Gross Motor Christmas Activities for Parties or Homeschool Group

We are members of a couple different local homeschool groups. One of our groups meets monthly for “gym day” which is basically just a time when the children can run off some energy with their peers in a safe, enclosed area. Of course free play is encouraged on gym days but we also supply activities to entertain the children. Because gym days are a monthly event, we try to keep supplies and prep time to a minimum. This month was December so we planned a Christmas theme to our activities.

Activity #1: Polar Express Follow the Leader

For this activity all you need is a wooden train whistle and group of children. Just like with regular Follow the Leader, the children line up and follows the person at the front of the line. The Christmas twist is that the leader carries the train whistle and acts as the Polar Express engine while the others are train cars who follow behind.

Activity #2: Ornament Bowling

This activity requires objects that can be used as pins (I used green plastic bottles, filled with water, and dressed up like Christmas trees with foam sticker ornaments and gold duct tape topper) and objects that can be used as bowling balls (I used a round plastic bottle, filled with water, and dressed up like an ornament with food dye and glitter).

If you’ve ever bowled before then the rest is pretty self explanatory, roll the ornament into the trees. You could make it a math game if you wanted an educational aspect to it, otherwise just have fun with it.

Activity #3: Pin the Nose on Rudolph

For this activity you’ll need red gift bows, magnets, and pages 4 &5 of our free printable (which you can download at the bottom of this post).

Activity #4: Night Before Christmas Obstacle Course

For this activity you’ll need various toys, a Christmas tree (any type or size will do), and pages 6, 7, & 8 of our free printable (which you can download at the bottom of this post). Arrange the toys in front of the tree and assign each toy a direction card (through, under, over, around, etc..) Challenge the children to climb through the obstacle course timing them to see who is quickest. Older children might want to carry small gift boxes through the course to increase the difficulty of the challenge.