p targets with pictures of superheroes or favourite characters provides a great incentive to explore with water pistols or beanbags and balls.
There is no reason why physical development cannot be just as exciting, creative and adventurous as other areas of learning and development. So every once in a while, why not leave the bikes and trikes in the shed and try a few of these ideas?
Try labelling some big buckets with numerals, and encourage children to throw balls and bean bags into the correct bucket. This is great for building arm and shoulder muscles as well as coordination. Older and more able children can throw into buckets with the answer to a simple maths problem – e.g. “one more than three”, “one less than five”, etc. Arranging the buckets in different formations helps to improve coordination and throwing skills.
Cut shapes into a large, cheap tarpaulin (available from pound-type shops). Peg it up outside and encourage children to kick balls into the different shapes. Coloured tape around the holes helps to increase durability and makes the shapes more prominent, as well as adding another sorting dimension to the activity.
Log slices with numbers on are a great way to encourage the development of balance and coordination, as well as building on counting and numeral recognition. Try mixing up the slices and asking children to move them back into order (remember, lifting and handling are part of physical development too!). Putting blackboard paint onto your log slices allows you to change numbers, or for children to add their own with chalks.
Place strands of uncooked spaghetti in lumps of play-dough and encourage children to thread small beads onto it. As well as developing coordination and pincer movements, this provides many chances to count and make patterns according to colour or shape. Try extending the activity by adding pipe cleaners, ribbons and coloured matchsticks.
Laminate pictures of superheroes or favourite characters with numerals on them, and space them out around your outdoor area. Ask children to identify them and then squirt them with a water pistol. Squirters of different sizes will enable children to build different muscles: large squirters build muscles in arms, shoulders and backs, while small party bag-sized water pistols build strength in hands and wrists.
The joy of physical learning is that it provides opportunities on a different scale to everyday activities. This is particularly true when exploring creativity, where a chance to explore really big art can be both exciting and help to develop cooperation and the sharing of experiences and ideas.
Instead of binning your teabags after making your morning cuppa, try saving them and soaking them in different coloured paints. Then let children have the chance to throw them at either a vertical (sheet on a fence) or horizontal (large piece of paper on the floor) target. This really encourages the shoulder throwing action, and gives an amazing shared final result! Why not try to splat objects with different weights to build up muscle strength and control? Try throwing balls, sponges or even cotton wool balls dipped in paint.
Place an old sock, some sand or rice into the bottom of an old stocking or one leg of some old tights. Tie them in to give you a ball at the end of a stretchy rope. Dip the ball end into paint and bounce it up and down onto a piece of paper on the floor. Can you make a really big splat? Are there different-sized splats? What happens when the colours mix? If you want to get really physical, try moving outdoors and letting children really swing the yo-yo at the paper.
As well as planning for specific activities, some simple changes to the materials and tools you offer can expand the scope for physical development in your setting. Try extending the reach of tools such as paint brushes, chalks and pens by taping them to pieces of broom handle or bamboo canes – the extra length encourages the use and development of muscles not usually employed for brush and pencil control. Use extra-long spoons in your mixing and mud kitchen pl