• Using a balancing beam outdoors can help your preschooler develop her gross motor skills.child balancing image by Katrina Miller from Fotolia.com
  
  Preschoolers spend a large portion of time developing their gross motor skills just by playing every day. Gross motor skills refer to a child's control over large muscle groups and many preschoolers need help developing certain gross motor skills that feel awkward and unnatural to them. When playing with preschoolers, concentrate on activities that use outdoor, indoor and imaginative play that builds gross motor skills.
  
  

Outdoor Play

• When playing outdoors with your preschoolers, incorporate activities that use large spaces. Relay races can help preschoolers develop confidence in walking, running, skipping and even jumping. Set out cones and draw a start line to let your preschoolers do relay races holding an object like a bean bag. Every child develops differently so vary the difficulty to challenge everyone. Some preschoolers may even be able to walk backwards. Create an outdoor obstacle course to help students crawl over and under objects including ropes, hoops, tires and tunnels. Use a wide balance beam in the grass to see if your preschoolers can balance themselves walking on the beam. While playing outdoors start dribbling a basketball or kicking a soccer ball to introduce these sports to them. Set up a large basket or box to practice aiming a ball. Start with a large lightweight ball before progressing to smaller, heavier balls. Play games like hopscotch to practice throwing and jumping.
  
  

Indoor Play

• While playing indoors with your preschoolers, keep them active by listening to music and playing games. Play music and teach your preschoolers to keep the beat by clapping hands, tapping feet or dancing around. Preschoolers can also learn gross motor skills by playing a keyboard or drums and using both hands to keep a beat. When singing indoors with preschoolers, sing finger play songs like "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and "Where is Thumbkin" which uses fingers and arms to portray the motions. If you have stairs inside, practice going up and down stairs with one foot in front of the other by singing "The Ants Go Marching." Play Follow the Leader and use motions that challenge preschoolers in new ways, such as jumping jacks, balancing on one foot and patting your head while rubbing your tummy.
  
  

Imaginative Play

• While using your imagination with your preschoolers, help them use their gross motor skills while pretending to be something else. Pretend to be different animals and walk like an elephant, monkey, turtle, rabbit, crab or slither like a snake. Pick a favorite story to act out like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," and concentrate on moving like the three bears. Alternatively, use puppets to act out stories as this will help your preschoolers use their arm movements to act. When playing dress-up, act out stories as a fireman, astronaut, doctor or bus driver, which uses preschoolers' large motor abilities by playing pretend.