and activity. Outdoor play helps children appreciate the world around them, take part in physical activity, and learn to care for the environment.

At ECDC we give our students many opportunities explore outside. Our lessons connect classroom learning to the outside world, and we focus on practicing ways to take of our earth like recycling, not using too much water when washing our hands, and bringingreusable containers for lunch. Our outside areas enhance students motor skills because of all the running, climbing, and exploring they can do. Children can ride bikes, toss a ball, swing, and dig in the sandbox.

Having children home all day every day is much different than it was when parks and beaches were open but there are still plenty of ways to keep them busy with little to no materials. Keeping children moving and practicing their gross motor skills will benefit them when we can hopefully get back to school in the fall! Giving children the opportunity to practice these healthy habits will help them develop their physical fitness and help them learn to enjoy movement and exercise.
Gross Motor Practice Here are a few ideas that Ms. Allyce (Seashell Graduate Assistant) wanted to share that may be fun to explore in the summer months away from ECDC. While many families may have gone on numerous walks and bike rides, she wanted to provide some resources and ideas on ways to stay moving and active at home, both inside and outside. What's your name? Workout
Below is a chart of exercises that you can work on with your children. The goal is for them to spell their name and then complete the exercise listed next to each letter of their name. This can be tied in with writing and reading practice, because they have to write their name and then read the exercise. Modeling this for your child will be a fun way to get them engaged and get the whole family moving!
Yoga for Kids
During our second week of Zoom meetings in the Seashell class, we focused on plants and flowers. To get students out of their seats, Ms. Jessica taught them a yoga pose at the end of each meeting! The seashells enjoyed this and by the end of the week were masters at the Flower pose. One fun way to do this is to go outside and try and find each thing before you practice the pose. You can do this while planting a garden, going on a walk, or exploring your neighborhood or backyard. Yoga focuses on both the body and the mind, and is a great exercise to use with children! There is also fun yoga channels that you can tune into to make it an interactive way to learn new poses with your children. Cosmic Kids focuses on both yoga and mindfulness that will keep your children calm and happy throughout the day!
https://m.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga?fbclid=IwAR1kws9yOxW_gRLlqExLW29-uGVhAMVNxi6OsxkyR_OdA07etiMcPtCTKCs Tic-Tac-Toss
For some gross motor practice, you need three simple materials for tic-tac-toss. First you need to tape down a tic-tac-toe board on your floor, or you can draw it with chalk on your sidewalk. Next you need two different color bean bags or balls, that your children can work on throwing and tossing. Children will try their best to throw the bean bags in the square of their choice and once they get three in a row, they win! This helps children practice taking turns and work on their throwing!

These are only a few ideas to get children moving, but they all incorporate gross motor development, getting up and moving, and practicing healthy habits. The most important thing is that children are having fun and using these activities to stay active. A requirement for all is doing them with a smile and enjoying time together as a family!

The South Carolina Standards that this post is focused on are stated below:
Health and Physical Development (HPD) Subdomain: Physical Health and Growth

Goal HPD-2: Children engage in and sustain various forms of physical play indoors and outdoors.
Subdomain: Motor Development

Goal HPD-4: Children develop the large muscle control and abilities needed to move through and explore their environment.

Goal HPD-5: Children develop small muscle control and hand-eye coordination to manipulate objects and work with tools.

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N. E. Miles Early Childhood Development Center

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Gross motor skills are the abilities required to control the large muscles of our body for activities like walking, running, jumping, and skipping. Teaching children motor skills is directly related to their physical fitness and development. By introducing them to these skills at such a young age, it can help children develop and mature their movements as they grow.

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From the NC Foundations website, here we have suggestions for how to meet the goals of motor development in children. This page is helpful in planning, creating, modeling, and providing children with the experiences that need to succeed in this goal. It is a basic outline that can be used to guide us through developing our own plans and activities.

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Obstacle courses can be used as a structured activity during outside or inside play time. Using items like slides, balance beams, blocks, tricycles, and hula-hoops can all help children to engage their large muscles and explore different uses for everyday objects. They get to run, crawl, and jump which works many of their muscles in different groups.

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CECE Early Childhood Videos at Eastern CT State U.

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Using an Obstacle Course to Promote Active Outdoor Play

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See, think, wonder

These large foam blocks encourage children to use their imagination to build and create structures. They use their arms to move and life blocks, their legs to step over and climb, and their hands to manipulate their creation.
These blocks can be used inside or outside, but I like having them outside to give children options for play other than the traditional playground. While playing with these pieces, children, must wonder what else they can do with them which leads to further development and exploration of their environment. Children can build "houses", "cars", a maze, endless possibilities. All while developing muscle control and building strength and coordination.

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Paper plate skating is a great rainy day activity! By using paper plates, children are exploring different uses for things in their environment. The skating technique requires the use of the arm and leg muscles as well as coordination and strength. This is also a great precursor to teaching children how to really skate which requires even more muscle control.

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Starting the year off with simple and fun winter activities!

Go paper plate skating.

I got this super idea from my contributor Lorien when she wrote about 5 game changers for a crazy day.

Grab two paper plates and throw them on the floor. And let the kids at it! They'll probably know what to do.

One foot per plate and skate wherever they want to go. It goes great on hardwood and carpet both.

It's easier for kids to remove their socks so their feet 'naturally' stick to the plates (or are my kids the only ones with super sweaty feet?).

If you don't remove socks, you can tape the plates onto their feet.

We did that for Louis (which shocks me because he always takes his socks off instantly).

This is also a great gross motor activity to get kids moving indoors. You can find more indoor gross motor activities here.

Want more super simple activities like this?

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Paper Plate Skating Simple Gross Motor Activity

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Go skating in your own house! Grab paper plates to put under your kids feet and slip and slide around the house like you're skating on ice!