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 Movement and Space Health and Bodily Awareness Using Equipment and Materials
Birth-11 Months
 
  • Have well-planned areas that allow babies maximum space to move, roll, stretch and explore in safety indoors and outdoors.
  • Provide resources that move or make a noise when touched to stimulate babies to reach out with their arms and legs.
 
  • Practise movement skills through games with beanbags, cones, balls and hoops.
  • Plan feeding times that take account of the individual and cultural feeding needs of young babies, remembering that some babies may be used to being fed while sitting on the lap of a familiar adult.
  • Introduce baby massage sessions that make young babies feel nurtured and promote a sense of well-being.
 
  • Have baskets of small colourful toys near to where you feed a young baby, or attached to the pram, buggy or soft chair.
  • Provide objects to be sucked, pulled, squeezed and held, to encourage the development of fine motor skills.
8-20 Months
 
  • Provide novelty in the environment that encourages babies to use all of their senses and move indoors and outdoors.
  • Offer low-level equipment so that babies can pull up to a standing position.
  • Provide tunnels, slopes and low-level steps to stimulate and challenge toddlers.
  • Make toys easily accessible for children to reach and fetch.
  • Plan space to encourage free movement.
 
  • Provide a comfortable, accessible place where babies can rest or sleep when they want to.
  • Plan alternative activities for babies who do not need sleep at the same time as others do.
  • Provide safe surroundings in which young children have freedom to move as they want, while being kept safe by watchful adults.
 
  • Provide resources that stimulate babies to handle and manipulate things, for example, toys with buttons to press or books with flaps to open.
  • Use gloop (cornflour and water) in small trays so that babies can enjoy putting fingers into it and lifting them out.
16-26 Months
 
  • Provide young children who have physical disabilities with equipment that is easily accessed and resources that meet their individual needs.
  • Tell stories that encourage children to think about the way they move.
  • Provide different arrangements of toys and soft play materials to encourage crawling, tumbling, rolling and climbing.
 
  • Offer choices for children in terms of potties, trainer seats or steps.
  • Establish routines that enable children to look after themselves, for example, putting their clothes and aprons on hooks or washing themselves.
  • Create time to discuss options so that young children have choices between healthy options, such as whether they will drink water, juice or milk.
 
  • Provide materials that enable children to help with chores such as sweeping, pouring, digging or feeding pets.
  • Provide sticks, rollers and moulds for young children to use in dough, clay or sand.
22-36 Months
 
  • Provide a range of large play equipment that can be used in different ways, such as boxes, ladders, 'A' frames and barrels.
  • Plan time for children to experiment with equipment and to practise their skills.
  • Undertake risk assessment and provide safe spaces where children can move freely. Create 'zones' for some activities and explain safety to children and parents.
  • Plan to respect individual progress and preoccupations. Allow time for exploration and for children to practise movements they choose.
  • Provide real and role-play opportunities for children to create pathways, for example, road layouts, 'taking the pushchair to the home corner' or 'going on a picnic'.
  • Provide CD and tape players, scarves, streamers and musical instruments so that children can respond spontaneously to music.
  • Plan activities that involve moving and stopping, such as musical bumps.
 
  • Ensure children's safety, while not unduly inhibiting their risk-taking.
  • Display a colourful daily menu showing healthy meals and snacks and discuss choices with the children, reminding them, for example, that they tried something previously and might like to try it again.
  • Be aware of eating habits at home and of the different ways people eat their food. For example, some families use hands to eat and some cultures strongly discourage the use of the left hand for eating.
 
  • Resource the home play area with cooking utensils and babies' clothes so that children can handle tools and materials meaningfully in their imaginative play.
  • Provide 'tool boxes' containing things that make marks, so that children can explore their use both indoors and outdoors.
30-50 Months
 
  • Plan opportunities for children to tackle a range of levels and surfaces including flat and hilly ground, grass, pebbles, asphalt, smooth floors and carpets.
  • Ensure that equipment is appropriate to the size and weight of children in the group and offers challenges to children at different levels of development.
  • Plan activities where children can move in different ways and at different speeds.
  • Provide balancing challenges, such as a straight or curved chalk line for children to follow.
  • Mark out boundaries for some activities, such as games involving wheeled toys or balls, so that children can more easily regulate their own activities.
  • Provide sufficient equipment for children to share, so that waiting to take turns does not spoil enjoyment.
  • Provide construction materials such as crates, blocks or boxes to create personal and shared spaces and dens.
  • Take photographs to put in a book about 'Me and the things I can do'.
 
  • Provide a cosy place with a cushion and a soft light where a child can rest quietly if they need to.
  • Plan so that children can be active in a range of ways, including while using a wheelchair.
  • Be aware that physical activity is important in maintaining good health and in guarding against children becoming overweight or obese in later life.
 
  • Make equipment available and accessible to all children for the whole of the day or session, if possible.
  • Provide activities that give children the opportunity and motivation to practise manipulative skills, for example, cooking, painting and playing instruments.
  • Provide opportunities for children to sometimes use all their fingers or the whole hand, for example with finger-paints or cornflour, and sometimes use just one finger, for example when making patterns in damp sand or paint.
  • Provide objects that can be handled safely, including small-world toys, construction sets, threading and posting toys, dolls' clothes and material for collage.
40-60+ Months
 
  • Plan target throwing, rolling, kicking and catching games.
  • Plan games where children can use skills in different ways, such as hopping backwards and galloping sideways.
  • Provide open-ended resources for large-scale building.
  • Use whole-body action rhymes such as 'Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'.
  • Provide time and space to enjoy energetic play daily, either indoors or outdoors, visiting parks if other spaces are limited.
  • Ensure children know the rules for being safe in different spaces.
  • Regularly check resources for safety, for example, ensuring that fabric is clean and that planks are free from splinters and rough edges.
  • Provide a range of equipment at different levels, such as an overhead ladder, a tunnel, a bench and a mat.
  • Provide large portable equipment that children can move about safely and cooperatively to create their own structures.
  • Plan imaginative, active experiences, such as 'Going on a bear hunt'. Help them remember the actions of the story (We're Going on a Bear Hunt   by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury) and think about the different ways of moving and ways of avoiding bumping into each other.
 
  • Ensure that children who get out of breath will have time to recover.
  • Place water containers where children can find them easily and get a drink when they need one.
  • Plan opportunities, particularly after exercise, for children to talk about how their bodies feel.
 
  • Provide a range of left-handed tools, especially left-handed scissors, for children who need them.
  • Provide a wide range of materials, such as clay, that encourage manipulation.
  • Offer different tools, techniques or materials when the available tools are inadequate to achieve the desired effects.
  • Provide tweezers, tongs and small scoops for use in play and investigation.
  • Provide a range of construction toys of different sizes, made of wood, rubber or plastic, that fix together in a variety of ways, for example by twisting, pushing, slotting or magnetism.