This sweet fitness game for kids goes with my free butterfly flaps dice printable. Do you want to improve your children or students’ posture and flexibility? Do you want a good movement activity that increases focus and is great to do on breaks from being seated?
Butterfly Exercise for Kids Demonstrated by a 2 Year Old – YouTube Video
My 2-year-old niece, Zoey, demonstrates the butterfly exercise in this cute video! She said “Butterflies! I want to fly like a butterfly,” excitedly as soon as she saw the dice. She had fun flapping her legs like wings of a butterfly!
Watch the Butterfly Exercise for Kids Demonstrated by a 2 Year Old YouTube video!
Butterfly Exercise for Kids
The Butterfly Exercise for Kids is focused on stability of the upper body, abdominal strength to hold a straight and long back, movement of the lower body, coordination, posture, and flexibility.
When performing the butterfly exercise with kids, it’s important to keep these in mind.
- Place soles of feet in front and together before starting butterfly flaps. Place soles of feet together in front of the body and hold them in place using muscles and placing hands on feet or ankles. If you have a young child, it’s helpful to help place your child’s feet together for him or her to help with understanding and performing the exercise.
- Sit long and tall. Imagine a string is a attached to the top of your head and is pulling you up. Try to have a straight back and pull your belly button into your spine. This will increase abdominal engagement and work on posture.
- Focus on controlled movement. The goal is not to do the butterfly flaps as fast as possible. Focus on controlling the movement and doing long, specific flaps with the legs.
- Remind kids about using good posture. Once the game and/or exercise has started, children might begin to slouch while doing the butterfly exercise. Remind children to sit up and make themselves as tall as possible.
- Encourage kids to keep trying. As long as they are trying and moving, encourage them! This will help them gain confidence. Then you can begin to refine the movement as confidence increases.
Progressions of the Butterfly Exercise for Kids
When it’s apparent that your child is ready to progress to a more difficult version of the butterfly exercise, here are some progressions to try while performing the exercise:
- Increase range of motion (R.O.M.).
- Increase repetitions. For older kids, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can be done with the dice to increase repetitions, focus on educational skills, and make the game more interesting.
- Hold arms in a position to challenge abdominal strength and good posture to a new level. Get ready for some rocking and rolling especially when this is first attempted. The goal is to see how still they can keep their upper body while maintaining a good position and moving the legs in a controlled way.
- Add arm movements to make the previous challenge even more difficult.
- A goal to work toward is to slowly touch sides of knees to the floor in a controlled way to increase strength and flexibility.
FREE Butterfly Flaps Dice Printable {Spring, Summer, and Nature Themes Instant Download}
You can get a free, instant download of my bunny hops dice and Differentiated Instruction Cube (photo cube) printables!
Simple and Fun Frog Leap Activity for Kids {Free Printable}
Check out my “Simple and Fun Frog Leap Activity for Kids” post for another fun fitness for kids’ printable plus ideas of activity trays you can easily prepare with these printables. My 2-year-old niece, Zoey, brings the frog dice out every day and does it on her own or will ask for a family member to do it with her. So adorable and an awesome way to get kids loving to move from an early age!
Fish Swimming Exercise Tutorials and YouTube Vidoes
Check out my blog post with YouTube videos and tutorials on how to do the swimming exercises and get the One Fish, Two Fish, FREE Fish Swimming Dice Printable {Dr. Seuss, Finding Nemo, Ocean, and Pet Themes Instant Download}!
Bunny Hops Exercise Tutorials and YouTube Vidoes
Check out my blog post with YouTube videos and tutorials on how to do the bunny hops exercise options and to get the Bunny Hops Exercise for Kids {Free Printable}!
Dice Fitness Games
Here’s a Dice Fitness Game I created for kids and adults that uses regular dice!
Have Fun!
This is a super way for kids to work on improving their posture and flexibility! Promoting good posture and making kids aware of posture is a powerful tool as they get older. Plus, this can help prevent back pain and other injuries as time goes on.
Have you or your child tried the butterfly exercise? What other theme would you like for a Dice Printable?
Have fun!
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