I love when I find an unexpected treasure (and in the $ bin no less)! This morning I stopped at our local Rite-Aid to stock up on soda (not healthy I know but sometimes that’s what it takes to keep up with the kids) to feed our addictions at work and I was meandering through the store and I found these frog and ladybug circle pads that are made of foam and look just like the spots that we used to buy from Ikea (which they no longer carry). I love the fact that they have animals on them because the kids love using our bean bags that are shaped like turtles and frogs and bugs, so having spots with animals gives them one more cue as to where we want them to be. What do we use spots for you may wonder? Well the list is endless but here are a few of our top things:
- We make paths with our spots for having kids jump along the path, hop on one foot along the path, and skip over spots while jumping or hopping. It creates a great visual cue when you are able to tell them a color or animal to jump to next. Its great for beginning jumpers as well as for jumpers that you are working on getting consecutive jumps out of.
- They provide a great visual for a kid to stand on. I use them all the time when I want the kiddo to be standing ‘still’. For instance when playing catch or bean bag toss or basketball, they often want to move closer and I can ask them if they are on their circle and they generally immediately go back to it. We use them in group for circle games so the kids have an idea of where their space is.
- They are great targets for the stomp rocket or throwing things. You can have the kids work on aiming for the spot, especially with bean bags or flat discs since they don’t roll.
- We use them on the stairs to provide a visual cue for which foot to place down next. This is great for working on alternating feet as well as giving a clear visual target for where to place your foot.
- Also when they are in a path it can be used to work on narrowing a kiddo’s base of support by having them stay on the circles or for increasing their step length by having them place one foot on each circle.
- You can have kids balance them on their head for posture and body awareness while standing or walking.
- We use them in obstacle courses so that at each spot they have a new task/skill that starts such as standing on one foot, lifting the heavy ball, doing jumping jacks, etc.
- They are also great visual cues for early jumping jacks skills by placing them in a sequence of 1-2-1-2 to begin working on jumping open, then jumping together. It is also great for early hopscotch of one foot, two feet.
What are some of the things you use spots for?
