Curricular Elements – Gross Motor Time | Teach 'Em the Way They Learn

It’s Not Gross – Gross Motor Time (GMT) is not outdoor free play – called Playground or Recess, but the indoor or outdoor time children spend in experiences that are formally designed to develop large muscle strength and build gross motor skills. There is a difference in formal Movement and open-ended Playground and there is a need for both in any program serving children under the age of eight. Most experts agree that there should be at least 30 minutes of Playground/Recess and an age appropriate time (10 to 20 minutes) of guided GMT during a program of four-hour child attendance. GMT can be called Movement or PE (Physical Education) or Music and Movement or Enrichment.

Gross Motor Time must be given as much attention in planning and teacher participation as any other area of learning. It should be a Whole Group activity involving dance, exercise, and movement experiences with or without props, music, or equipment, but may be combined with any of these things. GMT may be as simple as 20 minutes of song and dance, a whole group game of Duck, Duck, Goose or Freeze Tag, or even laps around the parking lot and is very effective if it can be connected to a unit of study. GMT should be noted on your Experience (lesson) plan as a planned and purposeful learning experience.

Many teachers call GMT, Music and Movement and some programs are fortunate enough to have on-staff or outside vendors provide daily Gross Motor Time in the form of Enrichment Classes in dance, tumbling, or age appropriate soccer lessons.

Taking it Outside – Young children must MOVE to LEARN and LEARN to MOVE and they must be allowed and encouraged to move as they learn both indoors and outside. Young children should be outdoors every day, weather permitting, and the outdoors must be used for relaxation, child-chosen gross motor play, and as a learning center. Your playground must be equipped with developmentally appropriate, well-maintained apparatus. Teachers must supervise for safety and must move with the children on the playground.

Take a Stand – One of my pet peeves is the idea that Playground is teacher rest time. It is lovely to have picnic tables and benches for dining al fresco, reading books, and having teacher-child conversations, but the playground must be treated as an active learning center in which teachers interact with the children pulling language, science, math, and social studies skills out of running, skipping, climbing, swinging, and sliding. Playgrounds and outdoor areas do NOT have to look like pictures from a school supply catalogue. Many Reggio Emilia and Walden schools have amazing outdoor centers with kitchens equipment, mud, water, tires, and NATURE! Some programs have adopted the idea of children spending much of the day outside the classroom. They are called “Forest Schools” and here are some wonderful examples: kids in the woods