Beanbag Explorers
An easy to set up activity that is simple, open-ended and encourages lots of movement and fun.
Set up a variety of movement stations such as:
Ramp & Drop: Place beanbags at the top of a ramp or stairs and encourage children to drop or slide the beanbags down.
Fill & Empty: Place a bucket, basket or tub of beanbags at a standing play table and encourage children to place beanbags into and then out of the bucket.
Stand & Reach: Place beanbags along a low stand-up bar to encourage standing, reaching and weight shifting.
Move & Mimic: Educators model different movements such as: passing a beanbag from hand to hand, placing a beanbag on your head, crawling with beanbag balanced on your back, or hiding a beanbag behind your back.
Roll & Chase: Roll beanbags across the floor and encourage children to crawl or walk to collect them.
Step 1
- Educators choose a movement station to start with and demonstrate the movements for the station.
- Ramp & Drop: Beanbags are at the top of a ramp or stairs and encourage children to drop or slide the beanbags down and then crawl/walk after them.
- Fill & Empty: Encourage children to place beanbags into and then out of the bucket.
- Stand & Reach: See how many of the beanbags of the bar children can collect (or drop to the ground). Encourage standing and reaching and grasping.
- Move & Mimic: Educators model different movements such as: passing a beanbag from hand to hand, balancing a beanbag on your hand, placing a beanbag on your head, crawling with beanbag balanced on your back, or hiding a beanbag behind your back.
- Roll & Chase: Roll beanbags across the floor and encourage children to crawl or walk to collect them. Try chasing after them!
Step 2
- Encourage babies and toddlers to join in and copy the movements.
Step 3
- Move on to a new station, encouraging mobile babies to crawl and/or walk to the next station.
- Continue demonstrating the movements at each station and encouraging babies and toddlers to join in and copy
- Keep the beanbag movement stations simple, easy and close together for babies
- Introduce harder movements with the beanbags that require more coordination and skill (e.g., balancing the beanbag on their head while walking)
- Let children choose which movement station to explore
- Make it musical, add some songs for children to enjoy
- Join in the fun by demonstrating and giving lots of encouragement
- Try adding in some animal beanbags if you have access to them and add in animal noises and animal movements for even more fun!
