Easy Kids Indoor Obstacle Course

Haven't done one of these in a while so when we have had a few yucky weather days Dimples has been getting a little bored of his usual play so I set this Easy Obstacle Course up inside for him.
In the past his favourite obstacle course would have been our Outdoor Obstacle course seen here. Being the one and only contender he was trying to outdo his personal best time.

 He started with some lounge cushions, I drew up instructions along the path. First he had to jump 6 times, then he had to hop over the lizard, then there was another cushion and this time he had to shake his entire body to the count of 6.
As he jumped off there was a balloon that he had to shot & score in a bucket before sliding and "slithering" under a tunnel- Tunnels are easy and the best part of an obstacle course, use chairs and a bed sheet or a small table.

 On the other side there were some spiders & snakes sitting waiting by the balloon so he had to watch out for them and grab another balloon, first he had to put the balloon between his knees and waddle like a penguin to the shooting line, then he had to shot another goal with his balloon.
Next he had to get onto his sit and spin and spin around 7 times.
This was great for his counting practise as he had to count without thought while he was distracted doing many other things.  After he had spun around 7 times and was a little dizzy he had to walk the tightrope ( a Zig zagged line of masking tape).

Then after that he had to jump on the spot and " tiptoe" over some cup coasters. Then he was on the home stretch the last part of the obstacle course was to grab his teddy and commando crawl down low to the finish line. Once he made it to the finish line, where miss Cherub was watching he had to put on a party hat and ring the bell.

Learning Objectives:

• Gross Motor Skills
• Locomotor skills
• Bilateral coordination
• Ball Skills
• Sequencing & Memorising the steps
• Hand eye coordination
• Balance
• Counting practice
• Imagination (e.g. avoid the lizard, tip toe over the Lilly pads, save the teddy bear)
• Strength & Agility
• Doing your Best - Striving to beat personal Best

Extend with these Play Ideas:
OutDoor Obstacle Course
Spider Maze
Easy Gross Motor Obstacle Course


Happy Adventures  :)

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Easy Gross Motor Obstacle Course

This Obstacle course was so simple to create inside. It is a great way to get the kids active when your trapped indoors, or to just do for fun! All you really need is some paper masking tape (not the plastic stuff, the paper form will come over the floor in one go) and a little space.

Using the tape we put down a Start line. Writing "start" in big red letters.
We started with a straight BALANCE line.
First Dimples balanced toe to heel, then he tried hopping and finally I got him to walk with a golf ball in a spoon.

Then he had to jump, do a twist/turn jump, jump backwards 3 times.
I cut some little coloured foot prints out and stuck them on the ground as a guide.

Wearing a hat on his head Dimples then had to balance heel to toe, twist at the corner, rotate his body in the next direction and follow the zig-zag line.

More jumping, coordinated jumping over some soft blocks.
You are not allowed to touch them or you have to go back to the start remember!
Then he had to walk in his monster shoes a couple of meters until he got to the tunnel.

Using the top of the dinning room chairs and a table cloth, he had to crouch down low and crawl through the tunnel. The next time we made it lower, off the seat cushion and then he had another go at commando crawling down real low, without touching the table cloth.

He had to spring out of it and jump over 2 large soft toys, they were pretty close together so he had to judge the distance and land carefully so that he didn't hit them.
One big Monster Jump to the final stretch.

There was a pillow case waiting for him to climb into.
He had to race down the hall in the pillow case until he reached the stop sign.
Winner!!!  Lets do that again.

Do you have active kids?

Even on rainy days it is possible to utilise what seems like boundless amounts of energy.
Try having a stop watch timer and see if they can beat their time.
Or you could try doing it backwards, sideways or wearing a super hero Cape.
We extended our race by adding in some animal actions; Hop like a kangeroo, tip toe like a sneaky fox, slither like a snake!

Happy Adventures  :)

Outdoor Play - The Spider Cave Maze

Creepy Crawly Spider Cave Fun

  Try not to get caught in the web!

Spiders hanging from all around.

This Outdoor activity was a great physical fun way to get active, get moving, have some imaginary pretend play and build on those all important gross motor skills. Dimples mastered the way he moved his body to trick the hanging spiders, creep, crawl, duck down low and climb around the web without getting caught. He had to stretch his legs and balance as he climbed through and move in all different directions as the spiders danced around above his head trying to get him.

 

Over the past fortnight, as Dimples has been enjoying some Spring time outdoor play, I have been carefully spinning an intrinsic Web. I initially started with 2 posts, a large hoop and some wool. I strung the hoop in the centre and weaved the web around it, locking it on and securing it with wool up to the 2 posts that i had firmly whacked deep into the ground.

Then I randomly added some connecting bits of wool so it resembled a web.

I hung a very large, prickly spider down through the hoop and Dimples made a fun game of jumping through the hoop without getting touched by the Spider.

This went on for many afternoons and he enjoyed it so much that I decided to belt another post into the ground so that there were 2 connected walls (in the shape of a right angle). 

With the second one, I used a small hoop that he can through balls through and i left a open space on the bottom so that he can crawl under.

Dimples chilling out under a spiders web

 Dimples spent lots of time playing in his web, trying to jump through the hoop and crawl under the web without getting caught by the spiders. It was a great imaginary game he had going on.

I would rest the large spider up in the web, and just as he went through I would tap the post so that the spider swung down, launching itself towards Dimples. He thought it was hilarious and wanted more. The way the spider quickly swung down after him must have been so realistic from his view and he would excitedly squeal that he had tricked it, and that he was too quick for it, and "You missed me! ha ha!"

It didn't end there!

 

A large Hoop is on one side of the structure, with a very large hairy spider covering it.

I added one more side so that there were now 3 web walls and one open side. With this web, i just used wool, making sure a majority of the web was down the bottom and some was up the top, i then strung the connecting centre pieces of web (wool)  so that there was a large gap pulled open. Large enough that Dimples could climb through.

With the left over wool I strung it up over the top, zig zaging and connecting all areas like a web roof. Some pieces were up higher to a near by Shade Umbrella.

I dangled 30-60 cm pieces of wool randomly through out the roof of the web and near the openings and hung plastic and rubber spiders and scorpions.

 

Jumping through the hoop without getting touched by a spider can be tricky.

We made a few games up with the maze, one where Dimples had to use it as an obstacle course, climb through the hoop duck under the other side, through a ball through the small hoop and carefully climb through the other web opening without touching the web all the time staying clear of the spiders.
Another where I would shake the top of the web so that all the spiders shook around like crazy and he was a distressed fly, trying to find his way out of the web with out getting eaten by the spiders.
Then he got some stuffed toys to join in and he would try and throw them through the large hoop without hitting the spider that dangled over the centre.
Dimples loved the Spider Maze so much that we left it up for the Halloween Party we had over the weekend and all the kids enjoyed jumping through it and tangling things in the web.
They kept busy and active manoeuvring around so that the spiders couldn't get them.

Room to crawl under the webs... WATCH OUT!

 

I couldnt capture the entire web in one photograph so this is the design of the 3 sides with the back wall completely open.

 

 

Happy Outdoor Adventures :)

Pirate Party Games - Part 2

Pirate Party for 3 year Old Dimples; Part 2, Games & Dress ups.

Ever Fancied throwing a Pirate party for your child? Well heres how we done it. See my previous past on the decorations & Invitations, this post is on the games, play and dress ups but keep tuned for the most important post. The Treasure chest Cake & the themed food.

Dont forget to follow this blog & like us on facebook to keep up to date with our fun adventures.

Red & Black Sensory boxes-

This was a hit, the kids called the red ones berries & the black ones caviar, they enjoyed filling up buckets of them, squishing them and feeling them, they got their feet in them and had lots of fun. Even some of the grown ups thought they were odd & couldn't resist the urge to touch them

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A real Pirate Boat for Pretend Play-

With a cross sail and a bit of Red material I snagged at the Salvation army, this Pirate ship is ready to sail the ocean blue. Come and Join the Pirate Crew!

Off the side was the start of the planks to walk, a slide at the front and a decorated Pirate flag.

See Pirate Party Post Part 1 before this for decoration ideas.

The Pirates Tree House-

Myself and Adventures Dad have been making this for dimples for a few weeks prior to his party but we altered it and made it more "piratey" and made sure it was complete and ready for his crew to play on. It was a hit and still is. I will be doing an individual post on the finish product as it is a easy tree house made from reused or free materials and Dimples absolutely loves it, I don't think the novelty will ever run out.  So here is the quick Game view of the Pirates House: Complete with fish net, a steering wheel, a pirates flag, a telescope, ladders and split level around the tree.  The rope extended over the centre of Dimples trampoline and the kids had a ball hanging on to it as they jumped!

 



Ring toss-

In the weeks leading up to the pirate party we made Dimples a outdoor ring toss game on an old scrap of wood, I got adventures Dad to nail gun it to a star picket pole and put it in the yard with long screws here and there for the rings to go on. Then Dimples helped me paint it. We did a large Island surrounded by blue ocean, added some real sand over the island as the paint was still wet and then did some palms, a treasure box, a pirate ship. a shark and a octopus. The screws weren't long enough for the coits so we cut some hose & added them on as an extension. Of course the treasure was 10 points and the rest varied down to 1 point.

Walk the Plank over a shark Pool full of slime-

We put some beams across the yard on square crate as the planks and then a smaller wooden one in the middle saying "walk the plank" underneath this was a kid pool with sharks and ocean creatures in slime. It was just a packet of gelli baff slush! But the kids loved it, the first as little Miss K and at first she looked down and hesitated for a minute, it was cute.

It also doubled as a seat for all the crew.

Buried treasure-

I got some beads and some dress up necklaces, some plastic pirate coins, and I went through my jewellery box. I still have all more junk jewellery stuff from when i was a teenager, you know! You get a huge collection of $2 stuff that's in fashion at the time as a teenager, none of it worth anything and none of it to be worn again so there was real treasure in there as well as soon blue lucky stones that we often use in our sensory boxes --------> Look through the sensory button on the side bar for some ideas.

There were 6 plastic buckets all full of sand and buried treasure, along with a few treasure boxes that the children filled up and carried around, they took them on the boot, along the plank and into the tree house.

There were bikes, the quad, scooters, a lawn mower, Bubbles, Baloons & swings to play with as well.

Dress up Theme-

Everyone, even the "big kids" had to dress up, everyone got right into it with great spirit & fun attitudes. Everyone enjoyed seeing the little ones dress up and it added to the element of pretend play, imagination & their Pirate games.

Here are some of the Pirate crew

Its a shame the streamer blew over in this picture because Pirate J was wearing a stick on Pirate goatee and wouldn't let me get another picture :P