Large motor activities should be a vital part of any early childhood program.  Large motor play helps children burn off excess energy, enabling them to focus better in the classroom.  There are also opportunities for building social skills when children work and play cooperatively in games. When children play large group games together, they are working on taking turns and sharing with one another.

They are also working on developing friendships. Lastly, gross motor skills can provide the perfect opportunity to introduce new concepts that may be difficult for young children to grasp. For this activity, we used bean bags and a large chalk-drawn clock to learn about numbers and time. For each child, a number was written on a whiteboard. The child was then directed to throw the bean bag onto the corresponding hour on the clock.