Bean bags are a great way for children to develop skills across all developmental areas. The following article provides information on Bean Bag Activities For Skills, Benefits Of Bean Bags and more.
Benefits Of Bean Bags
- Hand-eye Coordination (good for handwriting skills)
- Visual-Motor Skills (Tracking for reading and writing)
- Attention and Focus (sitting still at the child’s desk, less fidgeting, listening to the teacher)
- Gross Motor Skills (posture, copying notes from the chalkboard)
- Fine Motor Development (improves the directionality of letters and numbers, pencil grip)
- Executive Functioning Skills (organization, retention, problem-solving, critical thinking)
- Motor Planning (processing, coordination, handwriting, forming words)
Bean Bag Activities
1.
- You can balance them on your head or on your feet, shoulders, hands or arms. Try carrying one on a wooden spoon without dropping it.
- Try adding more bean bags as the skill is mastered.
- Encourage and watch how much your child can balance on his head or other body parts at the same time.
2.
- Children can race with friends with bean bags balancing of different parts of their bodies. If it is just you and your child, you can race against each other or you can ti
- Make this more challenging by changing the rules – hop on one leg to the end, balance two bean bags on your head, race with a bean bag on your ruler, etc.
3.
- Place the hula hoop close by for a young child and try some variations for older children – such as laying out various hoops at different distances, standing the hoops up and throwing through the vertical hoops, etc.
4.
- Place the hopscotch mat.
- Throw the bean bag, instead of a rock.
- Rest the playing rules are the same.
- You can change it slightly according to your requirements
5.
Materials needed
- Cardboard
- Glue
- Scissors
- Glitters
- Brush
- Sponge
- Colour paint
- Bucket
- Bean bags
Procedure
- Make some basic fish cutouts from cardboard and decorate the fish in creative ways.
- draw patterns on them
- paint them with a brush or sponge paint them
- paste glitter on them
- stick pieces of coloured paper on them to collage them
- Then, mark out an area on the ground as a “pond” and place the fish inside the pond, scattered randomly. Play the fishing toss game with your child.
- Go fishing by aiming and tossing the bean bags at the fish. If the beanbag touches any part of the fish, they have caught the fish. Take turns catching fish.
- You will each need a bucket and a bean bag. If you catch one, take the fish out of the pond and keep it in your bucket. If you miss, take your beanbag out of the pond and wait for your next turn. The winner is the person with the most fish at the end.
6.
Materials Needed
- You will need two towels and one beanbag.
Procedure
- Set up a net or a makeshift net in the middle of the play area and stand 2 to a side. Each pair holds open a towel (from the corners) and the beanbag is tossed over the net by flicking it up and catching it with the towels.
- Try pairing an adult with a child as this could be physically challenging. Also, make the net low so it is not difficult to toss the beanbag over. Adjust the height for older children.
6.
Material needed
- Plastic cups, cones, empty plastic bottles or any other objects that can be used as pins.
Procedure
- Throw or slide a beanbag along the ground to knock over the pins.
7.
- Children can toss and catch the beanbag to themselves or play with you or a sibling.
- Toss a beanbag into the air and catch it.
- Count how many times you catch it without dropping it.
- Toss a beanbag to a partner.
- Take a step back after each toss and see how far you can still catch the beanbag.
8.
Materials
- Large paper to draw tic tac toe and bean bags
Procedures
- Draw a large Tic Tac Toe board on the paving or on a large sheet of paper.
- Instead of using noughts and crosses, use two different coloured bean bags to represent two players.
- The object is to take turns laying down a beanbag on a square and try to make a row of three. The first person to make a row of three vertically, horizontally or diagonally is the winner.
9.
Material
- Music system and bean bags
Procedures
- Turn the music on and dance with your child while tossing the beanbag to and fro. When the music stops, you both have to freeze in position.
- This can be quite fun, especially if the beanbag is flying at you as you freeze. You may get hit on the head by a beanbag but you cannot move to catch it or duck because you’ll be “out”.
These activities can be improvised and adapted depending on the age and abilities of children.
Reference:
20 Bean Bag Activities For Children, Empowered Parents
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