4 Gross Motor Activities on Your Stomach

I have always loved gross motor activities. It was one reason that I went into education. I love that there are so many skills that gross motor can help with.

Today I’m breaking down four gross motor activities that you do on our stomach. These activities can build better core muscles and have fun at the same time.

4 Gross Motor Activities on Your Stomach - a great way to work on building stomach gross motor skills and having fun - 3Dinosaurs.com

The idea with these movements is to give you a fun way to build up a weak core. The core can be linked to so many other gross skills.

These four activities happen to be some of our favorites to do. I love that you can change something in small ways and make it fun.

It also changes the muscles you use as you change the activities. Plus these activities don’t require any equipment to do!

The four movements are swimming, Superman or flying, snake and seal.

The Four Gross Motor Activities on Your Stomach

Swimming
I love the swimming movement. It is can be said in so many different ways. “Swim like a fish” or “Pretend to swim on land”. Any way you say it can get kids moving.

You lay on your stomach and then have them kick their legs. It is simple to start with just legs. I have them rest their arms out front for balance.

The later have them add in alternating arms. This gets the body kicking side to side and working on different parts of the core.

Superman
I love Superman because kids get a big smile when you tell them to pretend to fly through the air. You have them lift up their arms and legs off the floor.

This works the core muscles and the legs and arms to hold the movement in place. You can have loads of fun. You can pretend to turn to the right and lean to the right and repeat on the left. Another idea is to see how long they can hold it! Or you can try just lifting up the legs or just the arms and see what happens.

Snake
Snake is a great movement because all kids have seen snakes slitter across the ground. Each child has their own ideas of how it works. I always encourage my girls to not use arms if they can. But you can use them if you want.

While doing the snake get kids excited by telling them they can hiss while they do the movement. You can challenge them to do it forward and backward and see what happens.

Seal
The seal movement is a favorite for me because none of my girls ever do it the same! Plus seals make some funny noises as well!.

This is a movement where you keep your legs flat on the group and lift up your arms and part of your body and then clap with your arms stretched out.

A fun way to do this movement is to challenge them to start at one clap, then two and work up to see if they can do as many as 20 claps.

All of these movements are simple and easy. Plus it can be worked in so many places. I love that it used big muscles and we have these 4 movements on a card in our calm down or post-school activity cards. Something kids can just pull and do on their own at times.

If you are looking for more Gross motor activities check out the Gross Motor Printable List: