It's never too early to introduce physical activity to children to help build healthy habits at a young age and reduce the risks for childhood obesity. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that children get at least an hour every day of physical activity. While you may need to choose easier activities, children 4 and under can benefit from physically active games in a gym class setting.
Imaginary Animals
Have the children line up in a straight line on one end of the gym. Once everyone is lined up and quiet, call out the name of an animal. Each child must use her imagination to turn into that animal and walk from one end of the gym to the other as quickly as possible in the way she thinks that animal would walk. Add an extra entertaining factor to the game by having the children make the sound of the animal as they walk. Have an adult assistant or older child help by participating as well. This will give the children an example to follow, in case you have children that do not quite know all the animals yet.
Obstacle Course
Set up an obstacle course on the gym floor. You can do one straight obstacle course from one end of the gym to the other, or you can do a longer course by creating the course in a circle around the outside perimeter of the gym. You can use any activities you want as part of your obstacle course. For example, mats can be placed for somersaults, hulu hoops can be crawled through, balls can be kicked through goals, or objects can be climbed over or under. An obstacle course gives you the ability to design each station of the course for the age and abilities of the children in your gym class.
Hungry Hungry Hippos
This game is a live version of the nostalgic board game Hungry Hungry Hippos with a few twists. The game can be played with children crawling only, or if you have floor scooters available for your gym class, use those. You will also need colored balls, which can be purchased through an online retailer or in many local big box stores, and matching colored buckets. Place buckets in each corner of the gym, one color in each corner. Tell your children that they are now hippos, and the entire gym floor is water. Separate the "hippos" into four teams, and put one team in each corner. Throw the colored plastic balls across the entire gym as "hippo food." When you say go, the goal is for the children to bring as many colored balls back to the buckets as they can. Balls only count if they are put into the correct bucket. The team with the most correct balls wins.
Tree Tag
Have all of the children line up on one end of a field or gym. One child is "it," although if the children are still too young to understand and focus long enough to be it, an adult or older child helper can be it at the start of the game. When you say go, have the children run from one end of the field or gym to the other, trying not to get tagged by the person who is it. If a child is tagged, he is frozen into a tree. At that point he can no longer move his feet, but can try to tag other kids as they run by, who then also become trees. You play until all children are trees. The last child to become a tree becomes the new person who is it.
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