Obstacle Courses

Hooray, we've had a sunny day! We finally got to play in the garden and it was fun watching the boys play - they set themselves up an obstacle course... they had to go up the rock wall, down the slide, run along the decking, climb onto the grass and kick a ball.

The great thing about obstacle courses is that they are great for helping children develop their gross motor skills and improve sports skills. Some children like the addition of a stopwatch to keep track of their course times, others want to have a race with their friends whilst others would rather just go through the course for fun. It doesn't really matter which type of child you have they will still be getting active and improving their skills.

The list of possible obstacles in an obstacle course is endless - obviously some will be more suited to your individual child than others so choose these (and feel free to add any more ideas in the comments).

• crawl through a pop-up tunnel
• jump from stepping stone to stepping stone (paper / mats / hoops)
• do star jumps
• ride a bike / scooter / ride on
• throw bean bags / balls into a box
• throw hoops onto a hoopla
• run in and out of cones
• walk backwards for ten steps
• hit a ball with a tennis racket
• kick a football in a goal
• walk along a “tightrope” (a skipping rope placed on the floor or a chalked line on the patio - the line can be wiggly too!)
• stand on one foot
• go down a slide
• shoot with a basket ball
• dribble a football between cones
• jump over a line / small box / hurdle
• complete a stage from a crazy golf kit
• fire a “stamp on” foam rocket
• walk on stilts
• dribble a hockey ball through a slalom
• shoot a hockey goal
• bounce on a trampoline
• skip with a rope
• walk balancing a beanbag on head
• hoola with a hoola-hoop
• climb part of a climbing frame
• jump off a box
• walk heel-to-toe in a straight line
• build a sandcastle
• squirt water with a water pistol
• hop
• do a forward roll

Grow your own

We've been busy in the garden so far this Easter Holidays with the children planting seeds (mixed flowers, pumpkins for the biggest pumpkin competition and sunflowers for the tallest sunflower competition!).

If you are avid gardeners as part of BBC’s Dig In series, you can get some free seeds. The aim of the series is to introduce the joys and benefits of growing your own. It’s easy to get some free seeds - you’ll be sent tomatoes, squash, beetroot, lettuce and carrots by filling in a simple form on their site. Smaller gardeners (under the age of 16) can get their own seeds from the CBeebies website!

Letting children help to grow their own food is an fabulous learning experience for them, which teaches so much. Planting seeds involves literacy skills - reading growing instructions and writing identification labels, numeracy skills - counting the seeds and sharing them between pots, and the digging, sowing, watering involved is great for gross and fine motor skill development.

Are you going to grow your own this year? Do comment and us know what are you growing and your top tips!

Operation Play Time - Make bubbles

After the mess of yesterday's Operation Playtime - today it is time to make bubbles.

Blowing bubbles is great for oral motor development - developing the breath control to make a bubble, fine motor development - dipping the wand into the mixture container / popping bubbles using fingers, and gross motor development - waving the wand to create a 'stream' of bubbles / running around chasing bubbles.

We love blowing bubbles (although meany mummy keeps them for a garden or bath activity). Today it was in the bath as it's far too cold to be in the garden and we blew our bubbles using straws having competitions to see who could make the most or the biggest or (our favourite trick) bubbles inside bubbles!

Incidental Learning

Oh dear, I haven't written a blog post for ages - we had the Easter holidays and the weather has been so good we've been out and about enjoying the sunshine. New things at Littlesheep Learning are few and far between too as we've been so busy having fun!

As we've been out and about our children have been learning so I thought I would post some of the incidental learning that we've had going on.

• looking at street name signs when out for walks - an excellent resource for learning capital letters
• painting with water on the wall - great for upper body gross motor development / practicing writing / science of wet and dry
• playing with objects in water - which ones sink and which ones float
• playing making shadows - great for fun fine motor imitation practice
• making and melting ice cubes - the science of water properties
• growing beans
• cooking - measuring good for maths, stirring / rolling / shaping good for fine motor development
• labelling colours of cars when out for walks - easy method of checking colours
• looking for minibeasts - we found ladybirds, spiders, beetles, snails, slugs, ants and worms

Let me know your incidental learning activities and I'll add them to the list!

Gross Motor Skills Development

Introduction
Gross motor skills are larger movements involving the arm, leg, or feet muscles or the entire body, actions like crawling, walking, running, and jumping are gross motor skills

Gross Motor Skills Milestones
By six months
Holds head steady
Rolls over both ways
Pushes up with arms while on tummy
Sits briefly independently

By one year:
Sits confidently
Crawls forward
Pulls to stand while holding on
Cruises along furniture
Stands unsupported
Walks with hands held

By eighteen months:
Walks alone
Kneels
Climbs stairs
Squats to play
Kneels
Stoops and recovers
Tries to kick balls
Climbs on furniture
Pulls toy while walking

By two years
Walks backwards
Picks up toys from floor without falling
Seats self in child size chair
Walks up and down stairs with hand held
Moves to music
Jumps in place/off a step
Kicks a stationary ball
Walks up stairs independently
Throws a ball overhand
Propels “ride-on” toys forward

By three years
Runs forward
Jumps in place with two feet together
Walks on tiptoe
Kicks a ball forward
Throws overhand at a target
Catches a rolled ball
Rides a tricycle using pedals

By four years
Runs around obstacles
Walks on a line
Pushes, pulls, steers wheeled toys
Uses slide independently
Jumps over 15cm high object and lands on both feet together
Throws ball overhand
Catches large ball from 1.5m
Balances on one foot for five to ten seconds
Hops on one foot two or more times

By five years
Bounces and catches a ball
Throws a ball in the air and catches
Balance on one foot for five seconds
Walks on a line heel to toe
Jumps forward ten times without falling
Walks up and down stair independently, alternating feet
Does forward rolls

By six years
Runs lightly on toes
Walks on balance beam
Hops for 2m
Skips on alternate feet
Skip with a skipping rope
Skates
Kicks a rolling ball
Rides a bicycle
Dribbles a ball
Throws a ball with good accuracy

This information is a general guide, please keep in mind that each child is unique and develops skills at their own rate. If you are concerned about your child's development, please ask your health visitor, doctor or child’s teacher for advice.