Fundamental movement skills
Munch & Move provides tools and resources to help early childhood education and care services teach fundamental movement skills, or FMS, to young children.
What are FMS
Fundamental movement skills are basic movements that form the foundation for more complex activities. They include simple physical skills that use different parts of the body.
Developing these skills is an important step in encouraging lifelong involvement in physical activity. It's important for children to learn FMS like throwing, catching, kicking, leaping and balancing, so they can confidently be involved in games, sport and a wider range of activities throughout life.
FMS need to be taught, as children do not naturally learn these skills as part of their growth and development.
In the early years, the most important thing is for children to have plenty of opportunities to explore these skills, learn from others and have fun!
Children will master FMS at different ages. ECECs provide ideal settings to introduce these skills to children, offer plenty of opportunities for them to practice and give direction, feedback and positive encouragement to help children develop skills correctly and confidently.
Why it's important to teach FMS

Fundamental Movement Skills part 1 - Munch & Move
Read transcriptIncorporating FMS into your ECEC program
Munch & Move has ideas, videos and resources to help you embed FMS throughout the whole service, such as:
- Staff training: watch the videos below and refer to FMS lanyards for tips, so that all staff feel confident in teaching fundamental movement skills.
- Set up your indoor and outdoor spaces to encourage FMS.
- Link fundamental experiences to children’s interests and favourite games.
- Encourage different FMS throughout transition times and everyday games and routines. For example, playing Duck, Duck, Goose including skipping/leaping/hopping.
- Incorporate FMS into music and movement time.
- Have a FMS of the week/month and link to other learning areas throughout the program.
- Provide information and ideas on FMS for parents and carers through communication apps and notice boards.
How to teach FMS for preschool years
The FMS in action cards provide instructions and games to play to practice each skill.
These short videos will show you how you can teach children these important skills.
The videos were developed by the Central Coast Local Health District Health Promotion Service to support early childhood educators teach preschool children the 13 fundamental movement skills.
For more ideas on how to incorporate FMS into common games that children love to play see our FMS videos, factsheets and other resources.