Physical activity is vital for a child’s health and fitness and offers an endless amount of benefits. To learn more about the impact of physical activities, head to our dedicated blog post.
Providing a variety of different physical activities in your setting is recommended to spark children’s interest and encourage participation. To support this, we have compiled our top 10 EYFS physical development activities. Each activity is selected to enhance your school’s physical education lessons and enrich children’s physical development. Read on for more!
Top 10 Physical Activities For Early Years
Organised Sport
By engaging children in regular sporting activities, it improves their overall health and fitness, increases their social skills and promotes a sense of achievement. Organised sports are a great way to do this and provide children with a way to make friends, improve their teamwork skills and learn to follow rules. Examples include: football, rugby, cricket, tennis, basketball, netball, badminton, rounders and hockey. Provide a variety of these in your setting to encourage children to take part!
Racing
Running is a fun and simple activity that strengthens the children’s muscles and bones. Encourage children to run by integrating a variety of unique racing games. Why not try an energetic space hopper race, a classic egg and spoon race, a playful sack race or an amusing fancy dress relay race!
Obstacle Course
Obstacle courses offer the opportunity to enhance children’s development in numerous areas from balance and coordination, to strength and endurance. They can be versatile, adaptable and tailored to children’s abilities. Try incorporating obstacles such as balance beams, hurdles, cones, ladders, hoops, space hoppers, bunny hoppers, tunnels, balls and climbing frames to build the ultimate children’s obstacle course!
Throwing
Throwing activities can help to improve a child’s hand-eye coordination, motor skills and timing. There are countless throwing games that you can try with the children, such as throwing balls through hoops, shooting in basketball and netball games or aiming an object at a large target board or set of cans. Throwing games can also be used to incorporate an additional element of learning such as maths. Why not try using a target maths board and asking children to calculate a sum and then throw the ball at the correct number, or our tin can alley game to introduce children to classic carnival games.
Dancing
Playing a child’s favourite song, is guaranteed to make their body move! Dancing promotes cooperation and increases flexibility and stamina. Encourage the children to invent their own dances and give them props such as colourful dance rings, scarves, pom poms or wands to inspire their creativity even further!
Skipping
Skipping is a fun activity which improves a child’s heart rate, coordination and agility. Encourage children to try different skipping games, such as jumping with a partner, running through the rope or jumping for height! Why not try and encourage some additional learning into the activity? Try and encourage children to spell their name with each jump and then swap to the next person.
Parachute Game
Parachutes are a popular resource for large groups of children, which help to develop gross motor skills and inspire teamwork. There are an endless number of different uses for parachutes. Some of these include games such as crossing over and under, ocean waves, cat and mouse, ball surfing, throwing the bean bag on a specific colour and much more! Test a few of these different games out to see what your children enjoy!
Trampolining
Trampolining is an enjoyable cardiovascular activity that increases a child’s heart rate, builds strength and tones muscles. Why not introduce children to a mini trampoline and engage them in games such as knee jumping, jumping on one leg or counting with each jump.
Tug of War
Tug of war is an entertaining and competitive activity that enhances a child’s strength and resistance. It is a great way for children to problem solve as a team and discuss strategy. Split the children into teams, hand out the rope, set the goal and let the battle commence!
Walking
Walking is a simple activity that not only increases physical development, but also enhances a child’s mental health as well. Whether it’s walking to school, power walking in a school race or walking through nature on a school trip, make sure you get the kids out and about to promote physical activity. A great way to encourage children to get outdoors and walk is using a scavenger hunt – hide some “treasure” and create a map for children to navigate. Or, use our free seasonal downloads and encourage children to find all the elements on the ticklist. Scared of your children wondering off during a walk? Encourage children to stick together and socialise during the walking with our hold-a-ring walking rope.
Let’s get active
We would love to know which EYFS physical development activity is your favourite. Let us know on our Facebook or Instagram!
