Parent's Guide: Fun Activities for Gross Motor Development and Emotional Learning
This parent guide equips caregivers of children ages 3-5 with activities spanning gross motor skills, emotional expression, family concepts, shape recognition, and calendar awareness, using role play, finger puppets, and simple games. Combining physical movement with emotional vocabulary practice, such as making different facial expressions, helps children build body awareness and feelings vocabulary side by side. Rotating through several distinct activity types in one guide also keeps a young child's attention across a longer play session.
Curriculum
How to use this worksheet
Choose one activity area from the guide — gross motor, emotions, family, shapes, or the week — based on your child's current interest or energy level. Gather the simple materials the chosen activity calls for, like paper, markers, or a cardboard box. Follow the activity's instructions step by step, letting your child take the lead on physical actions like role play or puppet-making. Talk with your child afterward about what they enjoyed or learned from that activity before moving on to a different one another day.
Materials needed
- Paper
- Markers/Crayons
- Cardboard boxes
- Scissors
- Glue
Extension activities
- •Create more finger puppets representing extended family.
- •Act out different scenarios to practice emotional expression.
- •Use different shapes to create pictures.
- •Make a calendar to track the days of the week.
- •Play a simple obstacle course at home using cushions and furniture for gross motor practice.
Tips for parents and teachers
Encourage your child to participate actively in each activity, letting emotional or physical activities run a little longer if your child is especially engaged. Make it a fun and interactive experience to enhance learning and bonding, since these activities work best as shared time rather than independent play. If an emotion feels hard for your child to express, model it yourself first with an exaggerated face or gesture.
Written by
Hemsweta Jain · Teacher Cheena
MBA and Early Childhood Educator, teaching since 2014 · Founder of RaisoActive, Mumbai
Every RaisoActive worksheet is designed and checked by the founder before publishing.
Published · Last reviewed
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