Children especially, love to jump. This simple indoor gross motor activity is a great way to entertain young children indoors. It’s also a great activity for hand-eye co-ordination. The aim of this challenge is to jump high and accurately to pull lengths of wool from the ceiling. The clue’s in the name: Jump and Grab!
Stuff needed:
- Wool or string, cut into lengths (see instructions).
- Scissors, if needed to cut the wool.
- Tape.
Note: This activity requires adult assistance to set it up. To reduce the amount of time spent setting up each time, cut quite a lot of lengths of string and make a few of them difficult to reach.
Instructions:
- Cut the wool or string into lengths so that when taped from one end on the ceiling, a child won’t quite be able to reach them when standing on tiptoe. They can be a variety of lengths to make some harder and some easier, and if playing with children of different heights, lengths should be cut to allow everyone a fair challenge. You could use a different colour for each child or use a different space.
- Tape the wool to the ceiling by one end. Make sure they are ‘softly’ taped so they will come off easily if pulled. If wanting to protect paintwork, doorframes can be used. Choose an area without furniture nearby such as a hallway.
- Encourage participants to jump and grab to see how many strings they can pull down.
- Stick wool back up and keep playing! This is an ongoing challenge, not a competition.
To make it easier:
- Make the lengths of string longer.
- Tape lightweight objects to the end of the strings to make them easier to grab. For example, corks.
To make it harder:
- Shorten the lengths of wool.
- Use one end of a corridor so children can try the ‘running jump’ as well as the standing jump and see which works better.