Supporting Physical Activity Indoors

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Movement allows children to release energy as they practice existing skills and learn new ones. Keeping children’s gross- and fine-motor skills in mind, while also considering the benefits of physical activity on children’s overall development.

Consider the following examples of experiences you can offer children in your classroom:​  

Learning Centers
​Provide children with opportunities to engage in pretend play in the  dress-up area; use blocks or other items from nature to build or balance objects in the block area; draw or write using different materials in the art or writing center; explore and manipulate various items and textures in the discovery center; listen, watch the screen, or direct the mouse in a listening center or computer center; explore different textures, scents, colors, or sizes in a sensory center. Through play, children are naturally able to use and learn to refine their gross and fine motor skills and coordination. As children get older, they use their muscles in continually more complex ways, integrating large and fine muscle movements with visual perception (Henniger, 2008)​.

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Circle Time
Play games like Simon Says or Follow The Leader to keep children active. Below are some optional resources to explore for ideas.

• ​Circle Time Games and Activities: A Must for Any Teacher
• 10 Circle Time Games​
• ​More Circle Time Games (Word Doc download)

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Story Time
Encourage children to role play parts of a story or to pretend to be story characters and imitate their movements and sounds.

• Stories in Motion - Physical Activity Breaks, IOWA Department of Education (short stories that include action words which prompt bursts of physical activity! Utilize these stories in your classroom for short physical activity breaks.)

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Meal Times
Encourage children to use utensils, practice trying to open containers, pass food around the table, serve, and clean up after themselves.​ 

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Transitions
Ask children to walk, crabwalk, or hop to where they need to be, making sure above all that they are being safe.

Moving from room to room
After mid-morning snack, have preschoolers walk through the hallway, then sit on the carpet for circle time. To help in the transition from snack to circle time, put a rope from the snack to the beginning of the classroom. Then tell the kids "We're walking on the bridge over hot lava or a swamp filled with alligators". They really go along with balancing and getting to the other-side without falling off the bridge. The carpet is the "safe" zone.

Clean up
​Use small tongs for clean up time. Instead of telling the kids to clean up, turn off the lights and put out the basket of tongs. Once they each get a pair of tongs, start singing your favorite songs while they use them to pick up the toys and put them away. This is great for fine motor and the children don't even realize they are cleaning and not playing!  After the kids get all the blocks cleaned up, dump it out and do it again, naming the color of the blocks as they drop them in the bucket! The kids absolutely love this and it makes cleanup time so much easier!

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Any Time
Early childhood is the perfect time to show children how important it is to get active to stay fit and healthy. Put on some music and invite children to a dance party. Dancing requires active, constant movement.  One way that will really get them interested is by practicing some simple dances.
Adjust the furniture in your room if you need to make more space, and encourage children to make suggestions about favorite songs or types of music. You can also arrange for “work-out time” to do simple exercises with children. These exercises can be more fun if you incorporate music.
With a little imagination and outside-the-box thinking, you can come up with numerous fun activities to keep children active throughout the day. For example, you can set up an indoor basketball game with crumpled up newspaper “balls” that children throw into a cardboard box or any type of basket, or you can ask children to “ice skate” wearing socks on a smooth floor. While making sure children are safe at all times, there are limitless possibilities to what you can do in your classroom!​ 

Optional Resources for Further Study

• Physical Activity in Early Childhood: Setting the State for Lifelong Healthy Habits
• 4 Fun Lesson Plans to Keep Kids Active During Physical Activity Month​, May 15th, 2017 by SPARK​
• Health Lesson Plan- Learn the Importance of Being Active Every Day, Jul 30, 2010​
• Be Active Kids Guide to Early Childhood Physical Activity: Motor Skills and Movement Concepts for Children Birth to Five, BlueCross Blue Shield of North Carolina

Course Navigation Menu

1. Course Agenda
2. Physical Development
3. Benefits of Physical Activity
4. Infants: Birth through 11 months
5. Infants and Toddlers 
6. Toddlers: 1 through 2 years old
7. Preschoolers: 3 through 5 years 
8. Active Playtime
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9. Discussion: Activity (1/5)
10. Structured Physical Activities
​11. Outdoor Active Play
12. Gross Motor Activities (2/5)
13. Limit Inactive Time
14. Physical Activity Indoors
15. Physical Indoors (3/5)
16. Supporting Physical Activity
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17. Environments that Promote 
18. Promoting Motor Development 
19. Promoting Fine Motor Skills (4/5)
20. Consider All Children
21. Special Needs
22. More Inclusive Environment
23. End of Course Quiz (5/5)
​24. End of Course Evaluation
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