Don’t throw away your boxes! You can use them for all kinds of fun gross-motor-skill activities. Here are a few ideas.
Tissue boxes for jumping joeys
Boxes from around the house can be upcycled, too. With an empty tissue box, make two slits on the bottom of the box and thread a belt or ribbon through them. Strap the box to the players back and place 6-8 ping pong balls inside. Jump, shake, dance and shimmy around until all the balls fall out. This is best played with 2 or more people—the first person with an empty box wins!
Square boxes for brain break activity dice
Make choosing a brain-break activity an activity! Create a durable brain-break activity dice from old ring boxes. Other strong square boxes are good, too. Print images or write an activity for each side, and take turns in rolling and completing the activity displayed.
Large boxes for beanbag toss
Play a game that practices precision and accuracy. Make diagonal cuts in the same direction along opposite sides of a large box. Open it up, flip it over and cut three different sized holes at the bottom of the box. Then, cut away the extra flaps. It helps to plan ahead and draw the cut lines first to make sure they’re in the right place. You can use beanbags or tennis balls to toss into the box. For an added challenge, assign points to each hole and vary how close you stand to the box when throwing.
All kinds of boxes for giant building blocks
Have a bunch of boxes of different sizes? Make sure that they are light and tape up the flaps. Now they’re ready to build different structures like towers, forts, bridges—the sky’s the limit!
Big boxes for tunnel maze
The ultimate fun for practising crawling and turning when you have a lot of big boxes—and the space! Cut the flaps when needed and tape the boxes together. Get creative and incorporate corners.
This blog post was edited from Amelia Tan’s blog. Amelia Tan, Physiotherapist
Images sources:
https://www.happinessishomemade.net/awesome-minute-to-win-it-games/
https://www.myprimaryparadise.com/2019/02/11/brain-break-ideas/
https://www.ultimatescouts.com
https://busytoddler.com/2016/07/giant-building-blocks-toddler-stem-activity/
