Paper Plate Skating Activity

by Kelly Pfeiffer

When you need to keep preschoolers active indoors, simply reach into your cupboard for fitness props that provide fun and physical activity. Many families have a few paper plates around the house and that’s all you need to encourage some fun and indoor fitness for preschoolers. This is also a way to use up the few left over paper plates from birthday and holiday parties. Preschoolers will explore a new way to move indoors with this extra simple fitness activity.

Paper Plate Skating Instructions

1. You will need two round paper plates for each preschooler.
2. Tell preschoolers to put a paper plate under each foot and use them as skates. Their feet must stay on the plates in order to move the plates around on the floor.
3. Have preschoolers try skating with the paper plate skates on different floor surfaces to see which works best for them.

Paper Plate Skating Variations

Add Music: Play music while preschoolers skate.

Four Plates: Give four plates to preschoolers and let them skate on all fours: hands and feet or hands and knees.

One Plate Sitting Down: Have preschoolers sit down and try using only one paper plate under their bottom and scoot around using their hands and legs.

One Plate Upside Down: Some preschoolers love to put their head on the floor and walk their feet around their head in circles. Placing a paper plate under their head provides preschoolers a smooth way to walk around their head and lessens the tangles caused by the spinning action.

A Fun Fitness Party Activity

Active Fun: Keep a preschool party active with paper plate skating.

Coordinate Plates: For a festive party activity, consider purchasing paper plates that coordinate with your party theme.

Paper Plate Art Activity: As a pre-skating art activity, put out white or solid colored paper plates and let preschoolers decorate their paper plate skates with crayons, markers or stickers.

Fitness Benefits

Muscular Strength: As preschoolers push down on the floor to move the plates, they are developing muscular strength.

Coordination: Paper plate skating requires new coordination skills that preschoolers might not have used before.

Increased Heart Rate: Most any physical activity raises a preschooler’s heart rate to give the heart a great fitness workout.

Flexibility: When preschoolers stretch their legs and bodies in different ways while skating, they will be stretching muscles to keep their muscles flexible.

Fun: Preschoolers will learn a new way that physical activity and exercise is fun and enjoyable.

 

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