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For yourkinaesthetic kids,there’s no time tosit still. Kirstine

Beeley presents a hostof creative ways to add aphysical dimension toactivities across the EYFS...

The importance of children’s earlyphysical development can not beoverstated. It links closely with achild’s ability to access futurelearning and emotional wellbeing,

and has a direct impact on braindevelopment. As one of the three primeareas within the revised EYFS (2012) clearemphasis is now put on this vital part ofchildren’s education. Although the EYFSstates “all areas of learning and developmentare important and interconnected”, I’d like totake a brief look at how you can use physicaldevelopment to help build children’sknowledge and understanding in other areas– both looking at children learning to moveand helping them move to learn...

The active approachThe EYFS asks practitioners to help developchildren’s physical wellbeing as well as theirunderstanding of healthy living, and with this inmind, many settings revert to outdoor bike andtrike play as their main method of providing for

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coordination between their brain and limbs: theirfine motor skills. Try writing your name holding apencil with your toes and you will experiencewhat it’s like when your muscles and coordinationare not yet developed. Children need the chanceto build these smaller physical skills in a widevariety of ways both indoors and outdoors, notjust through play-dough exploration.

Children also need to develop their grossmotor skills: larger body movements to helpbuild strength and coordination. As well asimproving general fitness levels, the

physical development. In small settings thiscan be an issue, as lots of whizzing round incircles is difficult when space is at a premium.But when you analyse what the EYFS actuallysays, that we should be “providing childrenwith opportunities to be active andinteractive”, you realise that it’s not just aboutproviding children with a chance to ‘blow offsteam’; it’s about giving children the skills tointeract with different approaches to learning,and to find new ways of developing theirstrength and coordination, as well as gettingtheir hearts racing. So, how and why shouldwe make physical activity a part of learningacross the board?

As we all know, children are wonderfullydifferent – they all have their own preferredstyle of learning. Some learn best when theyare asked to listen, whilst others prefer amore visual and vibrant way of absorbinginformation. There are also those who learnbetter when they are active. These are ourkinaesthetic learners; they have an inbuiltneed to move as they play, learn and grow,both indoors and outdoors. It is with theselearners in mind that I’ve looked at ways ofmaking learning and development in otherareas a more physical experience, with thehope that a child who perhaps hasstruggled to grasp a concept presented inone way will benefit from taking another,more active approach.

Motor skillsBefore children can pick up a pencil, pair ofscissors or paint brush and control it properlythey need to build on the strength in theirhands, wrists and fingers, as well as developing

On themove

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LiteracySound bowlingFill clear plastic drink bottles with rice orcoloured water. Stick on labels showingsounds or key words and have fun rollingballs to try and knock down the bottles.Try aiming for specific sounds or words.

Squirty alphabetChalk letters or high-frequency words ontoan outdoor surface. Give children waterpistols of different sizes to try and squirt overthe letters. Not only does this help exploreletter formation, it also helps to build grossmotor and fine motor muscles, dependingon the size of squirters you provide.

Spaghetti web splatGreat learning incentives embrace children’sinterests as much as possible. This one isgreat for your superhero-mad children. Layout an extra large piece of paper – a fewmetres square is ideal (tape multiple piecestogether if necessary). Write on random lettersor words. Use cooked spaghetti as ‘spiderwebs’, so your little superheroes can try tosplat the sounds with their webs. A fun way tobuild arm strength and coordination!

Balloon hooplaFill some balloons with helium (availablecheaply from party shops and supermarkets).Tether the balloons to stones, logs or otherweights with string; draw on letters or words

with a marker pen and space them aroundyour setting. Give children small hooplahoops and encourage them to try to gettheir hoops over specific sounds or words.For added interest and skill use differentlengths of string to make the balloons floatat different heights.

ActiphonicsFellow education consultant Anna Lucashas developed a whole early learningsystem based around getting active withphonics. Details of how your setting canget involved with ‘actiphonics’ can befound on her website, Ltcl.co.uk

strengthening of shoulder, arm and evenback muscles is crucial to early pencil control,and hence a vital precursor to early writing.

In the activities below I’ve tried to look atways you could use both gross motor andfine motor activities to access learning acrossthe spectrum. Many of the ideas can be easilyadapted to support more or less able learners.

Moving for a purposeAdmittedly there are times when children willneed to run, leap, twirl and skip to burn off excessenergy, and grow in confidence with their ownbodies as they move. Our role as early educatorsis to identify when this is needed, but also toprovide additional opportunities to build otherskills. By providing opportunities to move with areason we can help to build specific musclestrength, coordination and control, and in doingso we can cover learning in other areas. Forexample, adding stepping stones with numbersor letters on encourages children to stride andbalance, whilst putting up targets with pictures ofsuperheroes or favourite characters provides agreat incentive to explore with water pistols orbeanbags and balls.

There is no reason why physicaldevelopment cannot be just as exciting,creative and adventurous as other areas oflearning and development. So every once ina while, why not leave the bikes and trikes inthe shed and try a few of these ideas?

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Step forwardLog slices with numbers on are a great wayto encourage the development of balanceand coordination, as well as building oncounting and numeral recognition. Try mixingup the slices and asking children to movethem back into order (remember, lifting andhandling are part of physical developmenttoo!). Putting blackboard paint onto your logslices allows you to change numbers, or forchildren to add their own with chalks.

Spaghetti threadPlace strands of uncooked spaghetti in lumps ofplay-dough and encourage children to threadsmall beads onto it. As well as developingcoordination and pincer movements, thisprovides many chances to count and makepatterns according to colour or shape. Tryextending the activity by adding pipe cleaners,ribbons and coloured matchsticks.

Superhero shoot Laminate pictures of superheroes or favouritecharacters with numerals on them, and spacethem out around your outdoor area. Askchildren to identify them and then squirt themwith a water pistol. Squirters of different sizeswill enable children to build different muscles:large squirters build muscles in arms, shouldersand backs, while small party bag-sized waterpistols build strength in hands and wrists.

MathsBucket toss Try labelling some big buckets with numerals,and encourage children to throw balls andbean bags into the correct bucket. This is greatfor building arm and shoulder muscles as wellas coordination. Older and more able childrencan throw into buckets with the answer to asimple maths problem – e.g. “one more thanthree”, “one less than five”, etc. Arranging thebuckets in different formations helps toimprove coordination and throwing skills.

Shape shooter Cut shapes into a large, cheap tarpaulin(available from pound-type shops). Peg it upoutside and encourage children to kick balls intothe different shapes. Coloured tape around theholes helps to increase durability and makes theshapes more prominent, as well as addinganother sorting dimension to the activity.

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The joy of physical learning is that it providesopportunities on a different scale toeveryday activities. This is particularly truewhen exploring creativity, where a chance toexplore really big art can be both excitingand help to develop cooperation and thesharing of experiences and ideas.

Tea bag splatInstead of binning your tea bags after makingyour morning cuppa, try saving them andsoaking them in different coloured paints.Then let children have the chance to throwthem at either a vertical (sheet on a fence) orhorizontal (large piece of paper on the floor)target. This really encourages the shoulderthrowing action, and gives an amazing shared

Expressive arts & design

MaterialsAs 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 play (you can purchase

wooden spoons with handles up to one

metre long!).

Finally, think about the kinds or

materials you offer for scooping and

transporting. Using heavier materials

such as gravel, cobbles and even mud

makes buckets and other receptacles

heavier and encourages muscle use.

Why not try swapping your sandpit for

a gravel pit or even having both?

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Kirstine Beeley is an author, preschool

manager and educational consultant

working with settings and local authorities

across the UK – visit playingtolearn.co.uk.

More of her ideas can be found in

Featherstone’s 50 Fantastic Things... series.

findoutmore

One preschool I work with closelyrecently made the bold move ofremoving bikes and trikes altogetherfor a whole half-term, to encouragechildren to interact with their outdoorenvironment, and staff to thinkcreatively about physicaldevelopment provision. The array ofcreative, mathematical- andlanguage-based activities providedwas amazing, and the children reallybenefited from this more physicalway of exploring learning –particularly the really active learners.The setting now introduces bikes andtrikes occasionally to supportindividual children’s interests, butthey are rarely out without purpose;now they are used with chalkroadways, as part of role play asdelivery vehicles, and even to createlarge-scale art!

IN PRACTICE

final result! Why not try to splat objects withdifferent weights to build up muscle strengthand control? Try throwing balls, sponges oreven cotton wool balls dipped in paint.

Yo-yo splatPlace an old sock, some sand or rice into thebottom of an old stocking or one leg ofsome old tights. Tie them in to give you aball at the end of a stretchy rope. Dip theball end into paint and bounce it up anddown onto a piece of paper on the floor.Can you make a really big splat? Are theredifferent sized splats? What happens whenthe colours mix? If you want to get reallyphysical, try moving outdoors and lettingchildren really swing the yo-yo at the paper.

Final thoughtsAs you can see from this small snapshot

there is so much more to physical

development than a hop, skip and pedal

approach. I really hope you get the chance

to get creative with your planning and get

your children active.

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