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Gross Motor Play

Follow the Leader

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I happened across the book Follow the Leader by Erica Silverman one day at the library and thought it would be the perfect book to inspire some fun, indoor play time.

The book is the story of two brothers playing follow the leader with the older brother leading the way. In the end, the older brother learns that his younger brother would love a turn being the leader, which was something my oldest sometimes (ahem… a lot of times) can use a reminder about.

Disclaimer: Please do not feel you need to have your eyes checked after viewing the next pictures. Yes, they are blurry. The girls were running way too fast to get a clear picture!

Follow me!
Spin around!
Hold your nose!
RUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNN!
Now roll around!

And, when that was done, it was time to get creative with our movements. This is the time to have some fun and mix it up.

Fun and Crazy Follow the Leader Ideas

Parade version: pretend to play different instruments or be different characters in a parade

At the farm/zoo: pretend to be the different animals you would see

Silly movements: just how silly can you be!

Opposites: go from fast to slow, loud to quiet, high to low. How many opposites can you act out?

Sports: baseball, football, soccer, anything goes!

And our favorite: Ballet style! Swirl, twirl, and walk on your toes.

The next time the kids are feeling cooped up inside, challenge them to a fun & crazy game of Follow the Leader. It’s guaranteed to get their energy out!

Do you have any fun ideas for Follow the Leader?

Fun With a Circle…

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We went outside with the intention of creating another driveway obstacle course. But, this time, we only got as far as the circle… the one large circle. The girls started running and giggling and decided all they needed was a circle to have fun.

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They ran the circle by themselves.They chased each other around the circle.

They giggled.

They stopped to catch their breath and sometimes their balance.

They laughed and ran and laughed some more.

They even tried crawling the circle and jumping in and out of the circle. It was amazing how much fun they had with a simple chalk circle.

Other ways to use the circle:

Skip, tiptoe, march, etc. around the circle.
Work on directional words (on top, below, beside, etc.)
Work on counting (run around the circle 2 times, etc.)
Play Follow the Leader… in a circle
Drive toy cars around the circle

What are some other ways you can use this simple chalk circle?

Driveway Obstacle Course

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I’ve been toying with the idea of making an obstacle course for the girls all summer. But, for one reason or the other, it never happened.Perhaps it was a lack of ideas or maybe just a bit of summer laziness, but nonetheless, it never happened.

That is, until inspiration struck and I realized “hey, I can make an obstacle course with just a bit of sidewalk chalk!”

I got out all the sidewalk chalk and took over our driveway. First, I started with straight lines that the girls had to jump over. They then moved on to a curvy line they had to walk (or run) along.

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Next up were numbered circles, 1-5. They had to jump from one to the other in numerical order (or at least the preschooler did, the toddler just jumped as she pleased).From there, they moved on to the “tightrope,” which they had to carefully walk across. Then, they encountered triangles which they had to jump from one to the other.

Next up was the spiral. They started from the outside and followed the lines to the middle.Then, they had to walk (or run) along the zig-zag line.

At the end was a series of squiggly lines to jump over, they they followed an arrow back to the beginning.

We had lots of running, giggling, jumping and sometimes losing our balance.Best of all, we had fun. The best part for me was that the possibilities are endless and the best part for the girls was that it was a lot of fun!

Racing

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Never, ever underestimate the power of simple play.Children don’t need complicated, or expensive toys all the time. Sometimes all it takes is a suggestion, an opportunity or a spark of imagination.

In this case, all it took was the flag off of our bike trailer and a suggestion from me: “why don’t you run races?”

Off they went, running, running, running.

They ran simple foot races. They chased each other. They even tried starting at the top of the slide and running once they reached the bottom. In the end, I had two exhausted girls. It was a good day!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.