Bean Bags: good ol’ fashioned Fun! This inexpensive prop can be used for many different activities to develop gross motor skills, body awareness and sensory play. It’s no wonder then that JOG and The Clamber Club use these for some awesome, developmental FUN!
Bean bags for endless fun!
Here are some activities you can try at home
All you need is:
- different color fabric or different textured fabric\
- rice, plastic pellets or foam balls
- cotton, needle and scissors
Sew about 10 bean bags together in different colours or textured fabric and make half of them different weights. You can fill them with beans, rice, plastic pellets or foam balls.
Activities and development:
Visual Skills. Throw bean bags into a basket and increase the distance gradually. This is excellent for depth perception and focusing.
Concentration. Throwing, catching and aiming are an important skill for all children. This helps them focus on and track a moving object, thereby improving reading and writing.
Aim and Precision. Draw a circle on the ground with chalk and aim at the circle. Similarly, hang a pillow from your swing frame and throw the bean bag at the pillow to practice target throwing.
Aim and Precision. Set up a bowling alley with old water bottles filled with a bit of rice. Then, aim at hitting down as many bottles as you can.
Body Awareness. Put the bean bag on different body parts, and name them, consequently improving your child’s vocabulary.
Object balance. Try different gross motor activities like running, walking, jumping and kicking with a bean bag balanced on different body parts. Our favourites is holding the bean bag between and knees and hopping like a bunny. Another favourite is balancing the bean bag on our foot and kicking it up to try and catch it.
Recognising colours. Put out some coloured shapes and match the colours. Kids tend to match colours before naming them.
Understanding shapes. Using coloured shapes, play a spatial game by putting the bean bag on the square, under the square, in front of and behind it.
Sensory Fun. Perfect in Autumn and Winter too! Search for bean bags after they’ve sunk into a huge pile of leaves. You can also use this to have some colour fun. Imagine the tactile experiences your child will have with this game!
I spy. Finally, use bean bags to walk over in the garden, while setting up a teddy bear picnic after all your bean bag FUN!
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